•CVFF, insecurity top agenda

By Godwin Oritse

STAKEHOLDERS in the Nigeria’s maritime industry have told the new Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, that they have a vested interest in his administration.

Speaking at a dinner in the honour of Jamoh, Capt Emmanuel Ihenacho, former Minister of State for Interior said that stakeholders in the maritime industry have a lot of vested interests in the current leadership of the agency to ensure that he remains focused to carry on with the agenda of the stakeholders.

Ihenacho also said that NIMASA is the most militarized maritime administration in the world. According to the former ship captain NIMASA is not a revenue generating agency like the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and as such the stakeholders will not allow it to be like FIRS.

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He stated: “One of the things we will want you not to do is to think you can become an internal revenue generating agency and every year, you can say we took N16 billion that we could have given to ship owners back to government. We will not let that happen because there is a purpose for which that money was accrued. Look at the issue of CVFF. Roll out the guidelines of the CVFF and make it fair and equitable.

“We also want to remind you not to militarise NIMASA. There is nowhere in the world where maritime administration is enforced by people carrying guns. Also, remember the issue of adding value to our oil by allowing Nigeria tankers carry Nigeria oil.”

Former President, Nigerian Shipowners Association, NISA, Aminu Umar, urged Jamoh to address insecurity in Nigeria’s maritime domain and build indigenous capacity. “One of the issues that have been on the front burner for shipping in Nigeria is piracy. We cannot discuss enough of the damage that piracy is doing to us presently in all the sectors of the maritime industry. We will like the director general and his management to put this as their top priority, promote and protect the interest of indigenous shipowners,” he said.
Also speaking, Chairman Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, STOAN, Princess Vicky Hasstrup, sought the intervention of the NIMASA for tank farms owners to relocate from the access roads leading to the port owing to the challenges they pose to port operations.

Hasstrup said the concentration of tank farms within the port environment poses dangerous threat to the port businesses. According to her, “What is waiting to happen in Apapa would be like a child’s play because we are sitting on a keg of gun powder. It is only in Nigeria that I see tank farms sitting in the middle of a city.
“We have almost 63 tankers sitting right in Apapa. Can you imagine if just one of the tank farms blows up? We need the tank farms to be relocated. I believe the director general has the ears of Mr. President. Please help us tell him to relocate the tank farms far away from here.”

On her part, Chairman, Shipowners Forum, Margaret Orakwusi, urged the NIMASA boss to revive the moribund Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) to enable operators showcase the potentials of the industry to investors.

“We need investors to showcase our potentials. We need to have NIMAREX all over again and I want you to tackle that because you are most senior and experience person that has now taken over the control of NIMASA. So NIMASA should be in the fore front of doing that,” she said. Responding, Jamoh expressed appreciation with the confidence reposed in him by industry stakeholders, vowing that he will not fail them.
Jamoh said that the task ahead in repositioning the agency is not an easy one calling on stakeholders to collaborate and support his administration.

While assuring that NIMASA under his watch would work within the mandate of the agency to meet the aspirations’ of stakeholders, he said: “The task ahead is not an easy one. We recorded a number of successes in the last dispensation but to be sincere, I can now see where we are lacking because of what Captain Iheanacho told me and I have come to realize that there is need to realign and re-position our own way of doing things to match the thinking and aspirations of the stakeholders.

“If we decide to do things the way we feel it is right without consultation, I think we will continue to be where we are today with the stakeholders and regulators talking different languages. At the end, we will find ourselves in dilemma where no one can say this is right or this is wrong because we will continue to do our propaganda using media.

“We have our own mandate. We need your assistance and support to be able to actualize this mandate. Your support, understanding and guidance are always going to be our own watchword. I cannot do it alone. Join me and support me to get these things right to re-position the agency for the betterment of us all. I assure you we will do everything possible not to fail you.”