….as DG Peterside Says Piracy Has Reduced on Nation’s Waters
By Shola Fadeyi
Ngerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency Director General, Dr Dakuku Peterside(Middle ) in a pensive mood flanked on the left by the Chairman Governing Board of the Agency, Major General Jonathan Garba (rtd) at the Harminised Stakeholders Forum organised by NIMASA in Lagos yesterday.
Apparently, as part of measures to accelerate the development of the economy, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has resolved to enhance the safety of the nation’s maritime space through the instrumentality of synergy with stakeholders in the maritime sector.
The Director General of the Agency, Dr Dakuku Peterside made the promise in an interview on the sideline of the harmonized stakeholders’ interactive forum with the theme synergy: An instrument of sustainable development of the Blue Economy which the Agency organized in Lagos yesterday.
Peterside said that the agency’s quest to enhance the safety of the maritime environment has made it to now embrace the synergy option which entails that it collaborates with stakeholders to guage their ideas as well as partner with them for this purpose.
He informed that in the discharge of its safety function, NIMASA has to a very large extent reduce the level of piracy in the Nigerian waters through its various activities saying that many people due to ignorance have rather been confusing armed robbery on the nations’s waters with piracy activities which have been the lowest ebb.
According to him, as a typical government agency, it has gone beyond the first stage of just setting the rules communicating them andbelieving that the stakeholders will abide by those regulations as well as even the second stage of just looking out for those who will not comply but that it is now at the stage of getting feedback to know the deviants so that it can enforce its rules against them.
The Director General disclosed that the new direction which the agency is now seeking necessitated its decision to gather together at the forum experts ,professionals in the maritime sector including the academia to get their ideas on its new quest of enforcement of its regulations .
He stated at the forum that what the agency requires now from the stakeholders are frank talk on how it can improve on its mandate of protection of marine environment, search and rescue, reduction in the level of piracy and criminalities at sea among other areas with a view to enhancing its delivery of service to the maritime sector and its stakeholders.
The NIMASA helmsamn stated that the agency’smanagement because of the remarkable progress it has made in the implementation of its role as a Maritime Adminstrator has gotten a lot of commendations from the highest decision making body in Nigeria, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as well as from the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Auditor General of the Federation and many other stakeholders in the economy.
Consequently, he was of the view that having received series of accolades from such highest quarters including from the maritime circle in Africa , it would appreciate a situation where stakeholders would focus more on constructive and positive suggestions on how it can continue to improve on its role as the Administrator of the Maritime sector.
The Executive Director Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services of NIMASA. Gambo Ahmed in his welcome address said the occasion is the first of its type which has brought together all the agency’s operational departments/ units in the same forum to meet with the people it is serving.
According to him, the agency has always made it a point of duty to regularly interact with the stakeholders in the industry not only as a means of sensitization and information dissemination on policy issues but also as a feedback mechanism through which it gauges the impact level of its implementation efforts and also note the opinions and complaints of the stakeholders.
The panel of discussants at the forum which include,Chairman House Committee on Maritime Safety and Education, Honourable Bago Mohammed Umaru , Professors Badejo Oni , Ilori and Captain Alao and a female provided answers to various questions asked by some of the participants as well advanced suggestions on how the agency can impact positively on the implementation of its manadate and that of the provisions of the Blue Economy .
In a paper on ‘Synergy an Instrument for Susutainable Development of the Blue Economy’ presented at the forum by the Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Consultative Council(NPCC) , Otunba Kunle Folarin , he said Maritime Administration is the pillar for the regulation of the maritime sector in Nigeria while he outlined the role of NIMASA in ensuring that Nigeria realizes the benefits of the Blue Economy.
