The Nigerian Association of Master Mariners (NAMM) has said that stakeholders in the maritime industry in Nigeria should congratulate the Federal Ministry of Transportation for successes recorded in the industry in recent time rather than the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
It will be recalled that stakeholders who attended this year’s celebration of the World Maritime achievements made in the sector thus turning the event NIMASA’s day of appreciation almost.
However, reacting to the development, the President of NAMM, Captain Tajudeen Alao noted that the concept of Blue Economy is a global venture and not a NIMASA thing adding that Nigeria was a member state of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and so, the congratulation was to Nigeria as a member state and to maritime practitioners in Nigeria who were making use of the water.
Alao contended that the Ministry of Transportation, NIMASA, NPA and others were just structures put in place by government in order to regulate, administer and arrange the activities going on in the nation’s maritime sector saying that although NIMASA happened to be the nodal point but it is the Minister of Transportation because the Minister of Transportation has enormous responsibilities and these various responsibilities are now delegated to NIMASA from the Minister.
In his words,” The institutional development, the Ministry of Transportation, NIMASA, NPA, these are just structures put in place by government in order to regulate, administer and arrange the activities going on here. It is to Nigeria as a member of IMO, then to the stakeholders, the institutional framework, these agencies that carry out these structures, NIMASA happened to be the nodal point but it is the Minister of Transportation because the Minister of Transportation has enormous responsibilities and these various responsibilities are now delegated to NIMASA from the Minister.
“The role of NIMASA is to make sure that the marine environment is sustainable, that our activities here do not constitute a clog in the wheel of our existence because the law setting up IMO is a social and trade organ of the United Nations and the IMO convention says that every member state must have a maritime administration which can be in the Ministry of Transport. And if you look at the set-up of NIMASA today, it is like about five agencies brought under one umbrella. What it means is that NIMASA should have like that maritime house five or six, NIMASA is supposed to be structured like the NNPC”.
Asked whether he was advocating for unbundling of NIMASA, he said,” If you don’t want to unbundle it, but when you look at where we are coming from, you need to get all this things together. We need to specialize because what is important in administration is education. There is accidents happening in Numan, boats are capsizing in Lokoja, do NIMASA has the reach to that place? They are going to be moving cargo with big barges, there is going to be Nigerian equivalent of River Niger, from Epe to Lagos; the barges are going to sail through. So, you need the reach. NIWA will have its own base taking care of commercial activities”.
When reminded that NIMASA has zonal offices which take care of what he was advocating, the NAMM boss said, “I don’t think so, what is the reach? Do we have inspectors in Badagry? Do we have in Epe? The zones as it operates in NIMASA, does it cover those areas too? Or is it just Lagos zone, Central zone and the Eastern zone? What of Lokoja, Onitsha and Ikot-Ekpene?”
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