As the implementation date for the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 in Nigeria draws near, a former president of Nigeria Merchant Navy Water Transport Officers and Senior Staff Association and a resource person to Matral Maritime Training Centre consultants to NIMASA on the training of inspectors; Captain Thomas Kemewerigha spoke with Shipping Position Daily correspondent; Roland Ekama on what to expect , the training , piracy on Nigerian waters and maritime education.
As the implementation date for the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 in Nigeria draws near, a former president of Nigeria Merchant Navy Water Transport Officers and Senior Staff Association and a resource person to Matral Maritime Training Centre consultants to NIMASA on the training of inspectors; Captain Thomas Kemewerigha spoke with Shipping Position Daily correspondent; Roland Ekama on what to expect , the training , piracy on Nigerian waters and maritime education.
What should Nigeria expect from the MLC 2006 which kick-starts on the June 18th?
Despite the submission of instruments of ratification in June 2013, we are supposed to have carried out issuance of MLC 2006 certificate for a year which is due for expiration come June 18 2014, for enforcement, because the essence of enforcement is to confirm whether you are in the accordance or not and Nigeria has decided to take issues step by step as indicated by International Labour Organisation (ILO) by coming out with inspectors and it goes in two ways; now some ratified countries have decided to go into their own to carry out their inspections for them and issue certificate on behalf of the Flag State, but Nigeria decided to build up its own inspectors to work for them internally so that they can have control in all the areas of sanity discipline and others and that is why NIMASA decided to get maritime labour inspectors from maritime labour department and the safety department who are already safety inspectors to carry out MLC training programme and certify them as MLC inspectors. So basically after the training what next you will want to ask; the next phase is to go into inspection of Nigeria Flag State vessels and also carry out other state vessel that are calling into our ports, in terms of compliance with the MLC itself.
Do you think NIMASA has the wherewithal, because the convention kicks-off in a few days?
I will say NIMASA is capable because do you know that NIMASA made Nigeria to be among the first 40 nations that ratified this convention and if they are not capable, I don't think they will be among the 40 nations to have ratified this convention and as far as Africa is concerned NIMASA was among the first seven to have ratified this convention in terms of administratively, politically and otherwise. So we have all what it takes for NIMASA to implement the convention.
Do you think the convention will indeed be favourable to Nigerian seafarers?
People don't tend to understand what this convention is all about. The convention is not for people to get jobs, if you say to create jobs to some extent, I will agree with you but the sole aim is to better the working and living conditions of seafarers that are engaged. Once you are on board you are engaged and MLC 2006 says your working conditions should change and that is what NIMASA stands for to make sure that all seafarers working on our flag vessels and that all the ship owners engaging our seafarers comply with the MLC and once they comply, it means the working conditions of the Nigerian seafarers on board that vessel is standard, they are also to monitor those flag state vessels that come into our ports, if they are measurable to MLC conditions and that is what the MLC stands for and that will tell you that NIMASA and Nigeria is very capable, ready and it’s on the right track.
Do you think Nigeria waters are safe following incessant sea robbery attacks recorded in recent times?
When we talk of piracy, I must say that there is no waters that is not pirates-infected, but it is the degree and the re-occurrence that matters and I look at the Nigerian waters to be safe to some extent, because in our case the pirates are identifiable , we know where they are coming from and we know where they are going and our Nigerian pirates don't kill , they only demand for ransom based on the economic undertone , they don't seize vessels, they only carry crews away from the vessels and demand for ransom. In the case of my brother, he died on board a fishing trawler which is a vessel and when you want to relate it with MLC, then you are wrong because we have the fishing convention of 2005 and it stands on its own , it is not part of the convention and there is still some other conventions that are not part of the MLC; the coming of 65 nations to form the MLC is quite different from the fishing convention of 2005 stands on its own , the SID is on its own , then above all piracy is piracy and I think Nigerian government is doing its best taking it into consideration that we have the largest coast line when you consider the creeks and lagoons connecting villages. It is not easy for any nation to monitor its territorial waters because we have more than 32 entrances from the creeks into the high sea that leads to villages inside out, hence it takes a lot of logistics and other platforms to do that due to the fact that you might have the manpower in place, but where are the logistics for monitoring? You find that NIMASA donating boats to the navy vis a vis the partnership is to bring logistics and as we speak today NIMASA is having about 15 patrol boats which the navy could not have in terms of policing our waters, thus we are going somewhere and we believe that at the end of the day, we will get there.
Would you say that the marriage between NIMASA and Navy has recorded any form of success in the war against piracy?
It has recorded success to some level, if you want to say the success is not measurable considering the number of personnel we have in this country, but I will say it has yielded result and again it also depends on one’s assessment.
What is the role of Abuja MOU in the MLC 2006?
Abuja MOU is a governmental association within West and Central Africa; from Mauritania to South Africa which is about 22 member countries in Africa and their major function is on board state inspectors, to coordinate port state inspectors in terms of accidental vessels, scrap vessels, and monitor activities and the welfare of the seafarers. They also coordinate the activities of the port state, state of the vessel, condition of the seafarers , to complement and supplement effort of MLC, collating data for member states, number of vessels registered in a year, number of accidents recorded in a year etc. It is not only in Africa that we have it, there is the Paris MOU for European states and others like that which cut from Asian region to Europe region and like that. The Indian Ocean has its MOU same goes to the Atlantic ocean which has the Abuja MOU and they also coordinate themselves globally as regard the MOU with other region to monitor accident and other maritime activities mostly with foreign vessels.
What is the relationship between the Abuja MOU and NIMASA in this regard?
NIMASA is the major financier of the Abuja MOU in Nigeria and like I said, and it is the government not individual and when we talk about the government it is the flag state of the maritime sector that represents the interest of the MOU. So financially, NIMASA contributes to the sustenance of Nigeria’s participation in the MOU which has it office in Abuja and members cut across Africa and 14 African nations have ratified fully to be member of the Abuja MOU. So if Nigeria can finance the Abuja MOU, then the regulatory agency involved; which is NIMASA must b have a relationship with Abuja MOU.
What is your perception of private maritime academies in Nigeria?
Much has not been done in that regard because Nigerians have come to realise the importance of education and parents are going the extra miles to see that their children are in school because they believe that the key to success in life is education and like I always say, it is only the maritime sector that can solve the unemployment problem of every maritime nation. In Nigeria, we have a very large coast line of maritime activities and if that sector can be quite managed, we won't have the problem of unemployment in the country today. However it’s a global institution that have challenges over professionalism and the solution is to have well equipped maritime institutions to bring out these graduates that we are talking about to address the challenges of the sector. So by the time you have quack institutions in the name of maritime institution that pretend to be a navy school, definitely it is sending a wrong signal to the world, the children and the parents, because such school will extort money from the parents and children, and at the end of the day they become nuisance. I think it is not acceptable in Nigeria and maybe because government said there is the need to expand our maritime institutions that is why you find quack schools everywhere. The establishment of maritime school in Okerenkoko in Delta state and that of Rivers State will go a long way to help the sector, but I must say that the quack maritime institutes are on the increase and I think there should be a marriage between NIMASA and National Board for Technical Education on accreditation of maritime schools because from my own point of view, NIMASA should liaise with the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE) to accredit technical institutions within the maritime institutions because NIMASA is the end user of the graduates from these specialised schools; they give recognition to them and if NBTE accredits any school for instance and NIMASA does not recognise such, then it becomes a waste. So to curb this unprofessional act , there should be a synergy between NIMASA and NBTE whereby before you apply to NBTE which might not have the detailed technical knowhow of what it takes to establish such schools, NIMASA has it. If there is a marriage between NIMASA and NBTE and NIMASA says don't give accreditation to this school because of some criteria, then it is a way out to reduce some of the quack institutes we are talking about. As it is now it is a direct challenge to the navy and even NIMASA because the navy sees that as threat; if five persons can organise training somewhere with military gears without the authorisation from the government then I will say it’s a big problem for the country. But ordinarily, NIMASA is involved in the standard of maritime education and as we speak such schools are in two groups namely; those that are accredited by NBTE which is not supposed to be because clearance is not from NIMASA , and those that are accredited by NIMASA without NBTE approval and that is how I look at it.
Most of the fishing companies are still lamenting the level of attacks by daredevil pirates on their trawler vessels, what is the best way out of this?
I have a basic knowledge in the fishing industry, strong one as a matter of fact, I know the history of fishing business in Nigeria since the 1980's, I have the opportunity to work in the fishing sector for a long time, before moving to the union and even before I became the union president I have been practising in the fishing sector. Yes the fishing trawlers are not getting it easy in the hands of the daredevil pirates and I think the time has come to take the ratio of the number of the fishing trawlers that are attacked and the number of cargo vessels that are attacked and that of the offshore vessels that are attacked by pirates and when we come back we should sit down and ask ourselves why this particular kind of vessels are attacked mostly or constantly. In Somalia the most attacked vessels are the super tanker and cargo vessels, they are mostly attacked by their pirates; and we know what they are looking for and in the Nigeria context, we have a lot of coastal vessels; offshore supply boats, coastal tankers etc. including fishing boats and to address this issue properly and direct it to the navy on what to do; I think it is time for us to take statistics of vessels that are under constant attack, then sit down on a round table and find out why this type of vessels are constantly attacked and what should be done to them, If we want to get it right and I know that the navy has given the fishing trawler captains special codes of communication in case of attack and such codes are not known to anybody except the captains and the naval personnel; the codes are also changed regularly which I believe it’s an avenue to track down these pirates. But above all , if we should be able to identify statistically the type of vessels attacked mostly then come back to sit in a tripartite form which will include the trawler owners, the government and every other person that is involved including the fishery department of the ministry to under study the vessels that are under attack thus after finding out the most attacked which I believe are the trawlers, then the navy can swing into action by identifying the major fishing areas, because they don't just catch fish on waters as they please because they have fishing grounds and after that the next process will be after identifying the grounds the navy will look for how to give them the necessary protection within that circle instead of staying many nautical miles away that is not comfortable enough for policing. Our Nigeria police don't just move about rather they move on information and this is the same point I am trying to make; you understand that if the trawlers are mostly attacked by pirates, then the need to send more troops to those grounds must be paramount, to identify the constantly attack and what actually do they want from their victims.
What are your observations about the five days training programme for inspectors organised by NIMASA and Matral Maritime Training Centre?
The training was a perfect one and I must tell you the truth because the ones run in Dubai, Pakistan were held for three days and we are licensed and accredited by ILO as train- the-trainers, nobody is expected to do it better than we that are accredited by ILO, tested and certified by them on train the trainers of marine inspectors. The five days training programme put together by Matral Maritime Training Center and NIMASA is to give room for proper delivery during the course of discharging their respective duties. So to me it’s a good one and we are right on course. Again the course we offered was in line with global maritime trends and it is close to original, if not original.
As regard Matral Maritime Training Centre , what can you make out of it?
Matral Maritime Training Centre has come to stay, same also NIMASA has come to stay because Matral Training Centre is made up of core professionals if the industry, so they know what is good for the industry and the centre programmes are not sub-standard because they go for the best anywhere they are for the purpose of delivering on the qualities of Nigerian seafarers comparable with any other seafarers from any part of the world. Therefore, the school has come to stay based on the calibre of professionals in place. The mode of their programme is standard and of international standard.
Critics have faulted the establishment of maritime schools in the Niger Delta region of the country saying that it is informed by tribal consideration, what is your take on that?
I find it very difficult to believe, but all the same I will say that before the establishment of the maritime institute in Buguma ,Rivers State or that of Okerenkoko by Escravos in Delta State, there was a maritime school situated in Badagry , Lagos state during the days of Olabode George and even the former DG of NIMASA; Ade Dosumu. Report also has it that over N500million was sank into that project and as a journalist I want you to find out why the school did not get a headway, but despite that the Director General of NIMASA has said that it will be revisited.
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