Nigerian's natural endowment in inland water transport system is more than10,000km of navigable waterways. This water wealth comprises of rivers, creeks, lagoons and lakes, and intra-coastal waters. The main rivers are Rivers Niger and Benue. Both rivers form a confluence at Lokoja, in Kogi State.
Nigerian's natural endowment in inland water transport system is more than10,000km of navigable waterways. This water wealth comprises of rivers, creeks, lagoons and lakes, and intra-coastal waters. The main rivers are Rivers Niger and Benue. Both rivers form a confluence at Lokoja, in Kogi State.
Available facts indicate that River Niger is the longest river in West Africa and eleventh longest river in the world. The river and its main tributary (which is River Benue), the delta creeks as well as the lagoons bordering the coast form the principal navigable waterways in Nigeria.
It is instructive that these principal navigable waterways are the major transportation routes linking Apapa, Tin Can, Warri, Port Harcourt, Onne and Calabar seaports. Through the lagoon and delta creeks a transport route is established between the hinterland and urban centres of Nigeria on River Niger. This goes as far as Niamey in the Republic of Niger and Garua in Cameroon on River Benue.
Even though the longest are the Niger River and its tributary, the Benue River, the most used waterways ; especially by larger powered boats and for commerce, are in the Niger Delta and all along the coast from Lagos Lagoon to Cross River.
To oversee these and activities pertaining to them, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) was established by Decree No. 13 of 1997 with a clear mandate to manage Nigeria's vast inland waterway resources.
The Decree vests in NIWA the power of exclusive management, direction and control on the Nigerian inland waterways. This power is exercised on Nigeria’s 3000km navigable waterways from the Nigeria/Niger and Nigeria/Cameroon borders to the Atlantic Ocean.
Nigeria is blessed with a river configuration very suitable for North-South movement of people and goods. It is therefore the responsibility of NIWA to ensure that there is safe navigation.
But it can not be said that navigating through the thousands of Nigeria’s inland water channel is safe.
To the surprise of all, users of waterways transportation face the uncertainty of safe arrival every day. This is the most glaring demonstration of the failure of NIWA to deliver on its mandate.
The latest confirmation of the fact that our waterways are not safe is the accident on the River Niger penultimate week in which more than 40 passengers died.
And while the nation was still mourning the River Niger tragedy, another occurred last Tuesday in Lagos, leading to the death of at least eight persons.
The deceased were passengers of a commercial boat, which was said to be heading towards Apapa Lagoon from Sagboki Village when the boat ran into turbulence along the way. This made the boat driver to lose control as it capsized.
It was gathered that the 19-passenger boat had barely cast off from ashore when it developed a mechanical fault and started jerking before the turbulence overturned it.
On the Niger River tragedy, the Public Relations Officer of Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Malam Ibrahim Hussaini was quoted as saying that the 42 were passengers who died were on board the ill-fated. They drowned, while 100 others have been declared missing!
Underscoring the state of maintenance of the River Niger for navigation and failure of appropriate authority to ensure that safety measures were adhered to, the spokesman added a clincher: “We believe that the boat was overloaded because the boat’s capacity was put at 60 passengers, but over 150 passengers were said to be on board during the incident.“The debris in the swollen river may also have been responsible for the incident”.
Without necessarily sounding judgmental, what this probably implies is that NIWA has failed in its statutory duties of safeguarding the nation’s inland water channels, including the River Niger which runs through almost nine states.
While we may not blaming NIWA entirely for the Lagos tragedy, it may be difficult to exonerate it from the River Niger accident.
One of the contentious issues about inland water transportation in Nigeria is ownership of right of way. This is more so because it appears that water transportation is on the concurrent list.
Both Federal and State governments lay claim to licensing of operators and right of way. To underscore this, for instance while there are ferries and boats owned by NIWA in states, there are also state-owned water transport companies in many states.
We think this is a big challenge for NIWA, which has had to carry the blame for all mishaps on Nigerian waterways.
The agency has had to cope with disruption of operations of river transport, oil and gas service companies by restive youths in the Niger Delta, piracy and kidnapping, water hyacinth infestation, blocked water transport routes and unsafe waterways. Another major challenges of NIWA are maintenance dredging of River Niger and the need to put the Onitsha River port to use, while waiting for others like Baro, Oguta, etc.
Discussion about this post