Funso Olojo
The Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA) Dakuku Peterside, is currently under attack by angry stakeholders for leading Nigeria to her fifth consecutive loss in the elections into the Category’ C’ of the International Maritime Organisation(IMO).
Penultimate Friday, the 36-man Nigerian delegation, led by Rotimi Ameachi, the Minister of Transportation closely followed by Dakuku and other politicians, were shock -shelled as they watched Nigeria bid to return to the IMO council it last occupied in 2007 went into a thick smoke.
Angry stakeholders were not only incensed by the whopping N500million allegedly spent to fund what they described as a jamboree and ‘Christmas shopping spree ‘by the politicians on the delegation, but the loss was particularly painful given the maritime statures of the five African countries namely Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya and Liberia which dusted Nigeria despite its intimidating maritime credentials.
Since the IMO election fiasco, Stakeholders have come hard on Dakuku and Ameachi for leading Nigeria to her worst defeat in IMO elections since 10 years.
Nigeria came last with the least number of votes in the election into the category ‘C’ which consist of 20 member states of Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey.
Opinions were however divided on why Nigeria recorded her worst outing in IMO elections.
While some attributed the woeful performance to ‘’inexperience and shoddy preparations’’ by NIMASA and Ministry of Transportation, other claimed the lukewarm attitude of the leadership of NIMASA towards maritime safety and development, the very essence of the existence of the agency, cost the country the coveted place.
They also blamed the NIMASA management of alienating professionals such as ship-owners, master mariners in the preparations, ‘’rather the agency make the preparation a civil service affairs’’
“Nigeria has nothing on ground to show for its participation in that election.They(NIMASA) made it totally a civil service affair, ignoring the contribution of ship owners, master mariners and the Association of Marine Engineers amongst other core stakeholders, throughout the course of preparation for the election.
“It is a pity everything has been politicized. The position of a Director-General for a country’s apex maritime parastatal is too strategic for a politician. It should be reserved for career focused persons. And that’s why I think it is the Federal Government that should be held accountable for Dakuku’s failure’’, an aggrieved stakeholder observed.
‘’It is clear that both the Minister and Peterside are not knowledgeable about the workings of IMO and while that is not wrong in itself, their inability to mobilise knowledgeable people on board to drive the process is confounding.” another operator corroborated.
Another army of industry operators who expressed disappointment at the loss declared that more than the shoddy preparation of Ministry of Transportation and NIMASA, Nigeria’s loss was an open attestation to the fact that the country is gradually losing its relevance among the international maritime community.
‘’What more evidence do we need that Nigeria is gradually losing its prime place in the international maritime community than the five consecutive failed attempts to secure a place in the IMO council?, a maritime practitioner queried in an agonized rhetorics.
He stated that the international rejection of Nigeria was more profound under the present NIMASA administration led by Dakuku who they said is incidentally the Chairman of Association of African Maritime Administration(AAMA), the position they argued Dakuku should have exploited to rally other African countries round Nigeria for electoral advantage.
‘’ It was a misnomer and a resounding rejection of the unseriousness of the present NIMASA management towards shipping development in the country’’, another stakeholder quipped.
The respondents described Dakuku as’’ sound in rhetorics but poor in practical implementation of policies that would lift Nigeria out of maritime comatose’’
‘’How can the international maritime community takes us serious as to admit us into the revered IMO council when Nigeria is the only maritime country without vessels?’’ a Lagos-based ship owner observed.
They readily referred to the promise made by Amaechi when he declared that the Federal government has decided to float a National Carrier to boost Nigeria participation in sea-born trade.
‘’More than one year after that promise was made, the whole issue has died down. The Minister is neither talking nor making any concrete plan to keep this promise.
‘’And you want the international community to trust us enough with such huge responsibility which the membership of the IMO council entails?’’, another angry stakeholder submitted.
Another sore point which they claimed has reduced Nigeria influence in international maritime politics was the issue of maritime safety and shipping development which is the core function of NIMASA.
The respondents were unanimous in their assertion that present NIMASA administration has failed woefully in these core functions.
‘’Despite Dakuku repeated rhetorics to the contrary about the safety of our territorial waters, the activities of piracy and armed robbery attacks on our waters and Gulf of Guinea are yet to abate as the International Maritime Bureau(IMB) has continued to label our territorial water as among the most dangerous’’ a master mariner claimed.
Despite the gradual extinction of the businesses of indigenous ship owners as a result of stiff competition from their well capitalized and technically sound foreign competitors as well as the biting economic situation, successive administrations in NIMASA have continued to pay lip service to the disbursement of Cabotage Vessel Financing Funds(CVFF) specially created to empower indigenous operator and boost shipping development.
Instead, the funds, created about 15 years ago and which the actual amount has continued to be a subject of conjecture but which has accrued in excess of over $100b, has over the years being abused by successive administrations which diverted it to purposes other than the one the fund was created for.
Dakuku also followed this well- beaten path as he promised to disburse the funds more than a year ago.
While NIMASA was dillydallying over the disbursement, the indigenous shipping trade is gradually going under.
President of Ship Owners Association of Nigeria(SOAN), Greg Ogbeifun expressed his displeasure over challenges facing indigenous ship owners and the turn of event in the industry in the last two years under the leadership of Dakuku as the DG of NIMASA whom he called for his immediate resignation.
He said while past NIMASA Director Generals have been sacked due to fraud-related cases, this is the time to have the political boldness to sack the present leadership of NIMASA due to lack of competence.
“We will be deceiving ourselves if we pretend not to know that the IMO and the rest of the world are aware that our maritime domain has remained a high-security risk and it is most unsafe for seaborne trade and activities such as piracy, hostage-taking, and kidnapping.
“That 22 years after the demise of the Nigeria National Shipping Line (NNSL), we have not been able to midwife the emergence of a Nigerian fleet be it public, private or fleet resulting from Public Private Partnership.
“IMO has passed a vote of no confidence on our maritime administration and if we do not do the right thing, which is taking the bold action of asking the leadership of the maritime administration to resign or the government should sack them. If we don’t do that, the International community that has not accepted us into the council will believe we are not ready to change.
“Government should stop giving excuses why they failed and look at issues in the industry. We have an administration for two and half year in office, things have gone worst, they have not even visited our maritime institution in Oron. Instead, we are spending money abroad; the international community is laughing at us because they know we do not know what we are doing, and we are saying enough is enough.”
To corroborate the position of Ogbeifun, Samuel Egbewole called on the Federal Government to sack Dakuku Peterside if he fails to resign honourably in the face of his woeful performance as the helmsman of the apex maritime regulatory agency in Nigeria.