The Acting Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Mr. Haruna Baba Jauro last week had a chat with press men in Lagos to address issues of safety and security on Nigerian waterways, especially in the light of the marine accident which occurred three weeks ago leading to collision of two vessels; MT Tank and MT Elixir. Dapo Olawuni was there for Shipping Position Daily and he brought the excerpts.
The Acting Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Mr. Haruna Baba Jauro last week had a chat with press men in Lagos to address issues of safety and security on Nigerian waterways, especially in the light of the marine accident which occurred three weeks ago leading to collision of two vessels; MT Tank and MT Elixir. Dapo Olawuni was there for Shipping Position Daily and he brought the excerpts.
"The people that caused the accident are supposed to know what to do to the survivors, for us as an agency what we did was to transport the survivors to Lagos"
Why did it take NIMASA three days to respond to the accident?
The incident happened on Monday, and at midnight leading to Tuesday we sent a message to the Captain in charge of the Central Zone in Warri, we received a distress alert from the maritime search and rescue coordinating centre that he should quickly arrange a vessel to go to the scene to conduct search and rescue as well as preliminary investigations, and immediately, he contacted Global West, one of the vessels; NIMASA Dumebi was what was used to go to the scene of the accident. Unfortunately NIMASA cannot be at the scene of every accident at sea, we can only respond after the accident has taken place. We had an MoU with Shell that owns the Bonga field, and there is an arrangement that when there is distress at sea, the nearest vessel to the scene of the accident should respond immediately. As a matter of fact, it is an offense if a vessel that is within the vicinity fails to respond, so, while NIMASA was going to the scene, of the vessels within the Bonga field had responded and picked survivors, apart from this, one of the vessels involved in the accident; MT Elixir had also deployed their rescue boat to pick up survivors, so by the time NIMASA vessel got to the scene, they had picked up three survivors, all we did was convey the survivors for proper medical attention. So we did not lie by saying that we brought out some persons, but we brought them out for medical attention.
Before now, we have this impression that NIMASA had a surveillance system that can pick anything on the waters?
It is true that NIMASA has a Satellite Surveillance System working24 hours, but don't forget that these two vessels were on innocent passage, they were passing before the incident happened, it was not as if they were stationary, the MT Elixir was going to another country and it was not from Nigeria, the Satellite Surveillance System is there and working very well, this was what we used to get the actual coordinates of where the accident took place before we deployed our search and rescue vessels to the scene. The surveillance system is not designed to prevent accidents, it is only used to focus and give locations, you cannot blame the system because the accident happened and the statement that it took NIMASA three days to get to the scene of the accident is not true.
What plans do you have for the family of the three survivors on MT Tank and the dead crew members?
In the issue of compensation, the people that caused the accident are supposed to know what to do to the survivors, for us as an agency what we did was to transport the survivors to Lagos, we have also taken care of their hospital bills, this is to show our magnanimity, but as regards compensation and other things, the onus lies with the causes of the accident. After the investigations and after agreeing we will talk about compensation for the survivors.
It is true that we have the MLC 2006 and we are trying to see that it is implemented in Nigeria, any vessel that comes to our shores, we board it and make sure those conditions are in place.
As an agency, we are supposed to investigate and give a report, so far, we have given a preliminary report to the ministry, to the office of the Minister, as for the injured crew, we have so far arranged to ensure that the expenses are catered for by NIMASA, we are trying also to ensure that the owners of the two vessels involved can come to an agreement among themselves, what we have done is create an environment for this, and that is why if not for NIMASA, the other vessel could have gone and you will have to go to Greece to look for it. But because we wanted to create an enabling environment and ensure that investigation is carried out properly, we asked them to stay and talk and good enough they are talking. When we finish our report, they finish their talks and settled.
How are you enforcing the MLC to the advantage of Nigerian crew?
We can only enforce MLC in Nigeria, the vessel MT Tank came to our ports, and our surveyors boarded the vessel and found out that it was very poor in terms of safety, we detained the vessel and we made sure that they rectified every deficiency in respect to safety; we refused to release the vessel until deficiencies were vacated. If the vessels were in port, NIMASA could have done the needful. We implement MLC when the vessels come to Nigeria, we cannot go outside Nigeria to enforce MLC, we have been enforcing it all the time, some vessels come in here owing their crew for four months and we detained the ship until the salaries were paid.
How prepared are you to prevent future accidents?
Sometimes, accidents happen beyond human knowledge, but technology is on ground and we know that something can be done towards that. We need to understand that whenever there is a maritime accident, especially, it is usually as a result of failure and human error on both sides, because if the other ship is not doing what they are supposed to be doing, you are not supposed to go and ram into the ship, both parties involved have to sit down and talk. What NIMASA would have to ensure is that the officers that work on-board were properly certificated, don't forget that these are not Nigerian ships, so there is a limit to our involvement on a foreign vessel, but I believe the flag that is involved would also ask questions. The function of NIMASA is to investigate thoroughly, learn the lessons and communicate the lessons learnt, it is only the law enforcement agencies that have the power of prosecution, and if the Minister deems it necessary, he could call for a marine board that will now sit down and try to apportion blames to whoever is responsible, but NIMASA's responsibility with regards to accident investigation at sea is only guarded by the IMO Marine Casualty Investigation Code, and what the IMO says is that basically it is for lessons learnt for all to avoid it next time, the minister still has the prerogative to conduct a marine board in case the two parties did not settle.
Is NIMASA conducting the investigations alone or you are carrying other agencies along?
It is not possible for NIMASA to carry out and conclude all the inquiry on its own, it is not NIMASA's job to inquire and conclude, our own is to investigate and write a report.
What percentage have we complied with the ISPS Code?
We have gone about 80% per cent, it used to be around 8% per cent three years back, but now we are on 80%, we are moving forward, our intention is to see that we reached 100%, God helping us as we continue to grow we are going to be able to improve on it. We are carrying out regular verification inspection exercises, in fact we pay so much attention to the ISPS Code that we have an entire unit dedicated to the ISPS Code, not just on ships but also at the ports. We are working in collaboration with the NPA and the Terminal Operators to ensure that we achieve 100% compliance rate in all the ports in Nigeria. NIMASA is the first country in Africa to subject ourselves to an IMO safety membership audit, we want them to help us get better, the auditors will help us to look at all the gaps and what we need to fill it up, NIMASA is also undergoing ISO 9001 under the maritime safety department; all of these is to help us get better. In Nigeria today, very few agencies are going through an ISO audit, we want to get better, and no nation in the world has all they need to effectively carryout search and rescue.
In all of these, where is the NIMASA helicopter and don't you have divers?
The helicopter is with the Navy, it cannot fly now, we have to liaise with the NCAA to re-register it, hopefully by next year it would fly. In respect to the issue of divers, we have an MoU with the Navy and an attachment in NIMASA called the Maritime Guard Command, we have two Navy divers that we can call up for assistance as the need may be, however where this incident happened is 1,500 metres deep, this is about 1.5kilometers deep, we have also asked the owners of the MT Elixir to assist with the underwater inspection, we have divers, but we don't have divers for that depth of water, if it is within our territorial waters, of course we have, but at 1,500 metres deep, NIMASA does not have divers. There is no nation on earth that can provide all their search and rescue requirements, and that is why we go into MoU with other bodies and stakeholders that can assist.
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