The Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association has disagreed over the success or otherwise recorded by Nigerians under the cabotage regime eleven years after implementation.
Speaking in a chat with Primetime Reporters in Lagos, the Secretary of the association, Comrade Julius Efokpor adduced that cabotage regime had failed as it had not met the expectations of Nigerians who saw the law as coming to their rescue.
Efokpor pointed out that the waiver component of the law which they kicked against as working against the interest of Nigerians was still there wondering how Nigerians which the law was meant to empower could benefit from the industry when the foreign interest still dominate the sector.
“The cabotage is there, we have the local content law there again to complement the cabotage yet, the indigenes, we don’t have enough manpower in the first place. Thank God that NIMASA is building up manpower to fill the yearning gap”.
“We have the indigenous ship owners that we have been depending on, probably, the Federal Government is thinking about their decision to revamp the National Shipping Line but how many of them can they buy at a time?” he queried.
On his part, the Assistant Secretary of the association, Aleakhue John Okpono disagreed with the position of Comrade Efokpor arguing that the cabotage regime in Nigeria had made an appreciable progress in the area of ensuring that only Nigerians were engaged in the nation’s coastal trade.
According to him, Nigerians had course to officially report cases of vessels plying the Nigerian waters illegally which in return received prompt responses from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
He said,” contrary to the spirit of the cabotage and for the cases we reported, NIMASA swung into action, they dropped the foreign ratings and replaced them with Nigerians as stated in the cabotage Act and again, they made us to understand that if there is any information concerning any vessel that is against the cabotage regime as per recruitment that we should let them know. We have an understanding to that extent”.
It will be recalled that the Nigerian Cabotage Laws seeks to impose some form of restrictions or complete prohibition on foreigners from participating in the internal transport business of the country purely on economic grounds.
This is aimed at building indigenous capacity in maritime tonnage, infrastructure and labour, the hallmark being the provision that all coastal trade vessels must be owned by Nigerians, manned by Nigerians, built in Nigeria and registered in Nigeria.
