Engineer Emmanuel Ilori is the Vice President of the Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors (AMES) and also the chairman Ship Registry Committee established by NIMASA. In this interview with Anozie Egole, he spoke extensively on the committee’s report about the nation’s ship registry and many industry issues.
“We will be offering mentorship programmes so that some of these younger ones will gain from the experiences of very senior professionals”
“The volume of cadets being trained is not just right, they should be able to give them quality training”
As the Chairman of NIMASA’s Ship Registry Committee, what is the future of the nation in the area of ship registry?
What we have done is that we have looked at the aspect of ship registry as it affects the Nigerian maritime industry and Nigeria as a nation.
There are three critical areas that we have to look at- the business aspect of the Nigerian ship registry, the integrity of the ship registry and the global acceptability of the ship registry. From the business trade of the industry, the confidence of the financial sector to put their ships within the Nigerian ship registry. How easy is it for a ship owner to register vessels under the Nigerian ship registry; these are the challenges. So we have looked at it holistically, we have talked to the IOCs, those who utilize the vessels, the ship owners themselves, we have talked to the technical practitioners/professionals who helped to register the vessels. We have asked them what the challenges are with respect to the ship registry. We have also looked at the ship registry itself; the organization and the staffing, these are some of the things that we have had time to consider and to consider them holistically too.
There have been complaints by some ship owners of inaccessibility of spare parts for ship repairs. How has the dockyard owned by NIMASA has aided ship owners?
I think what we need to understand is that the dockyard was not initiated by the present administration. So, in terms of the through business case for that venture, we don’t fully know whether NIMASA should actually own a floating dock or not. So if they are going to give a floating dock to be operated by outsiders, that is for the floating dock to be outsourced they need to ensure that whoever it is outsourced to has the necessary technical capacity to run the shipyard. In that case you will not have the issue of spare parts. And again the issue of spare parts with vessels in Nigeria is an issue of inventive. If they have to bring in spare parts on Nigerian flagged ships, why should they pay additional tax, these are some of the reasons that make it difficult for Nigerian ship owners to actually repair their vessels promptly. In some other areas, the ship owners do not have to pay duty on spare parts meant for the repair of the ships. So these are some of the things that have been hampering the ship owners’ ability to maintain their ships. But I think it is part of the incentive that NIMASA should be able to give some support to ship owners.
Are there strategies on ground by NIMASA to put some of these rickety ships in good shape?
I can’t speak for NIMASA in that aspect; yes there are very old ships in Nigeria and there are very many reasons for having old ships within the Nigeria territorial waters. Some of them have to do with technical regulations, compliance on verifications. Sometimes it could be inability of the Nigeria ship owners to access funding; some could be traced to lack of jobs for indigenous ship owners. There are so many reasons you have old vessels on the Nigerian fleet and until we address some of these fundamental challenges, it will continue to be a mirage.
What are the strategies that your association has on ground to ensure the training of younger generation of professionals to be able to take up some of these jobs?
The training and development of maritime professionals are issues that we at AMES have been challenging for a very long time. But like it was said at the meeting by the MD of NIWA, the lack of senior professionals at policy decision and implementation level has been the bane of our challenges. Where we have cadets being trained without the qualification and then acquiring sea time, it is just very sad and when you train thousands of cadets without plans on how you can get them practical experiences we are just setting ourselves up for failure. The volume of cadets being trained is not just right, they should be able to give them quality training. So the strategy should be to trim down the number of cadets so that it will then be that the number we are training we should be able to adequately provide for their career development. Two, we talked about the age of the existing senior professionals, that is correct because there is a gap between them and the younger ones. And that goes back to the issue of national policy; we didn’t see the importance of this cadre of professionals to the development of the Nigerian economy. As a maritime nation when you don’t have competent maritime professionals to operate and to manage that area then we are setting ourselves up for failure. So from our end, we will continue to work with the statutory agencies to ensure that we have policies in place that will see us through the time. We will be offering mentorship programmes so that some of these younger ones will gain from the experiences of very senior professionals.
What do you think is the cause of the high rate of unemployment among seafarers?
I just told you the fact that there are no ships for them to go into, there is nothing anybody can do until we address that. I also said something about too many number of cadets with no vessels to train them. We are also having ship-owners that do not have jobs and you can’t keep these cadets in ships that do not have jobs; how will they be provided for. So until we get the Nigerian maritime sector moving again professionally and competently, then these problems will continue to be with us.
How do you think cases of piracy can be addressed on Nigerian waters?
There are no piracy attacks on the Nigerian waters; Nigeria is not responsible for the Gulf of Guinea, that piracy is on international water, so it is an international challenge that needs to be addressed by the international community. Within Nigerian waters if there are issues of sea robbery, armed attack then that is an issue that the Nigerian government has the statutory responsibility to address. Just like people robbing a motorist on the road; that is a challenge for us to address. If there is issue there, Nigeria will address that but in terms of piracy there is no piracy on Nigeria waters.
The Nigerian Navy said recently that there are about 33 hot spots on the nation’s territorial waters that require high level of professionals to protect, but they have only nine personnel, what is your take on that?
Well, that the Navy has said that, is work in progress for the fact that we have identified those hot points, then it is a case of seeking resources to be able to monitor such places. The first issue is to identify these areas, and now that we have done that hopefully we will be able to get the resources that will help you eliminate these challenges.
Talking about the IMO, where are we now and what are the strategies to get the nation back into Category ‘C’?
I think the government is making efforts to ensure we get into the Category ‘C’, I cannot divulge what the government is doing because some of them are confidential. But I believe the government is doing all that is necessary to help us get to Category ‘C’, whether Nigeria is at the level of development that we should be in category ‘C’ is a different thing but as a nation, we have every reason to be within the IMO council giving the peculiarity of the area, giving the large area and the cargo traffic. We have reason to be part of the IMO of course if there are issues within the maritime environment that is going to affect us as a nation we will protect it so we have reasons to be there. And I am sure the government will ensure we get there, so that we can influence decisions that take place there.
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