From Advocacy to Agency: How CONMMEP’s Media Diplomacy Shaped Nigeria’s Port Economic Reforms
By Lod Onyeji LAGOS — In a modest boardroom in Lagos, a quiet institutional revolution is unfolding. The Nigerian Shippers’ Council, long known as the protector of shippers’ interests since its establishment in 1978, has been repealed and reconstituted as the Nigeria Ports Economic Regulatory Agency [NPERA] under the NPERA Act 2026. It is not merely a rebranding. It is the culmination of a 20-year regulatory vacuum that began with the 2006 port concession — when government agencies became both player and referee — and was only temporarily patched in 2014 when the Shippers’ Council was named interim regulator. For the Congress of Nigerian Maritime Media Practitioners [CONMMEP], a body with some of the seasoned and esteemed Nigeria’s maritime journalists, the transition is not just news to report. It is a case study in how sustained media advocacy can drive institutional reform. On September 15, 2026, when CONMMEP President Udo Onyeka led a delegation to NPERA headquarters, Di...
