THE Nigerian Merchant Navy (NMN) has received far less attention than it actually requires both from the government and the Nigerian populace.

*Commodore Aderemi Olatinwo

The place of the NMN which should originally serve as the nation’s Coast Guard can not be overemphasized especially as the country faces high influx of arms as well as illegal oil bunkering of monumental proportion.

In this interview with Vanguard’s Yemie Adeoye the Director General Commodore Aderemi Olatinwo emphasized on the dangers imminent if the constitution does not give adequate recognition to the Merchant Navy Formation.

According to him, with the porous nature of our waters no country in the world requires the services of Coast Guards as much as Nigeria does. He also spoke on the NMN bill current at the National Assembly and reasons why the lawmakers should ensure a speedy passage of the bill for a reformed and duly constituted Nigerian Merchant Navy.
Excerpts:

Can you tell us a little about yourself?    My name is Aderemi Olatinwo, and I am a Master Mariner with some 27 years experience, I finished from the then Liverpool Polytechnic, for my Masters, I also proceeded to the Southampton Maritime Academy where I finished in 1976, I am married with children.

You have an Academy here, can you tell us what this institution about?
Just like I’ve said at different fora, there is manpower depletion in the maritime industry, but when you measure that against the unemployment in the country, you discover that we have so many employment opportunities in the maritime sector of the economy, people are not training in that area, and the only way to salvage the maritime industry is the proliferation of maritime academies, train people and that’s why we came together to form this Maritime Academy to impart knowledge on the youths of this nation, the knowledge that most of us acquired, through governmental funding.

How many of you came together for this purpose?
Just about twenty of us.
What informed your decision, given the fact the Merchant Navy formation is not entirely recognised by the Nigerian constitution?

Well, I would say that the Merchant Navy is recognised, even if you may not find it in the constitution, but by Act of parliament, they made various references to Merchant Navy, even in the establishment of maritime Academy Oron, where they can train Merchant Navy officers.

You can not put an Act and refer to an institution called Merchant Navy and turn around to say that institution does not exist. If government set up an institution and says the Act provides for them to train Merchant Navy officers, then it simply means Merchant Navy is in existence and is recognised.

What are the issues affecting the formation and recognition of the Merchant Navy which you would want the federal government address?

What we want government to do is formally announce the recognition of an independent Merchant Navy devoid of any attachment to any Agency.  Some people were saying that the Merchant Navy died with Nigerian National Shipping Line, NNSL, but it must be noted that the Merchant Navy is not synonymous to the NNSL because Merchant Navy has been in existence before the advent of the NNSL. NNSL came into existence in 1958, while Merchant Navy has been in existence before 1958.

When did the gunnery Navy come into existence?
In 1956, the regular Navy came into existence through the Merchant Navy, that is the inland waterways, they decided to create the Nigerian Navy and the went to the marines, the inland waterways and they ask them to choose between gunnery and merchant, and some people were selected, 400 in all and these were led by late Admiral Akinwale Wey.

I have seen some part of this institution, it can be said to be under-funded. I believe there are lots of facilities you may still want to put here that are not here yet, how are you hoping to achieve that and what is your source of funding thus far?

We have been contributing towards this with our own personal money, and to make it a standard Academy, we are collaborating with international standard organisations to take over and beat any other institution in the country.

There is a training school in Oron, Akwa-Ibom state, is that also privately owned?
Maritime Academy, Oron is owned by the federal government. You see the amount of money used in training people has become enormous, so the government decided to bring an institution.

They have rated Oron with Egypt Maritime Academy. At the initial stage when people graduate from Egypt maritime Academy, there were a lot of discrimination because they look at them as second class certificates compared to that of UK who were in authority then.

And that discrimination was there and the students on their own decided to be going to England, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand to further their education after their second year.

In Summary, your proposal to the national assembly is it in the re-formation of the Nigerian Merchant Navy?
Yes!

I am aware that you are not been allowed to carry arms. Now what is the training for these merchant Navy cadets, and how are they expected to work while in the face of Danger?
Let me correct one impression, we are training people to work on vessels, international vessels and those engaged in operations in offshore oil industry. Not to combat anything for now. The combat is still with the regular Navy. Our function when it comes to that will be early detection. We are trained to detect, we have the capability and the technical know how to detect and we don’t arrest OR confront people. Inside the proposal given to the National Assembly, we set out procedures and reporting system.

If you are coming to Nigeria territorial water, there is a point where you will report with coast guard station and when that point is reached, you must report, the nationality, your agent, what you have come to do, the kind of cargo you are carrying the officer on duty at that coast station will pick you on the radar and monitor your movement just as they do abroad.

By the time you get to point B where you are suppose to report you’ll report again, and if you do anything between point A and Point B contrary to the rules and regulations, you are cautioned and told on the radio that you are violating or contravening of the regulation of the country.

If you refuse to desist then we will alert the Navy who are also there to intercept and arrest you.  This is what is obtainable in developed nations and they will fine you. Even if you don’t have any bad intention, they will fine you for not reporting.

Apart from that, this pollution control we are talking about, we have patrol boats moving around.  Aside from this, a lot of issues are currently being raised on pollution control and regarding this, immediately we find any oil on the water around you, we will take sample of the oil and the one inside your vessel and then come up with analysis and then your vessels is arrested. The fine for that is so much because the regulation is international.

The issue of the Niger Delta you talked about, in our proposal we treated the security of the nation and the unrest in the Niger Delta what is the root cause of it.

One will identify that the number of creeks we have in the Niger Delta are unnecessary. We have to reclaim and develop the Niger Delta to standard acceptable that will empower the Niger Deltans. That will ensure that our security agents will be able to monitor activities.

I can’t count the number of creeks now, those ones that are not navigable, they will use the boat and you will see shrubs everywhere and the security agents will not be able to say anything.

But if you reclaim and clear everything it would really help us achieve a better Niger-Delta, after-all Fashola is doing a lot in the area of reclamation and development in Lagos.
So why can’t we remove all these bushes and fill them up, reclaim, build schools, Hospitals, roads and rest of it.  We could also build recreation facilities, tourism centers and create exclusive fishing zones for the citizens who are fishermen.

But the environmentalists would also raise dust, saying that would amount to deforestation?
We are not talking about forest in that sense. That is not a forest that is a shrub and it is not productive for the existence of the nation. Even the indigenes there are not enjoying it. They are living inside rickety places and what have you.  And then you have taken all the resources of Nigeria from their region.

First of all they can beautify the place, let their citizens in Abuja, Lagos and elsewhere be able to drive their own place as part of the developmental part of the nation. By the time you do that one nobody will be interested in whatever.

The second aspect is that you have to allocate carrying right of crude oil to the state as well so that their citizens too can benefit. If you look at the cross section of the people enjoying the carriage they are not from that place. So the people probably felt that this resource that is in their domain is being taken away by people from distant lands, so they break the pipe when nothing is forthcoming.

Allocate carrying rights and by the time you allocate two million barrels to them and they can make some 3 dollars on a barrel, that is 6million dollars. How much are they selling the stolen ones? May be 30 or 40 naira which is not up to a dollar. So, by the time they see this one there will be no need to steal, and the stealing is still even dangerous to them because they might encounter security operatives and they start shooting at each other and killing themselves.

No body is interested in that but if they feel they have been cheated, I think  the situation might get out of hand if something is not done urgently.

What is the criterion to set up an institution like this?
Before you are able to set up a maritime institution, you need to have some maritime experts to advice you and be part of you because you may need the certificate to get the CAC registration. You look at our memorandum of association as outlined by CAC, you will find out that every thing inside it has to do with maritime.

If you don’t have qualified personnel in that particular field, you may not be registered. But if you have enough money, why don’t you bring it down here and come and buy shares in this organisation and then we will build it together.

Do we have a Chief of Merchant Navy in Nigeria or what do we have in Nigeria that heads the Merchant Navy?
That is the issue of sailor’s night. Because we have pockets of formation all over, this is a formation. This is an institution but the merchant Navy is just part of us. We have some members at the sea. Our base is outside the Academy. This is just an investment aspect to ensure job placement for graduates.

Who is funding the base?
We contribute money to fund the base. For now we have just one base nationwide. We are formation not the totality of Merchant Navy. Merchant navy is more than this particular formation. Merchant Navy will run into about 1200 members. The number of master mariners in the country including the whites who are now resident in Nigeria is about 182 master-mariners nationwide.

By the time you read our proposal to the national assembly, you’ll all see that we have told them. Each of the geopolitical zones of the country will have a merchant navy formation. Just like a command.

We have the eastern and the western naval command but this one is regional through out the six geopolitical zones. And in each zones, we have an Academy, irrespective of whether that zone is a maritime zone or not. That is to carry the awareness to all and sundry.