Don Adinuba
2 December 2008
opinion
Lagos — Festus Ugwu, an electrical and electronics engineer, had excellent opportunities to be a very wealthy man, but up to the time he died of stroke at the National Hospital in Abuja on September 23rd, he was a man of modest means. Ugwu was at various times chief executive of the Enugu State Broadcasting Service, permanent secretary in the state Ministry of Works, Commissioner of Works, and the last Director General and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Maritime Authority, the third richest federal government organization. He was very principled and deeply religious.
He believed that whatever he achieved in life was an unmerited favour from above, what theologians call grace. He had reason to believe it. Though from a humble home in a rustic community which must have been in the bowels of the earth, young Festus was at about 12 years able to gain admission in the 1950s into Government College, Owerri, a very competitive secondary school. He was a brilliant pupil who attended the missionary primary school in his village of Neke in today's Isiuzo Local Government Area of Enugu State. He could easily have obtained admission into a university anywhere, but he opted for a polytechnic education because there was no money to study engineering for five straight years. He studied for a two-year diploma in engineering at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu , and started work at the Nigerian Television Authority, which enabled him to support the extended family.
Ugwu was to benefit from an education scheme introduced by the Olusegun Obasanjo military government in the 1970s which saw a lot of young Nigerians study engineering in mostly Eastern European countries. Within a short period, he received a master's degree in Bulgaria . His result was such that the university gratuitously offered him a scholarship to study for a doctoral degree, but he could not utilize the scholaship because he was in a hurry to return home to, among other things, assist his humble family. No sooner he got a job at the Anambra State Television than he was sent to New York University for a graduate diploma in broadcast journalism and engineering. He rose through the ranks to become the director of engineering and later the chief executive of the state broadcast organ.
He was a team player, a thorough professional and a stickler for integrity. He was not carried away by either money or position. A good friend and admirer of Dora Akunyili, head of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), it is not altogether surprising that one of the first things Ugwu did as the chief executive of the National Maritime Authority was a careful evaluation of NMA's assets for insurance purposes, and consequently saved the organization 177.6 million naira. A less altruistic person would have struck a deal with the insurance companies. The Ministry of Transport was so moved by Ugwu's conduct that the minister wrote a letter signed on his behalf by the permanent secretary, Aliyu Babangida who is now the Niger State governor, praising him profusely.
Appalled at the fact that many wealthy took big loans worth millions of dollars under the Ship Ownership and Acquisition Fund established by the Ibrahim Babangida regime but were not willing to repay, Ugwu threatened to report them to the Economic and Financial Commission. Within weeks, the affected people started to pay back. He was not the kind of person to attempt to reach an understanding with the defaulters for personal pecuniary gains.
When he was made the NMA DG, Ugwu knew very little about the maritime industry. He was a mere political appointee, but a quick learner who considered himself, first and foremost, a professional. He surrounded himself with highly knowledgeable people from within the NMA and without. On his watch, the NMA established, in conjunction with the Nigeria Airspace Management Authority, the Airspace and Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre with headquarters at Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos and offices in coastal places like Lokoja, Kogi State .
He initiated the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). In January, 2006, the Niger Delta zone of the Rescue Sub Centre was built in Escravos, Delta State , with non-active centres at Koko, Burutu and Forcados. The scheme was first launched in Delta because the state is a major petroleum producer, and 45% of the land is covered by water.
Like his immediate predecessor and his successors, Ugwu had difficulty with the implementation of the 2003 Cabotage Act which seeks a radical increase in local content in the Nigerian shipping sector. Fashioned in the pattern of a similar law in the United States when the American maritime industry was alarmingly losing ground to the Asian industry, the Nigerian version provides that only Nigerian built vessels could operate in our inland and coastal waters, and the vessels must be owned by bona fide Nigerian citizens and manned by only Nigerians. It is a patriotic act, but pretty unrealistic.
There are not enough shipyards and dockyards in the country, and the few existing ones are small. The human capital required to locally build all the vessels needed in the inland and coastal waters is just not available because, inter alia, ours is a country with scandalously poor technology penetration. What is more, shipping is capital intensive, and most Nigerian entrepreneurs cannot afford even a fraction of the cost of acquiring an average vessel. The banks do not quite understand this business, and therefore have been hesitant to support it. To make matters worse, Ugwu's NMA leadership was before the bank consolidation exercise when the capital base of most banks was a mere two billion naira each; the banks then did not have the muscle to provide credit for vessel acquisition.
The NMA attempted to get around the above challenges by reaching an understanding with AFCOM, a Malaysian consortium, to provide 85% of the credit for each vessel which would be repaid over a long period, with the beneficiaries granted a three year moratorium. To encourage local banks to provide the remaining 15% credit, it was resolved that only banks with maritime development programmes would be patronized by the NMA, which had very huge deposits in various banks.
Ugwu also mounted pressure on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to patronize indigenous ship owners in both its upstream and downstream operations so as toensure the success of the Cabotage Act. He was of the view that the NNPC, as a foremost state-owned business, was duty bound to implement the Act as it affected it. He believed that once the NNPC began to support local ship owners, other oil industry operators would naturally follow suit.
Ugwu was personally depressed when on November 25, 2005 , at the 44th General Assembly of the International Maritime Organisation in London Nigeria lost its Category C seat on the IMO's council, though he was by no means responsible. He quickly began to work towards Nigeria 's return, working closely with William Azuh, the country's Permanent Representative to the IMO. Nigeria regained the seat at the next meeting. Ugwu was absolutely delighted when in July, 2006, Nigeria was named among 24 countries which made the IMO "White List", that is, nations with recognized quality training and certification for core maritime professionals. "Any seafarers trained and certified here", he proudly announced to journalists, "can board any vessel anywhere in the world".
He was deeply concerned about staff welfare, and worked for the promotion of so many people who had, for curious reasons, been on one post for several years. He was a firm believer in "live and let live".
Festus Ugwu was a good man, a close friend, a simple-hearted individual and a practicing Christian who never toyed with his daily devotional hours. May the good Lord welcome him into His kingdom. Adieu, FUC.
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