Nigeria may lose her quest to become a hub for seaports in the African continent if the barrage of bottlenecks bordering on infrastructural decay and legislative inadequacies are  not addressed.

The observation was made on Monday by Ademola Akin, in an interview with The Tide in a-4-day training workshop for Dockworkers on “Cargo Handling Technique” organized by the Nigerian Maritime Administration, and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in Port Harcourt.

Akin who is a maritime consultant and one of the resource persons, said inspite of the natural endowments and maritime potentials there are fears that Nigeria may not achieve its dreams of becoming the maritime hub of the African Continent due to bureaucratic bottlenecks, infrastructural decay and policy inconsistencies.

According to him, the issue of a hub status for the African states had become a “sink or swim” paradox for now, saying that “Nigeria has no choice” than to act fast in the face of challenges currently posed by South-Africa, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

He noted that with all the advantages enjoyed by the country such as the control of over 25 per cent of the African population, a 25 per cent market share of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), ports activities as well as being the second highest host of the container traffic in the sub-region, the country is no doubt a natural hub station.

Akin posited that the need to create a general maritime plus oil and gas integrated hub port for the sub region is further boosted by the realization that 26 major ports in West Africa handled a total of 250 million tons of cargo in 2000, of which 66 per cent were oil exports.

“Deep offshore market is a time limited opportunity for Nigeria to overcome the natural resource course. Over 100 billion USD will be spent on deep offshore projects in West Africa.

Nigeria risk losing out to its near and far neigbours and become increasingly served by trans-shipment, just as well developed ports will receive the larger ships, while others will be served in trans shipment in feeder vessels,” he said.

He however, pointed out that despite these arrays of endowments, the country is nonetheless faced with strong competitors who may grab the opportunity, should Nigeria slack in taking her rightful place in this regard.

To attain the status and keep it, Akin opined that Nigeria must take steps to surmount well known national challenges, such as “absence of deep water container trans-shipment terminals, lack of adequate berthing capacity as well as lack of an integrated land distribution system, particularly for transit traffic.”