A renowned stakeholder in the maritime industry in Rivers State, Comrade Waite Harry, has called on the Federal Government to repair all the link roads to the two ports in the state so as to boost maritime activities in the state.
The Tide reports that Rivers State hosts two of the nation’s ports, Onne Port and Rivers Port Complex, but the roads leading to the two ports are currently in a bad shape.
Waite, who spoke to The Tide last Wednesday in Port Harcourt, said the repairs would attract investors to the ports and also reduce overdependence on Lagos ports
According to him, the poor state of the roads is responsible for the low patronage of the ports by investors and importers.
He argued that truck drivers would prefer doing business where there are good roads, explaining why they prefer Lagos ports to Eastern ports.
Describing both Onne and Rivers ports as the maritime hubs of the region, Waite appealed to the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to carry out immediate repairs on the link roads to the two ports to attract container traffics and improve maritime operations.
“The roads in the Eastern ports are bad, roads to Onne, Rivers ports and even Calabar Port are unfriendly to truck users”, he said.
He said the repair of the roads linking the ports is the responsibility of the Federal Government because the two ports belong to the Federal government and not to the Rivers State Government.
Comrade Waite noted that unlike Tin Can and Apapa ports in Lagos, the Onne and Rivers ports were suffering under utilisation and low patronage by importers due to bad roads.
He also appealed to the management of NPA to provide permanent employment opportunities for the youth to reduce unemployment and restiveness in the region.