Allen Onyema should show the whole world that he is another Alhassan Dantata by creating a Peace Maritime Transportation Company that will revolutionise river travel across Nigeria

Ayo Akinfe

[1] If you ask me, the first real enterpruener Nigeria ever produced was Alhassan Dantata, the man behind the Kano groundnut pyramids. He came up with a novel idea to make Nigeria the world’s largest producer by gathering produce from small growers, effectively creating one huge Nigerian cooperative

[2] Since Dantata, we have struggled for ideas as the combination of this destructive over-reliance on crude oil and a shameless dependence on imports has made us intellectually lazy

[3] We now have an opportunity to turn that round and show what we are made of once again. I would love to see a united Nigerian transportation company made up of Air Peace, Rail Peace and Peace Maritime. Imagine having one travel card that allows you use all three services

[4] To get things going, I think the federal government will need to establish a Nigerian Waterways Management Agency that will be responsible for marine transport. This agency will dredge the Rivers Niger and Benue and all adjoining rivers such as River Kaduna and create a national maritime network

[5] Just imagine if you could travel from Port Harcourt to Kaduna by boat in three hours up the River Niger and into River Kaduna. If you then wanted to proceed to Abuja, you could take a high speed train and arrive within an hour

[6] For this to work, however, we need to start manufacturing boats in the Niger Delta. I find it totally unacceptable that none of the Niger Delta governors has been able to woo one investor to open a shipyard within his domain

[7] Maybe Mr Oyema should start off by holding a meeting with the South South Governors Forum to kickstart the process. Once we have a boatyard in say Abonema, Opobo, Ikot-Abasi, Warri, Sengana or Ikot-Nakanda, we are good to go

[8] One option might be to ask Nigeria’s billionaire pastorprueners to pool their resources together and create Gods Shipbuilding Company. It should aim to churn out 100 ships and boats a year

[9] Alternatively, Mr Onyema could approach secular investors to launch the project. A Nigerian Shipbuilding Company with stakeholders like Aliko Dangote, Folorunsho Alakija, Mike Adenuga, Tony Elumelu, Femi Otedola, Cletus Ibeto, Abdul Rabiu, etc could also do the trick

[10] With the whole world moving towards cleaner forms of transportation, Nigeria has to board the train. We need to move transport off road and onto our waterways. We have a chance in a lifetime to do something unprecedented here