When it was conceived in 2011, the Nigeria Maritime Expo, popularly called NIMAREX was meant to be an avenue to showcase the Nigerian maritime industry to the world.
Even from its official website, organizers of the, says it “was borne out of a desire to showcase Nigeria’s enormous maritime potentials to the world”.
When it was conceived in 2011, the Nigeria Maritime Expo, popularly called NIMAREX was meant to be an avenue to showcase the Nigerian maritime industry to the world.
Even from its official website, organizers of the, 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),as it was then called, 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 and selfishness reared its ugly head shortly after the maiden edition of the exhibition. This led to the dissolution of the maiden planning committee of the expo.
The intrigues also consumed the then- 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.
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 steam and 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.
Let those who ‘destroyed’ NIMAREX remember that 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.
In an apparent reaction to the in-fighting in NISA, the organising committee of NIMAREX had once stated that the success of NIMAREX would 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.
No doubt, the conflict of interests in the body called NIMAREX and its progenitor NISA greatly affected the 2015 edition of the expo.
The NISA that is led by Capt Labinjo was not in attendance, another body of ship owners led by Engr Ogbeifun also stayed away.
The in-fighting in NISA is killing NIMAREX, and the ‘fathers’ of NISA are celebrating. It is this crisis that gave birth to another group called; Ship Owners Association of Nigeria.
Our position on the crisis in NISA was and still is: that it’s only a court of competent jurisdiction that can invalidate the Presidency of Capt Dada Labinjo. Those who have asked him to step down on account of an allegation, are either ignorant of the position of the law or have just chosen to ignore it.
For the sake of the annual NIMAREX and the larger NISA, the gladiators should sheath their sword, otherwise there may be no NIMAREX 2016
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