Maritime law: Our judges have sound knowledge –Hassan Bello

Barrister Hassan Bello is the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), in this interview,  he speaks on the maritime industry, admiralty law and other topical issues. Excerpt: What are the preparations to make the maritime judges conference a success from lawyers’ point of view? It has always been a success and success is […]

Barrister Hassan Bello is the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), in this interview,  he speaks on the maritime industry, admiralty law and other topical issues. Excerpt:

What are the preparations to make the maritime judges conference a success from lawyers’ point of view?
It has always been a success and success is measured by the impact of the seminar. This year’s seminar is particularly interesting because of raising contemporary issues on maritime laws so that our judges could have sound knowledge. The whole idea is the Admiralty Law or what you call Shipping Law or Maritime Law which is new in the sense that it is not taught in universities and law schools. So when cases of admiralty law come before our judges, it will take them a long time to adjudicate; that was before the maritime seminar for judges. Which means the legal framework for investment and international trade is weak because investors always look at so many things when they come to invest, including how dynamic your legal system is. So we thought that by arranging this seminar and bringing in experts, by refreshing the knowledge of our judges, it will help and this has been done tremendously.
Now cases in admiralty law don’t linger as much as they used to and judgments in this area have been acknowledged internationally. So we are doing and trying to make this seminar more international than it has been. We are having participants from many countries including South Africa, Ghana and so on. Particularly, the chief justices of Sierra Leone, Gambia and Supreme Court judges of Ghana are all attending this seminar.
There is supposed to be a uniformity of laws in Africa because we have special interest as far as shipping is concerned and each country must protect its interest. So we want to look at the whole block of Africa and see that our laws are in tandem with international law trades and our laws also protect our interests in international shipping.
You mentioned some issues and I want you to link these issues that will be discussed at the seminar with Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)?
Arbitration in maritime law is also the specialty of Nigeria Shippers Council. The council has developed dispute resolution mechanism. We settle dispute between parties.
Are you also a judge?
No. We are not, but ADR means not going to court. And what you have is arbitration, mediation, conciliation. And in such instances we always say that disputes should be settled amicably and they have. But there are certain disputes no matter how hard you try, people have to go to court so they end up in court but we would rather that we settled them amicably.
Admiralty law, as you said, is not taught in our universities and law schools, what are you doing to have this done?
We have been advised by the CJN to ensure that admiralty becomes a major subject in our faculties. The minister of transport will also be speaking on this issue during the seminar. But we are also going to have a meeting immediately with the National Universities Commission to see how we are going to introduce admiralty law in the faculties of law in Nigerian universities. There are some universities that are already offering the course, but they are very few.
The issue of dry ports, what is the latest?
Dry ports are ports that are located in the hinterlands. They are not seaports but they are what we call inland dry ports; but they are ports in every sense of the word. What we are saying is that goods for hinterlands should be brought to the hinterland where they will be examined, duties paid and the owner takes possession instead of coming all the way from the hinterland to the seaports. This will cut the cost of transportation, it will bring shipping to the doorstep of the shipper; it will stimulate and develop the local economy. And it will replete most importantly the seaport economy in the hinterland. So what Lagos is enjoying or PortHarcourt, we will have it in Funtua, Kaduna, Kano, Jos, and Ibadan, and all the places where these ports are located. So, it is a very viable alternative. First of all it will decongest the seaports, and decongest transportation coming to the seaport where you have all the trailers coming from Kano, for example. They don’t need to, they will be doing their business in Kano. But the most important thing is that these ports are also ports of origin and destination which means that they will be used for export, and export is really important now to the diversification of the Nigerian economy.
To what extent have you been able to fulfil the mandate of the Shippers Council?
The mandate of the council has always been to be the chief adviser to the government on shipping and the Nigerian Shippers Council has been able to do well in advising and promoting viable issues like the one you said – the inland ports. We have the truck transit pact which we are doing in conjunction with state governments. This has been found to be very viable and Kaduna State government, for example, is undergoing the process of establishing truck transit pact. Instead of building this truck paths indiscriminately, you have to have a structure, a modern day structure with state of the art things where the truck drivers could rest, have water, restaurants, gas stations and so on.
Overall, I think the Nigerian Shippers Council has raised the bar of discussion. What we are trying to say is that our ports must be efficient; our ports must be competitive and most importantly the ports must provide alternative to oil and gas as a means of growing the economy in terms of contribution to the GDP, in terms of employment, in terms of infrastructure. So it’s important that we have a diversification of our economy and the shipping economy is the primary source of that diversification.
The cargo tracking in international trade, how does the council hope to rake in benefits?
The benefits are obvious. When you track your cargo it means that you will first be able to be a modern port and a shipper will like to send his cargo to ports where his cargo is tracked. But the most important thing about cargo tracking note is that it increases the efficiency of the port; because of the advance notice, even before the cargo comes. You know the reception of cargos is important, so that cargos are released to the owners in very good time. It is very important that the cargo dual time should be as short as possible. Cargo tracking also is a good trade facilitation process and I think that is the part for modernising processes in our ports.
We want to invite stakeholders, i.e. operators and lawyers and also investors to this important seminar that is coming up on the 31st of May this year at the Sheraton Hotel. It is judges’ seminar but we need the participation of the stakeholders for them to mold the opinion of the judges. All we want to do is to bring out good laws for Nigeria’s international trade. So we will appeal for people to attend the seminar in good number.