I hope Gboyega Oyetola is aware of the huge responsibilities he carries as the minister for marine affairs and the blue economy

Ayo Akinfe

[1] First of all, it will be his responsibility to build an 850km windmill wall along Nigeria’s Atlantic coastline. He should get Nigeria into the Guinness Book of Records as the nation with the world’s latest windmill farm

[2] Secondly, it is his job to turn Nigeria into a maritime power. This should lead to the location of shipyards along the Nigerian coastline, especially in the Niger Delta

[3] Mr Oyetola should have as one of his short-term goals, a plan to make Nigeria the leading global manufacturer of shipping containers. Freight containers are a reusable transport and storage unit for moving products and raw materials between locations or countries

[4] There are about 17m intermodal containers in the world and about 85% of the world’s containers are manufactured in China. Nigeria can easily take over this market as containers are easy to manufacture

[5] A single carrier ship can transport as many as 8,000 containers. Basically, what this means is that as global trade grows, so too will the demand for containers. Even after they are no longer deemed fit for shipping, containers are put to all other sorts of uses including being used as shops, swimming pools, quirky housing, cafes, kiosks, etc

[6] Shipping containers are also used in the film and television industry for building temporary sets. They would be very handy for Nollywood. They can also be broken down and used for drums and other smaller metal objects and utensils

[7] Given that Nigeria is bang in the middle of Africa’s maritime route, one of our coastal ports would be an ideal location to site a container manufacturing plant. Landlocked countries like Niger Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, etc are very dependent on containers for their goods. They would order thousands from Nigeria if we began manufacturing them

[8] Apart from windmills, shipyards and container manufacturing, Mr Oyetola has also got to make Nigeria a major aquaculture economy. We should be a leading global supplier of fisheries products like fish, crustaceans, fishmeal, etc

[9] India is currently home to the world’s largest shopbreaking yards where old ships are dismantled. Can you just imagine how many jobs we would create in the Niger Delta if we opened say three such yards there

[10] Is Mr Oyetola aware of the fact that their are oil-eating algae that can be released into the Niger Delta to clear up the slicks without damaging the marine wildlife? This is an effective and cheap way to clean up the area