Retired Navy Captain Abel Ogah is currently a training expert for the Nigerian Navy, Western Naval Command. He is also currently the Director of the Merchant Navy Directorate in Lagos.
In this interview with our Correspondent, Oluyinka Onigbinde he speaks on issues of insecurity on Nigerian waters, the recent IMO category C election and other sundry issues.
“What is our capacity if we are to be in the seat of IMO, what would be our contribution?”
What is your reaction to Nigeria losing the IMO category C seat again?
I think your house cannot be on fire and then you are going for picnic, there are lots of issues in the country that we have not tidied up at home talk less of getting help outside. I think the failure of Nigeria to get a seat in the IMO can be attributed to the policy on border closure whereby many neighboring countries are not happy with us, it's not that the closure itself is bad, but the process and the timing triggered a lot of ill feelings among these countries because they feel the closure of the border has a direct effect on their economy apart from the social media expression; definitely they have a way of showing their ill feelings and I think the IMO issue created a way for them to demonstrate their grievances, so I believe that it contributed to Nigeria loosing at the IMO. Apart from that, we must build a solid foundation at home, we have a tattered maritime industry, there are some parameters of a maritime nation's that we don't have yet, we don't even have a National shipping line. What is o
ur strength as a maritime nation; we don't have articulated maritime training school, we still send students to Egypt and other countries, what is our capacity if we are to be in the seat of IMO, what would be our contribution? Is it as giant of Africa, or by population or what would be our role? I believe that Nigeria as a nation we need to organize ourselves and have some of these parameters in place, we would have been in better position to harbor some of these smaller countries for training, for job placement and some other maritime activity.
Apart from these facts you pointed out, I spoke with Engr. Greg Ogbeifun he said he doesn't see any reason why Nigeria and Kenya should contest in the first place, that looking at it Nigeria is far ahead of Kenya and he pointed out that Nigeria shouldn't contest again at the IMO, do you agree with him?
Why not, you see I always use one funny example; when a dog bites human being it's no news, but when human being bites a dog it becomes news. I think I agree with his analogy because competing with someone that is far below you is just like saying a father sagging with his son, let there be difference between a father and a son and until you position yourself as a father, the son will continue to ask you – are you really my father? we claim we are giant of Africa, what do we show for this name we have given ourselves, is it just by population or by number or our capacity? So Kenya competing with Nigeria in the first place should not be. In terms of geographical location Nigeria is more strategic in Africa as a maritime nation, we are between the north and the south; we are strategically positioned; it means we are at the conference but we've not taken advantage of that position, they draw other people to tap from our position.
The House of Reps said they want to probe the $195millon security contract awarded to an Israeli firm, HLSI Security Systems and Technologies to secure Nigeria’s waters by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), what’s your reaction to this probe sir?
In the first place, how do they come about the contract, is it that we have failed as a nation and we are asking other people to do our job for us, or we don't have the capacity to do what they have brought people from outside to come and do, rather than committing that amount of money, why can’t we look at what are the deficiency in our maritime security sector that we can use that money to build in order to do the same thing that people are coming from outside to do, in fact is Israel a maritime nation? if it is; what is the strength of their maritime security? I know Israel is a very intelligent nation when it comes to I.T, but intelligent network is different from maritime segment, so is it their personnel that will do the job or Nigerians will do the job for them to supervise.
But sir, we don’t have the gadget?
So is it the gadget that is contracted or the people, so I feel the contract in the first place was wrongly awarded and there was no adequate consultation with relevant organizations that are stakeholders in the maritime sector. The people that awarded this contract came here calling for the assistance of the state security, so if they have the capacity they, don't need the assistance; so definitely they can't achieve anything without the involvement of the maritime security agencies in this country, so why don't we harness the collaboration with synergy before talking about bringing people outside, the money involved is so much that it can beef-up our own security platform to provide the same security.
So you are in support of the probe
Definitely, I wish the House had involved me, so that I can speak about the contract.
NPA and OMSL have been having a kind of lingering crisis over payment for Secured Anchorage Area, what’s your take on this?
Who gave the contract again is another issue, what are they securing; what are they providing in the first place since they have been there, we are still having attacks on vessels, what is the level of security they are providing and they are collecting so much money. Why we are having this security issues is that the people who are supposed to be there are not there, you know security is all about presence, it's not about just network you know if you get a house and you put a lame man at the gate it's more secured than putting burglary proof there because the impression the illegal person will have is that this man can shout, so presence is what provide maritime security, it's not about just money or gadgets, gadgets are mounted by people.
Sir you are doing a very good job here by building man power, but what’s your assessment of the Federal Government in terms of support in developing man power especially in the maritime industry?
I think we have not developed that policy yet, because before you can develop somebody you must have the capacity as an individual, what you do not have you can't give, we are having illiterates managing sensitive places, we are having people who are not professionals handling professional responsibilities, so you cannot develop somebody on what you don't know until we begin to have the right people handling right places, who know the requirements, what it takes to be there then we can now talk about policies. In this country what we do is politics and not government, government is different from politics, politics is taking position in governments, when you take position you should take away politics in policy making, forget about politics, sentiments, forget about being bias. For example, if you are campaigning for president at that level you are practicing politics; the moment you take that position forget about politics because everybody becomes your subjects; same thing goes for governors.
What's your view of the maritime industry in the last one year?
The maritime industry has to start with collaboration, let the stakeholders know they have a stake, somebody cannot be in Abuja and keep formulating policies for people in maritime and people who are involved directly don't even know where the policy comes from, just like when the security contract was awarded how many people know that there was contract how many maritime stakeholders discussed it? I am sure the thing was spearheaded by one or two individuals who have so much to benefit from it, so we already have a fundamental problem in the maritime sector and two, there is no demarcation; everybody is doing everybody’s job and this will always cause competition, rivalry and so on. NIMASA which is supposed to be the administrator wants to be the one in charge of security, the police want to be the one in charge, even the marine police that are not even in existence yet are claiming to be part of maritime security, so everybody is looking for what will benefit them; the focus should be about the totality of the interest of everybody.
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