WHY WE CAN’T BITE – NIMASA DG

•    Moves To Expunge Waiver Clause From Cabotage Act
•    Lawmakers Say, They Aren’t Aware, Its Impossible

It was lamentation galore for the apex maritime regulatory agency in Nigeria; the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) last week as it cried out over its inability to effectively prosecute its maritime safety and security mandate.
The agency’s director general, Mr Ziakede Akpobolokemi who was represented at a programme that was put together by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Lagos last week admitted that the agency is not well equipped to prosecute offenders, saying it is one of the challenges facing it.
According to the director-general who was represented by NIMASA’s Legal Adviser, Mr Matthew Egbadon, “the challenge posed by the inadequate enforcement capacity of the agency in the performance of its duties is enormous”, even as he lamented that the NIMASA Act was silent on the powers of the agency to prosecute offenders whenever there was any violation of its provisions.
Akpobolokemi said that implementation of the Cabotage Act, which falls under the purview of NIMASA, only made copious provisions for the detention of any vessel found to have breached any of the provisions.
To make up for the shortcoming and limitations in enforcing its mandate, especially when there was an infraction of the provisions of the Act, he said that NIMASA had to rely on the Nigerian Navy through the instrumentality of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which led to the creation of the Maritime Guard Command; a unit made up of naval personnel domiciled within the NIMASA.
Also admitting its inability to effectively secure the nation’s waters, the NIMASA boss said that the agency had also entered into a Public-Private Partnership arrangement with a private service provider to provide vessels for effective policing of Nigeria’s waters.
However, to ensure that it has the capacity to ‘bite’, the agency said that it is working to expunge the controversial waiver clause from the Cabotage Act.
Delivering a paper on: “Issues in Enforcement of NIMASA Act-the Legal Perspectives” at the MARAN event, the director general declared that indigenous operators lacked the required capacity to take advantage of the waiver clause.
But in a swift reaction, a member of the House of Representatives committee on marine transport told Shipping Position Daily that the committee is unaware of any move by NIMASA to remove the waiver clause.
The member, who pleaded anonymity, said categorically that it is not possible to expunge the all-important clause. It is not possible, there is capacity to meet the challenge of waiver, where are the ships and the personnel.
“We held a public hearing recently, and they didn’t raise that issue, so where is that coming from now”, the lawmaker asked.