Rise, Fall and Liquidation of Africa’s Premier Carriers

Rebecca Ejifoma

The Rise, Fall and Liquidation of Africa’s Premier Carriers: Nigerian National Shipping Line and Black Star Line by Dr. Edmund Chilaka has been recommended to everyone who operates in the maritime space and whoever is interested in national and global development generally.

The book, which is the culmination of a Ph.D. research on the activities of the first two shipping lines to be floated by the governments of Ghana and Nigeria in 1957 and 1959, bridges a critical gap in their understanding for the maritime space. It examines and analyses the establishments, the efflorescence, the collapse and liquidation of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL).

This is according to the Chairman of the occasion, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho, who added, “This is the first comparative work that enables us to compare and draw lessons from the operations and activities of the two companies”.

While emphasising the need to address issues such as ethics and commitment to the common goal, Iheanacho, the Chief Host, harped on the need to support a man like Chilaka, who wants to remind “Us of our past and direct our future”.

In the book, the author surveys the problem historically and offers feasible options for a return to profitable ventures in sea trade by West Africans. Hence, he believes that scholars, policymakers and investors will find the book insightful and captivating while former employees of the NNSL and BSL, their families and other stakeholders and aficionados will discover much empathy and nostalgia in its pages.

Meanwhile, the reviewer and Head of Department, History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, Prof. David Aworawo, called everyone to celebrate a book that should have been published years ago. “I must congratulate the author for putting together this work. The depth of knowledge shown in the shipping business itself is commendable.”

He expressed that the NNSL understands the general subject of shipping and the venture to prepare Nigerians for future ventures when the book is read. Continuing, he said, “We want to export our trade goods, and be able to provide jobs for our people”.

In his remarks as one of the chief launchers, the Executive Chairman of Comet Group of Companies, Musa Danjuma, described it as a historic occasion of reviving the spirit of Nigeria’s indigenous shipping industry by the launch of a well-researched book on the activities of the defunct NNSL and Black Star Line (BSt).

He, therefore, enjoined the federal government through its relevant ministries and parastatals, especially the Federal Ministries of Transportation, Petroleum Resources, Agriculture, Water Resources, NIMASA, NNPC and NCDMB, to synergise and vigorously implement all the enabling laws, especially the NIMASA Act, the Inland Shipping Cabotage Act and the Law on National Content, to encourage and empower Nigerian shipping lines to carry Nigerian cargoes, going forward.

Danjuma, however, remained positive that the era of wholesale reliance on our crude oil wealth would soon pass away and the maritime sub-sector is ever vibrant to yield huge sums of foreign exchange and other benefits if indigenous operators in the maritime industry are proactively supported to increase their levels of operation and participation in the market.

The executive chairman further commended the author for a well-researched work of this nature which closes the information gap for the practice of a knowledge-based industry in Nigeria’s maritime trade.