Godfrey Bivbiere (Maritime journalist)
Boards are necessary and relevant, because, the intention is to help give direction to the agency’s management. But, the recently constituted boards of agencies in the maritime sector can not be seen in the same light as it is obvious that those appointed do not have what it takes to provide the needed direction.
Apart from the fact that they do not have knowledge of the sector, their appointment is politically motivated. That political consideration which resulted in their appointment is not the only problem, but one should look at the past pedigree of some of them in terms of the position that they have held before.
There was a story of one board member who came with her colleagues to visit one of the parastatal. A senior staff of the parastatal said that the board member do not understand a word of English Language and therefore just sat there watching proceedings.
After sitting for a while, the board member screamed out in her mother tongue, “please just bring the money and let me go. You people are wasting my time”!.
Capt Ibrahim Sule (Master Mariner)
There is nothing to say about the newly constituted board because there is an act guiding the government agencies on the issue of board members and criteria for nominating them for as long as the act still functions. There must be boards in every government parastatals.
Ademola Irinyemi (Registrar. IFFN)
The government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria thought it necessary to duplicate functions in the different boards of the various government parastatals, through the formation of the said boards.
Basically, government’s objective for setting up those boards is to bring about checks and balances in the various government parastatals. This to some extent has paid off and enhanced development in some organizations under the federal ministry of transport previously.
On the contrary, from the antecedents of past administrations, some of the nation’s funds were miss managed by some of the boards and that to some extent punctured our trust and confidence in the formation of the boards.
However, we hope that, given the pedigree of the present crop of personalities in the newly constituted board; we hope to see visible and positive impact in the organizations they represent. Transparency, accountability and integrity should be upheld by those involved.
Friday Maxwell (Civil Servant)
They are very relevant because with such board, it will give the parastatals direction on the action plan and about what is achievable within the stipulated time frame of government in power.
It is a necessity for the government to achieve the aims and objectives of parastatals through the boards.
It depends on the particular board you are referring to or you are willing to know about. There are boards that are necessary and there are boards that are not based on how different sectors perform.
All those boards in the maritime sector are very essential, taking NIMASA as an example, it was formerly NMA that metamorphosed into NIMASA, I think the functions covered by NMA were not adequate enough to combine all other necessary areas, NMA is a shipping regulatory body, but something essential like security was not included until when it became NIMASA, and now encompasses all the functions that it needs as a regulatory agency.
Chief Francis Okocha (Stakeholder)
I think it’s more political than professional, looking at the men and women that constitute the boards; it has nothing to do with knowledge of the industry. That has been the problem in Nigeria; they should put people that are professionally- minded in that agencies so that they will be able to do things right and in the best way.
I don’t see them bringing anything new at all. Look at Chief Tony Anenih who concluded that importers are dishonest, that statement is wrong, he should come see things for himself, after all he was a minister before and he did not perform. All the money he had squandered had gone like that and nobody is saying anything about it. He could be in PDP secretariat or in Police Service Commission where he retired from.
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