The Nigerian Indigenous Ship-owners Association (NISA) has described the sacking of Dr. Dakuku Peterside as the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) by the President Muhammadu Buhari as very much in order, stating that the replacement is long overdue.
Speaking exclusively to Shipping Position Daily yesterday, Capt. Taiwo Akinpelumi, who is a member of the three-man committee tasked with reviving the Nigerian Indigenous Ship-owners Association (NISA) and Chief Executive Officer, Oceanic Energy Limited said the sack of Dakuku Peterside was very much in order, “even long overdue”.
He said the Dakuku leadership style was fraught with under-performance, sectionalism one sidedness, alleging that the embattled DG was filtering away resources on frivolities such as, payment for endless seminars, meetings, summits and humongous amount to hire musicians and people in the entertainment industry. He added that it will be correct to tag him a “Nollywood DG”.
He listed other alleged atrocities of Dakuku to include, the floating dock whereby he alleged that an equipment that was procured with a whopping N50 billion is presently lying idle at a jetty in Lagos and incurring US$30,000 daily.
According to him, so much money was wasted on the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme with no success story, no sea berth for cadets sent for studies abroad at outrageous cost.
Akinpelumi further alleged that, under the leadership of the Dakuku, money was paid to some maritime institutions for the training of 1000 cadets, eventually, no cadet was trained and the maritime training institutions in Romania refused to refund money paid to them by the agency.
He further said “Dakuku did not make any clear or concerted effort towards the development of local capacity”; he said “it was all motion and no moment”. Adding that his incompetence didn’t allow him to have full appreciation of what is required to build capacity for the indigenous shipping.
“There was a particular incident when money was paid to a maritime institution for the training of 1000 cadets, eventually, no cadet was trained and the maritime training institution in Romania refused to refund money paid to the agency, that’s according to the Agency’s account and the claim that the agency has trained 7,000 cadets is propaganda. Dakuku did not make any clear or concerted effort towards the development of local capacity, it was all motion and no moment. His incompetence didn’t allow him to have full appreciation of what is required to build capacity for the indigenous shipping”
“The agency under Dakuku’s leadership lacks flag state responsibility. This was one of the major reasons Nigeria lost the ‘Category C’ election in IMO. And there is lack of clear cut blue print on maritime security. NIMASA, under him embraced joint maritime initiative that creates functions overlap, against developing an initiative that NIMASA can claim ownership with full control and make request for backup from other security agencies should the need arises”, he said.
He affirmed that the appointment Dr Bashir Jamoh was in order, having been in the industry for so long, coupled with the requisite credentials.
“In all sincerity, I consider the appointment of Bashir Jamoh to be in order. Apart from having been in the system for so long, he has some requisite credentials that qualify him to occupy the position. Such as but not limited to; his years of experience in the maritime industry, his academic qualifications, his author of some books and papers on some maritime related issues, and most importantly, willingness to come onboard to implement stakeholders’ agenda in the industry. I believe his tenure will be for the stakeholders”, he stressed.
And you can’t agree less with me that a robust engagement of stakeholders will be one of the major catalysts to the growth and development of a veritable maritime industry”, he posited.
“The sack of Dakuku Peterside was very much in order, even long overdue as a matter of fact. His leadership was fraught with under performance, sectionalism or one sidedness, filtering away resources on frivolities such as payment on endless seminars, meeting, summits and humongous amount to hire musicians and people in the entertainment industry. It will be correct to tag him “Nollywood DG”.
Discussion about this post