The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho has assured Nigerians and World Maritime Community of NPA’s unwavering commitment, under the leadership and guidance of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, to the continuous promotion of port eco-friendliness.
Dr. Dantsoho made this declaration in the just concluded World Maritime Day Celebration in Lagos.
Reminding the audience of the enduring connection between humanity and the ocean, Dantsoho quoted John F. Kennedy’s saying, “We have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean.”
The NPA boss who was represented by Engr. Lekan Badmus, also harped on the need for the protection and ensuring a cleaner ocean, saying that all and sundry benefits from the ocean.
The NPA boss in a goodwill message, averred that it was irrefutable fact that “we are all beneficiaries of the ocean”, adding that the time had come to give back to “our dear benefactor, the ocean by protecting and making her cleaner,” not just by talking but in specific and measurable action steps.
Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, His Excellency Adegboyega Oyetola, CON, delivering a keynote address at the 2025 World Maritime Day event, held in Lagos on Thursday.
He added, “as we make up our minds to clean up the ocean for sustainability, we are making up our minds to clean up ourselves.
“Today, I consider this a great honor and rare privilege to stand again before my mentor and boss, the Honorable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Alh. Isiak Adegboyega Oyetola, to deliver this goodwill message on behalf of our Managing Director, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho.
“The theme of this year event is “Our Ocean, Our Obligation, Our Opportunity.” This theme aptly captures the increased responsibility placed on each and every one of us as stakeholders in maritime industry, to take frontline ownership of the ocean, on whose sustainability, the very sustenance of humanity rests.
“With over 90 percent of global trade, which accounts for half of the world’s economic output, the maritime industry thereby constitute an important economic driver that helps to spur development and reduce poverty. Therefore, every member of the maritime, and indeed the global community, is directly or indirectly a beneficiary of the ocean.
So, we are all duty bound to become more intentional and deliberate in our responsibility to protect the ocean and its resources.
Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, His Excellency Adegboyega Oyetola, CON (4th from left) flanked by primary, secondary and university students who won prizes in the 2025 World Maritime Day Essay competition, during the 2025 World Maritime Day celebration in Lagos on Thursday.
“Beyond fanfare, there is need for every stakeholder here to rise from this celebration with a stronger commitment to take actions that makes the ocean cleaner. Indeed, making global port operations eco-friendlier and actualizing the other noble objectives of the World Ports Sustainability Program rests heavily on our shoulders as maritime stakeholders,” Dantsoho enthused.
He further stated that studies had shown that sea transport is the most environmentally friendly of all the transport forms, adding that it was much more important, to acknowledge that the society owed posterity a duty, to not only continually formulate and implement policy that protect the ocean, but to maintain as individuals, and institutions a behavioral pattern that places the highest premium on protecting the ocean.
