From its official website, organizers of the Nigeria Maritime Expo, popularly called NIMAREX says it “was borne out of a desire to showcase Nigeria’s enormous maritime potentials to the world”.
It also adds that, “several years of participation in international trade fairs, conferences and exhibitions by government functionaries, agencies, ship owners, ship repairers, maritime lawyers, financial institutions and other stakeholders in different parts of the world gave rise to the idea of replicating events of similar magnitude in Nigeria”.
From its official website, organizers of the Nigeria Maritime Expo, popularly called NIMAREX says it “was borne out of a desire to showcase Nigeria’s enormous maritime potentials to the world”.
It also adds that, “several years of participation in international trade fairs, conferences and exhibitions by government functionaries, agencies, ship owners, ship repairers, maritime lawyers, financial institutions and other stakeholders in different parts of the world gave rise to the idea of replicating events of similar magnitude in Nigeria”.
Originally conceived as a ‘baby’ of the Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN), the NIMAREX, which made its debut in 2011 gained instant acceptance by all maritime industry stakeholders.
Without mincing words, its pioneer planning committee led by foremost marine engineer; Engr Greg Ogbeifun, launched the NIMAREX brand with a robust marketing and media strategy. The result was that NIMAREX became an instant success.
However, as with all successful ideas, high scale and ill-motivated intrigues reared its ugly head shortly after the maiden edition of the exhibition, this led to the dissolution of the maiden planning committee of the event.
The intrigues also consumed the director general of ISAN; Ms Funmi Folorunso, who was relieved of her appointment and disengaged from the NIMAREX, albeit without any proof of misdemeanor known to the public.
The statement from ISAN, which was signed the then-Secretary of the association (and current President); Capt Niyi Labinjo only told the public that the executive committee of ISAN has approved the dissolution of the planning committee of NIMAREX.
While subsequent editions of the exhibition have been adjudged by stakeholders to fall below the benchmark , the NIMAREX has nevertheless been organised yearly. It has also not missed any edition.
It is conceived as an annual networking platform for divergent stakeholders from maritime oil and gas sectors, it was meant to draw participants from ship owners and ship managers, ship repairers/ship builders and ancillary services providers, local and multinational oil companies, among others. The NIMAREX also targeted government interests.
While it is true that NIMAREX was conceived as a platform to open up the Nigerian maritime trade to the outside world, it has also largely been accused of losing not doing enough to connect the Nigerian maritime industry to the world.
We quite agree that NIMAREX, at the early stage served as the ideal forum for showcasing an assemblage of maritime products, new technologies, service and expertise as well as providing the platform to unlock various business opportunities in Nigeria’s largely unexploited maritime sector. But, this can only apply to the first (and may be second edition) of the annual event.
The fact that NIMAREX is fast losing steam places a greater burden on the organising committee of the 2015 edition of the event.
We share in the optimism of the 2015 committee to organise a worthwhile expo, but we also advise them to be conscious of the pitfalls of the past.
The idea of NIMAREX emanated from ISAN (now called NISA), it is on this platform that Engineer Greg Ogbeifun and his group organised the maiden edition. The pioneer secretary planning of the committee (Ms Funmi Folorunsho) was seconded from her duty as the director general of ISAN.
While we appreciate the template that was built by Ogbeifun and his team, we are also certain that over-ambition on the part of certain individuals who took advantage of personal relationship caused the ‘fall’ of NIMAREX.
We recall that, Engineer Ogbeifun was accused of wanting to undermine ISAN by making NIMAREX to assume a life of its own. While not denying his plans, he however explained the longtime advantage of this, but the hawks in the association took advantage of this and staged a coup that eventually caused Ms Folorunsho her job; both at ISAN and at NIMAREX.
We have taken note of an emerging conflict of interests in the body called NIMAREX and its progenitor NISA.
In an apparent reaction to the in-fighting in NISA, the organising committee of NIMAREX recently stated that the success of NIMAREX does not depend on NISA, and that, with or without the association, the yearly event would hold successfully.
And in reaction to this, the President of NISA; Capt Labinjo replied that NIMAREX remains the baby of the association and that the planning committee remains accountable to NISA.
We quite agree that NIMAREX is the baby of NISA, and we also do know that it is the prerogative of the association’s President to inaugurate the planning committee every year. To that extent, NISA should appreciate always that, the image and reputation of the annual industry event is tied to its own, and should always not do anything that can negatively impugn on the profile of NIMAREX. It appears to us that, this is what is happening currently with the purported emergence of an acting president, even though Capt Labinjo still claims to be the sitting President and can not be suspended by the executive council.
If this is not addressed and sorted out on time, the NIMAREX 2015 organising committee may have a dilemma of who to report to.
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