Contrary to the demands by some stakeholders in the Maritime sector for the review of the Cabotge Act, the Former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Temisan Omatseye has said that there was nothing wrong with the Act.
Omatseye who was speaking on the sideline of the 2014 Induction Ceremony of the MMS Women of Fortune Hall of Fame organized by Kings Communications Limited in Lagos on Tuesday however stated that the problem with the Act was that of implementation and enforcement.
He observed that with NIMASA being given the mandate to implement and enforce the provisions of the Act, Nigerians were going to witness a tremendous change in that area as according to him, it was no longer going to be business as usual.
“I can tell you, there is nothing wrong with the Cabotage Act. The problem we have is the implementation and enforcement of the Cabotage Act and I can tell you, NIMASA have taken up that mantle now, you are going to hear about the enforcement, they are going to make a lot of difference very soon”, he said.
Speaking on the pending Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), Omatseye called for a system where the fund would be made available to the Nigerian Ship owners as according to him, the money belonged to them.
He said,” the CVFF as far as am concerned, belongs to the ship owners; it is the money that the ship owners have collected that has build up to the amount at the CVFF. Really, this money should be private sector money, money which should be managed by the ship owners themselves”.
“Now, there should be a system whereby this Money should be made available to the Nigerian Ship owners to acquire vessels”.
While stating that he was already engaging the government on what to with the CVFF which he said was already attracting the attention of the government, Omatseye who is angling for the President of the Nigerian Indigenous Ship owners Association (NISA), however said that if he eventually win the position, he was going to bring in many novel ideas on how to make the fund work.
On the inability of the Nigerian ship owners to get contract of affreightment, Mr. Omatseye blamed it on ignorance on the part of the government saying that if government was aware of inherent advantages in empowering the Nigerian ship owners, it would not hesitate to hand over these contracts to Nigerians.
He averred that because of the failure of the government to understand that the money they pay to foreign ship owners amounted to capital flight and that until something drastic was done to overturn the trend, the country would continue to be on the losing side.
According to him,” personally, I would not say there is a conspiracy, I think it is lack of understanding. My issue is that I think it is lack of understanding, what we have failed to do is to make government realize the economics, of the failure of them to empower the Nigerian Ship owners”.
“The economics is very simple. What you are doing is that when you pay foreign ship owners money, it is purely capital flight. What we are trying to do is to say, how can we bring the money back to Nigeria.
He therefore opined that if he eventually becomes the NISA President in the forthcoming election which is slated for next month, he would use his vantage position as one who has had the opportunity of serving across the divides to bring the desired change in the industry in general and in NISA in particular.
“I am able to look from the both perspectives and being on that seat will also allow me to align with government position. Now, the way I am going to look at things, I am not going to look at it from the governmental regulatory perspective, I will look at it from business perspective in the sense that I will engage them, I will make government actually see what is happening, make government see the loopholes where they are losing money because I am able to appreciates that now”, Omatseye note.
