The President of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners, NAMM, Captain Tajudeen Alao has hinted on the possible reason why the new Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola did not commit to disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, CVFF against stakeholders’ expectation during a meeting with maritime stakeholders in Lagos last week.
It will be recalled that the new Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola had glaringly parried questions on the protracted disbursement of the CVFF directed at him; leaving stakeholders stunned at his attitude; despite that he gave some form of general assurance that all issues raised would be looked into.
However, speaking in a chat with our correspondent on the issue in Lagos on Monday, Captain Alao maintained that the NIMASA DG failed to commit to disbursement of the CVFF because it was beyond his power to do so. According to him, the law provided that the approval for the disbursement of the fund lied with the Minister of Transportation and the National Assembly hence the new NIMASA DG had little or nothing to do with the disbursement of the CVFF.
“If the government says it’s government money and it has taken the money, what can you do? It’s ship owners money, it’s a levy being contributed, yes, but why are they holding it?
“Remember, that levy only domiciled in NIMASA, it could be anywhere. It could be in the Minister’s office. It’s a political decision to domicile the money at NIMASA, it could stand alone. To me, it should not be part of the safety administration because it is a commercial venture”, Also said.
Reminded that the DG could have pushed for the disbursement of the CVFF just as his predecessors did, the NAMM President stated, “He does not have the power to push for the disbursement of the fund. The law is very clear in the Cabotage Act who is in charge and that money is subject to the approval of the National Assembly because it is an income that goes to the Federation Account but it should not be used like that because it’s a purpose driven contribution.
“But I don’t know why people were making mountain out of it. The man has just come, he does not know what it entails. When a minister said that they have taken your money, Amaechi said it when the then Minister of Finance said that it was federal government’s money, Amaechi cried out to the industry, it’s your money, they have taken it but it’s up to you now. How much noise did the industry players make? Did they contribute money to fund the press to talk about it?
“Jamoh drove it to make sure that it was disbursed but the people did not look for equity to put down. From the Ship Acquisition, government lost money, so they don’t want to go the same way and they know politically also, some people will get that money. So, they wanted everything to be tight, they don’t want phantom businessmen to take up the fund. They want the ship owners to come together and say this is our equity contribution.
“Remember, SOAN is for coastal shipping – oil and gas. Oil and gas is not shipping, it is services. Shipping is international affreightment. It is not going offshore and coming back, it is going from port to port. They too should come together and put money down, they have to put their house in order so as to have a common front for government to take them serious.
“Jamoh tried to educate the people, he played his own role but you know, he was a government employee, there’s a limit to what he can do and he cannot be there defending ship owners. Government said look after this money, so, he has to balance the equation.”
The CVFF also called the Fund was created about two decades ago to strengthen the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act established in 2003; to which contributions are being made by shipping lines and ship owners; and to which the federal government by design is expected to contribute a percentage.
Controversy has, however, dodged the status of the CVFF as different administrations in the past sixteen years have reduced the Fund and its disbursement into a political project, continually throwing spanners on every proposed timeframe to disburse the Fund.
While local shipping capacity development have thus suffered unpardonable neglect and steady decline over the years with foreigners dominating the industry, the Presidency and NIMASA have mastered the act of playing the mouse and cat game in frustrating the fund’s disbursement; which actual sum and where about has remained at the realm of conjecture.
Photo: Captain Tajudeen Alao, President of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners, NAMM.
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