The creation of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy has been described as an attempt to create job for the boys to eat as there was no need for the ministry in first place. The Chairman Widescope Group and Lead Consultant, Global Transport Policy, Dr. Segun Musa stated this while speaking with a group of journalists in his office late last week.
“That ministry (Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy) is a way of creating room for the boys to eat. There is no need for that ministry in reality,” he said.
He also described the creation of the new ministry which includes the maritime subsector and a part of the Ministry of Agriculture as intellectual fraud. He stressed that this is the reason the Minister superintending the ministry has been gallivanting around different events but no single implementation can be seen.
“Even with the ministry taking part of the Ministry of Agriculture, is what we call intellectual fraud. That is why the man continues attending events, organizing events, and you don’t see any implementation.”
The transport consultant emphasized that there’s no ambiguity in blue economy as it has been in existence decades back. He maintained that there is nothing anybody can say about blue economy that is new.
“There is no ambiguity in deep blue or blue blue economy. We have been in this blue economy decades back. There is nothing anybody wants to tell us that is new,” he stated.
Segun Musa noted that the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry was a department in the Ministry of Transport and that that was the time stakeholders enjoyed the ministry unlike now.
According to him, it was the time maritime, aviation, road and rail were under one Transport ministry that achievements were recorded most. He decried the balkanisation, factionalization and the division of the Transport ministry into different entities, which he said has not achieved any results and will not achieve any.
In his words: “The days that we even enjoyed Transport ministry most were the days we had only one Ministry of Transport that catered for maritime, aviation, rail and road and everything. That was when we achieved most. So balkanizing it, fractionalizing it and dividing it has not achieved any results and it will not achieve any results.”
It would be recalled that the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy was launched in August 2023 by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.