Days after the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Live Reports center in Kuala Lumper, the capital of Malaysia, disclosed that out of nine unsuccessful pirate attacks on merchant vessels around the world from November 16 to 22, three of the incidents took place on Nigeria’s territorial waters alone, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety (NIMASA) which have failed to check the activities of the sea robbers in the Gulf of Guinea, was at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Assembly in London seeking to be elected to represent the West African sub-region on the IMO Council.
The about 40-man Nigerian delegation led by the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi was defeated by Liberia as the representative of the interest of the West and Central Africa region on the IMO Council Category C.
Other African countries that that were elected to represent the interest of Africa on the IMO Council Category C, includes; Kenya, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa and this was on account of the huge interest they have and the contributions they are making to the development of seaborne trade in Africa and the world.
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) council has 40 members in three categories (A, B and C).
Category A council members are countries with the largest interest in providing international shipping services, while Category B are countries with the largest interest in international seaborne trade.
Category C, which has 20 countries, are those with special interests in maritime transport or navigation and whose election to the council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world.
Though Nigeria has the potential to become the largest maritime nation in the West and Central Africa and should naturally have been the leader in Gulf of Guinea, with over 900 nautical miles of coastline as well as controlling over a third of inward and outward seaborne cargoes in the sub-region; according to experts, Nigeria’s maritime administration has not abandoned its core mandate of promoting shipping and safety of navigation in her territorial waters, it has failed to lead other maritime administrations in the sub-region in ensuring safety of navigation in the Gulf of Guinea.
The country’s failing has consequently encouraged other smaller countries in the region to work hard to fill the gap in term of effective Flag and Port State Administration and provision of adequate port infrastructure.
To this end, Liberia; Ghana; Ivory Coast and even Nigeria’s next door neighbours; Togo and Benin Republic are competing effectively to control the maritime space of the region by making their waterways safe and quality maritime administration, which include capacity development.
While this is going on, Nigeria took the backseat in every aspect of maritime development, and started to constitute herself to a security risk to the Gulf of Guinea and the West and Central Africa as Nigeria pirates and sea robbers are believed to be responsible for most of the attacks on ships in the region.
Experts say that though piracy on Nigerian waters pre-date the administration of incumbent Director General of NIMASA, Dr Dakuku Peterside, his administration on assumption of office about two years ago, rather adopt the good aspects of the controversial Global West Vessel Specialists (GWVSL) contract, which with the collaboration of the Nigerian Navy, put up a quality presence in the Nigerian maritime domain, it chose to throw away the security patrol aspect and just took the revenue collection aspect which it gave a contract for that purpose to chairman of his party in Rivers State. The contractor who evidence of having any previous knowledge of the job or even competing for the contract as required by law, will earn 15 per cent of the revenue he collects for the agency.
The result was total resurgence of armed banditry and sea robbery on the Nigerian waters and the entire Gulf of Guinea.
Meanwhile, while the controversial ‘Tompolo’ contract would have cost Nigerians $102 million, the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi recently announced that he had obtained an approval from the Presidency to re-award the security aspect of the GWVSL contract to an unknown Israeli private security firm at $186 million.
Also, sources close to the agency said that the Lagos Regional Maritime Coordination Centre (Lagos RMRCC), one of the five designated Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres in Africa, which had been in operation before the coming of the administration of Dakuku Peterside, has reportedly not been functional for a long time because of lack of maintenance.
The Deputy Director of NIMASA/Head Public Relations, Mr. Isichie Osamgbi could not confirm this development at press time.
The Lagos RMRCC is the secretariat of the West and Central African Search and Rescue Region and it coordinates Search and Rescue activities within the waters of nine countries in the West and Central Africa.
This came as the IMB in it third quarter 2017 report released a couple of weeks ago, disclosed that the Nigerian maritime domain which had long taken over from Somalia as the most unsafe place in the world for navigation sustained the notoriety in the first nine months of the year, making Nigeria a global leader in maritime piracy and sea robbery.
According to the IMB report, over 20 successful attacks on vessels were reported on Nigerian waters in the review period, with 16 of the 20 attacks taking place off the coast of Brass, Bonny and Bayelsa.
IMB further stated that 39 of the 49 crew members kidnapped globally occurred off Nigerian waters in seven separate incidents. Other crew kidnappings in 2017 have been reported 60 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria.
Director of IMB, Pottengal Mukundan, said, “In general, all waters in and off Nigeria remain risky, despite intervention in some cases by the Nigerian Navy. We advise vessels to be vigilant. The number of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea could be even higher than our figures as many incidents continue to be unreported.”
Worried by this escalating insecurity on the Nigerian waters, which also put the region at risk; the United States of America, through its Maritime Administration, in its latest Maritime Alert warned ships to be wary when approaching Nigerian waters.
According to the US Maritime Administration, the two recent pirate attack incidents in the Niger Delta of Nigeria is a confirmation of escalating insecurity around and on the waters of Nigeria.
It made reference to the attacks on October 21 and 25, 2017.
As the situation degenerates, Sunday Telegraph learnt that foreign shipping companies are now spending over N13.76 billion ($45 million) annually to escort their vessels from one point to another on Nigeria’s waterways.
About four major international shipping companies operate in the country including Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Company, Grimaldi and CMA/CGM in addition to smaller foreign and local shipping companies operating on the waterways.
Speaking in Lagos during the recent celebration of the World Maritime Day tagged: “Connecting Ships, Ports and People,” the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, disclosed that shipping giant, Maersk Line told him that they spent between $15 to $18 million (at prevailing rate of N365/$) yearly to escort their vessels.
“Currently, Maersk Line told me they spend between $15 million and $18 million annually to those escorting their vessels from one point to another on our waterways.” But, the Minister said that all attacks on the nation’s waterways would soon reduce when the Israeli company moblises to the Nigerian waters.
The Israeli private security firm will monitor and secure Nigerian coastal waters against maritime crimes.
Sunday Telegraph learnt that the extra cost been incurred by the ship owners to protect their ships against pirate attacks, are transferred to the shippers (importers) who in turn transfer same to the final consumers of such goods and service.
This according experts, is responsible for the high prices of imported commodities in the market. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its October report noted that the pressure from processed food and imported food moderated the expected high gains Nigeria expected to record from the bountiful harvest season in the review period.
However, experts said it is curious that NIMASA which have failed in it responsibility as a maritime administrator and leader of the West and Central African Maritime Administration early this year commenced a campaign to be elected to represent the interest of the region on the governing council of the United Nations maritime agency.
Specifically, Nigeria in March this year hosted the most outlandish conference of the Association of Heads of African Maritime Administrations (AAMA) since its inception. In the calculation of NIMASA, the AAMA conference was the best platform to launch Nigeria’s campaign for a reelection to the Category C of the IMO Council and a veritable place to lobby African diplomats and Maritime Administrations.
But all those funds spent on that hosting venture and Nigeria’s intimidating 40-man crowd that stormed the IMO were wasted as Nigeria was embarrassing defeated by Liberia and five others to represent the interest of Africa on the council.
The five African countries that joined other 15 from other parts of the world on the IMO Council Category C at the expense of Nigeria, were; Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya and Liberia.
A breakdown of the votes showed that Morocco scored 134 votes; Egypt (133); South Africa (21); Kenya (120) and Liberia (116).
It was gathered that Singapore came tops with 142 votes to beat 20 countries. Category C is the executive organ of the IMO that takes decisions in the absence of the Assembly and coordinates all activities of the organs of the organisation.
It has 20 member countries with special interest in maritime transport or navigation.
Meanwhile, maritime stakeholders have expressed shock at the inability of Nigeria to get reelected into the policy making body of the IMO, citing policy somersaults, shoddy preparation and inexperience by the Federal Ministry of Transportation and NIMASA.
A London-based Nigerian maritime analyst, Donald Adebola, who spoke shortly after the election, attributed Nigeria’s loss to inexperience and shoddy preparation by the handlers of the country’s bid.
Former Director General of NIMASA, Ferdinand Agu, said: “Politicians don’t have a clear idea what the maritime sector is all about.”
Countries elected into that category were the Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey. A statement from the IMO web-site showed that there are two other categories A and B and the total number of countries voted for to represent the international maritime community in the three categories were 40. The Council is the executive organ of IMO and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the work of the Organization. Between sessions of the Assembly, the Council performs all the functions of the Assembly.
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and his counterpart in Foreign Affairs, Geofrey Onyema, have called on heads of foreign missions to support the country’s quest for election into the Category C of the International Maritime Organisation, IMO Council, the highest decision making body of the Organisation.
Amaechi Speaking at the social gathering organised by the Ministries of Transportation and the Foreign Affairs in Abuja, for the Nigerian foreign missions, Onyema said as a key player in the global maritime industry, Nigeria had played active leadership roles in ensuring the development of the sector not only within the country but also in West and Central African sub region. The Foreign Affairs Minister assured the global maritime community on Nigeria’s readiness to ensure optimum performance through checkmating piracy, marine pollution and reinvigoration of its ports and capacity building
Source : newtelegraphonline
