2nd Engineer Deborah Adekemi Akinware is a female sailor and a missionary who has been in the maritime sector for quite a while. She is currently the ITF contact person in Nigeria and she is deeply concerned about the welfare of seafarers in Nigeria. In this encounter, she shed lights on how to tackle the various menace at sea as well as her experiences at sea. The marine engineer also told correspondent Roland Ekama that she had come in contact with sea robbers on countless occasions during the process of preaching the word of God.
2nd Engineer Deborah Adekemi Akinware is a female sailor and a missionary who has been in the maritime sector for quite a while. She is currently the ITF contact person in Nigeria and she is deeply concerned about the welfare of seafarers in Nigeria. In this encounter, she shed lights on how to tackle the various menace at sea as well as her experiences at sea. The marine engineer also told correspondent Roland Ekama that she had come in contact with sea robbers on countless occasions during the process of preaching the word of God.
Can you please do a brief about yourself as a seafarer and how you became an ITF representative in Nigeria?
Let me state clearly that it is the power of the Lord that has made me to come this far in the profession and I also thank God for making me an International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) representative in Nigeria, because He is the first person I am supposed to thank. I am part and parcel of the Nigerian Merchant Navy Water Transport Senior Staff Association, and when we talk about women in the field of seafaring, you will agree with that we are very few, and we can be counted with the fingers. However, I must commend the first woman in marine engineering in Nigeria, who is late now and her name was, Oluwayemisi Ajidewura. She was very good in the profession and I can say we all are in her shoes as far as marine operation is concerned. Also presently, we thank God that in Africa today; we have ITF woman representative who goes by the name Adeola Sadiq. But, looking at the profession in Nigeria, I must say that the Nigerian government has neglected the seafarers, but globally we are not abandoned. Like I have said earlier, we are few in terms of gender, but we are very strong. Now to the ITF appointment, my union must be commended to that effect because they made it possible for me to be an ITF contact person in Nigeria, they carried me along in all their activities and the president of ITF in Nigeria; Engineer Adeola Sadiq has done a lot in the area of representing our union and Nigeria globally. Again ITF is responsible for catering for all transport workers globally, to ensure that they are not cheated by their employers and dumped like a piece of trash after serving their employers over a period of time. In our own wing as women, we are being empowered by ITF to the ideal of gender equality and it might interest you to know that ITF was formed in the year 1896; it is also an umbrella body of four million transport workers in over 154 countries worldwide.
Can you share your experiences on board some of the vessels where you have worked as a mariner?
I have worked on board all sorts of vessels you can think of; I have worked on board tanker vessels, then on trawler vessels and other merchant vessels, but today as we speak, I got a call from God and the hammer has been taken away from me. I am now preaching the word of God to my colleagues who are onshore and offshore as a missionary. God knew why he called me to be a missionary in the seafaring circle. I am a sailor till date, but a lot has changed in my life. I have been transfigured from the spanner on board vessels to the Bible on board vessels as well. Anywhere you find the seafarers, I am always there. As sailors you can say we have men and women in the field, but professionally we are all officers and we are all referred to as men. Many sailors have died in the line of duty, but we are strong because Christ is the solid rock we stand upon, and he is also the rock of the seafarers. Now I am a missionary, and for the welfare of the seafarers in Nigeria, we give our support, we pray with them, counsel them about the other life after this and that the challenges they are facing. The Lord who has sent me to do his work has the final solution to their predicament. As a seafarer, I know the challenges, I have seen it all in the profession, I know most of the challenges of a seafarer and that is why I often go to places where I can speak, counsel and advise them about the word of God.
As a missionary to seafarers, we have recorded series of attacks and even killings of some of your members, what do you think can be done to address the situation?
There are a lot of things that can be done to reduce or address the issue of sea robbery on our waters. It will be difficult to meet with the president of the country one on one, because I have a dream and strategy on how to tackle the issue of attack and killing of seafarers in our domain. God has giving me a mission and there is a vision to that mission from God. It is not the weapons to be carried by the military men that will reduce the killings at sea, but it is by the word of God. As a missionary when you want to go to the farm, you will first of all go through the path before proceeding into the thick forest. If you want to swim, you must first swim through the shallow waters before proceeding onto the deep part of the water. However in my ministry, I move from port to port, jetties to jetties. I have been able to Liverpool in Apapa where you can find seafarers and even the sea robbers. In the course of ministering to seafarers I have been able to identify so many of the so-called sea robbers who will boldly introduce themselves to me as such. Even when I speak with them, they sometimes become afraid because of the words that come out of my mouth. I have never been frightened in the process of ministering and I am always in their midst. These guys are everywhere and there is no place you cannot find them and without the wisdom of God, it would have been difficult for one to understand. However like I said before now, it is not all about carrying weapons and chasing the sea robbers and pirates that perpetrate evil at sea, but to use the word God. They have been able to identify with me and I believe God will touch them one after the other.
What then are those right words?
Very good, now for the pirate at sea to be conquered is simply by the word of God and nothing else. Prayer is the key and prayer is the master key, because God says that we should go to their camp and also go to their roots and ask for the top officials, and feed them with the word. That is the message God gave to me for the year. Meeting with these pirates happened months ago, but the truth is that who am I going to relate such revelation with for us to conquer them with the word? There is nobody because nobody is ready to listen, therefore I have to swallow it and continue with my prayers, but I tell you this, there is nothing God cannot do to change the heart of men. Many seafarers have lost their lives in the hands of pirates, but I know one day the one that is above us all will arrest them soon. Technologically, the Japanese have weapons at sea that are used to catch the pirates and it is just like a net that they spread on the water; therefore if we can have things like that in place ,it will assist people like me to preach to them better instead of shedding blood as a way of curbing attack at sea. This technology that I am talking about will soon be introduced to the world and it is good for us as a maritime nation because my people are perishing, we are losing souls in the course of carrying out jobs at sea. But I know and believe that God is on top of the situation and I feel there is the need to go to their camps wherever they are and preach the word to them and find out why they are into illegalities at sea. With that, I know they will come out of it in Jesus name. What God has told me and I will not relent to do that neither am I afraid to talk to them. You will agree with me why they are doing it so we need to go all out to find out why they are stealing and killing innocent people at sea; possibly if we continue with that alone, many of them will come out of it.
What are your strategies to arrest the sea robbers?
Like I said earlier, it is difficult for me to meet with the government and share my dreams with them on how to address the menace at sea. Funny enough in the process of ministering to sailors some of them will introduce themselves to me as pirates and that it is their only means of survival. So when someone tells you openly that he is a sinner, it is a step of victory on your part. I believe if you can identify a problem then that problem is half-solved. I don't have any money to give to them, but I can feed them with the word of God and I believe He will surely arrest them spiritually. I believe paying ransoms to the sea robbers is never the solution because I know that with the word of God in place they will soon turn a new leaf in Jesus name. Believe it or not; there will come a time when money will no longer solve problems again in the country, because the bad guys at sea are doing all the killings because of money.
Can you share you seatime experience with us?
I started from the School of Oceanography in Victoria Island, Lagos, I won't be able to mention some of vessels I have worked on board, because they are many, but I started sailing with about four vessels that the institute had back then and I remember I came out from school in 1991. Though there was an attempt to a secure a job then, but I happened to get employed through the help of the Lord, then in that same period, I was given a letter of appointment for me to go on board a tanker vessel through one Engineer Olayinka Salami who is someone I will describe as the person who added value to what I am doing till date. This man made me what I am today and I will never forget him because he made people to understand that what a man can do a woman also do same. During that period I sailed through the West African coast for a year. I sailed to Togo, Ghana and Liberia; these are some of the popular coast that we sailed during that period. But I noticed that life at sea is quite different from that of land; it’s another life entirely during that one year voyage before someone else came to relief me. One thing about that particular vessel was that it was not in class and at the deep sea you will continue to overhaul the engine for hours and during the process you eat, drink and to the extent that I have to use my greased bare hands to eat on the deck of the vessel.
Note: This interview was firs published last year, but we are reproducing it to commemorate the 2014 Seafarers Day.— Editor
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