Mr Bola Oyebamiji, the Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) spoke recently alongside some of his General Managers during a parley with maritime journalists in Lagos. Shipping Position Daily was there. Here are some of the issues that came up and the responses of the NIWA boss to them.
What is NIWA doing to solve the issue of incessant boat mishaps across the country?
NIWA has a lot we have embarked on, to at least reduce, if not completely eradicate boat mishaps. One of such is the appointment and training of Water Marshals. We have the safety/search and rescue team, and we have training centers. We have six in the regions now. The one in Lagos is training the captains in the West. Recently, about three or four days ago, we just finished training 50 captains. We had 20 from LAGFERRY and some from Texas Company and so on and so forth. So, we believe by training the captains, we will be able to tell them the do’s and don’ts in inland waterways. We have been laying on buoys which the subway department has airmarked for this coming year. We want to lay navigational buoys all over the inland waterways, so that captains will know where to ply and where not to ply. We have river marshals at night now. Before now, we did close by 6 o’clock and when we closed, the marshals close too. I have instructed all Area Managers to employ more river marshals to cover the night patrols. So, we are going to start that immediately. So, with all this, we believe boat mishaps should be reduced drastically. We are going to be having sensitization programmes every quarter now; which I have approved.
In addition to that, the campaign has to continue and the enforcement of that transportation code will be strict. There are a lot of things that happen on the water and unfortunately, capacity issue is something that is obstructing us. We were in Spain and what we saw was really amazing. In the developed world, they don’t deploy human beings to monitor boats for compliance. They have technology. Whatever happens in their waterway are being monitored. And when they have issues, there will be an alarm from the control room. And immediately, you see the rescue mission and arrest of the boat operators and the driver. Most of the time, they arrest the boats too. So, we are talking to the Spanish government and we had a useful meeting with the IMO. The minister of Marine, Blue and Brown economy in Spain is working seriously with our minister here to assist in deploying that technology infrastructure to the inland waterways. Notwithstanding, that I don’t envisage in a short run. The short run is the enforcement of our transportation code. If we are able to do that effectively and efficiently, we are going to reduce the havoc on our waterways. The problem is human error. Most of these problems are not mechanical. The weather condition is something that we have a gauge to measure the tide and we advise them on when and when not to travel on the waterways. These mishaps are mostly seasonal. It happens majorly during the rainy season. As much as we prepare for this, you should discover that these boat drivers adhere to the rules. I refused to call them captains, because I didn’t see the captain-ship character, behavior and conduct in them. And I think until we treat them as such, we won’t get a better result.
One of the recent mishaps happened in the North. I want to know the level of education and relationship NIWA has with them to ensure that in terms of safety, we all speak the same language.
We have a very good relationship with our stakeholders, especially the community leaders. After the launching of the Transportation Code, we spoke to them and informed them about the law and the importance of enforcing the law. We went as far as meeting all traditional rulers particularly in all the states where we have our area offices. After that, we called a meeting of the boat operators and decided to appoint water marshals. The water marshals were trained to enforce the laws. It was because we know that the transportation code without enforcement would lead us to nothing. That was the time when we first took the opportunity of talking to them one-by-one, before we deployed the water marshals to go and enforce the transportation code. So that is what we did.
We all know the challenges faced on the waterways. What is NIWA doing to seek collaboration from the state governments?
Just like I said in my address, it is beyond talking to the community leaders and religious leaders. My experience in Gbajigbo made me call the honorable commissioners of transportation of all the states. Gbajigbo is not a village. It is a big town with a very big market as big as Balogun market in Lagos. I was surprised when I got to Gbajigbo and I discovered that it was a huge market. And the only mode of transportation that these people use in this environment is water for their products, animals, materials and even for themselves. We discovered that both NIWA and the States governments need to collaborate to ensure the people in that environment feel the impact of the government. We need to collaborate with the state governments. We escalated this to the ministry and the minister gave us an approval. So we wrote letters to the Governors of all the states, especially the riverine states. We have about 28 of them, but we have 23 of them that have navigable waters. Within two weeks, we fixed the date and I’m proud to tell you that 23 out of the 24 commissioners of transportation in Nigeria attended the meeting yesterday. It was quite impressive and the contributions of the commissioners were quite insightful. People really spoke out and we saw the unity in our responsibilities. Most of them were not aware of the responsibility of the states and they promise that they are going to be responsible, especially to some of these jetties. There are a lot of unregistered loaded and unloaded jetties which are actually unknown to NIWA, because they are the interiors. Most of them are even within areas that if you are a member of that environment, it will be difficult for you to even access that place. So we had a meeting, and I promised them that it’s not going to be the usual communiqué that we just blow grammar and nothing will come out of it. We are going to forward it to the minister and I’m sure the minister will definitely escalate it to the Presidency for immediate action. We are in touch with them and we will continue to do this. So we really need to talk to these people and enforce that code; that enforcement is non-negotiable. If we can achieve that and we do it continuously, I don’t see why we would have mishaps on our waterways.
I am aware you had some fiber boats that were prepared for Niger state operations, to alleviate boat mishaps in that region. Can you give us an update on that?
Yes, when we got to Gbajigbo in Niger state, we promised them that we are going to give them fiber boats. When we got back home, we sat down, synergized and sent proposals to about three different boat builders. The transportation to Gbajigbo would have been very easy for us if the water from Lokoja to Gbajigbo is navigable. But it is not, because there are three dams on these waterways. And this will obstruct our willingness to take those boats on our waterways. So we decided to take those boats to Gbajigbo via road. Fortunately, we sent some of our engineers and some consultants to do that for us and they just came back yesterday. Those boats cannot even work in Gbajigbo because the water there is too shallow. So we sat down again just yesterday with some Master Mariners and other boat builders to decide on a typical boat that can be domesticated in that environment. So we are not going back on that. We are going to deploy more boats, not to Gbajigbo alone, we are going to prevail on the federal government through NIWA to phase-out these wooden boats, especially the commercial ones. But it’s not going to be immediate. It’s not going to be something that is short term. It’s going to be a short-, medium- and long-term project.
A boat manager was arrested for flouting the rules on the waterways which led to the recent boat mishap in Lagos. What is the update on the case, has he been released?
Yes, we did not arrest the captain. We arrested the manager of the company and he is still in our custody. So, once they are able to produce the captain that is when we can leave him. But the case has been transferred to the court because we cannot hold him for more than 48 hours in our custody.
Some years back, NIWA acquired some machines for harvesting water hyacinth. But for a while, we’ve not heard of those machines. What is happening to them?
Indeed, we purchased some harvesters about 12 years ago, but most of those harvesters are no longer in use. But we have a few on ground. We have one in Baga, another one at Jabi Lake in Abuja and I think we have one or two here in Lagos. These are the ones that are now functioning and are being used. But the fact is that the level of infestation is very high and we need more. Mostly, we use both manual and mechanical to do the harvesting of water hyacinth and it has been very effective. But I want to say that we need to do more. In my school of thought, maybe because of my background. For me, I would not encourage the purchase of harvesters. There is one thing that is certain. Government has no business in business. There is no reason why I should purchase a harvester when I can actually contract that harvesting to a consultant or someone that has that core competence to do it, which is more cost effective and cost efficient than to deploy huge money that can be used for other things to manage the economy than buying a harvester that, in the next two or three years, we will just discover that those harvesters will not be harvesters again. Experience has shown that there is no reason for you to acquire equipment as an authority unless it is an equipment that is usable and serviceable every day. If it is not a core equipment, there is no reason for us to have it at all.
We have not seen a report by NIWA on the number of offenders that have been arrested for violation of rules. I want a further explanation of what NIWA is doing under your stewardship to enhance this critical component.
When we came on board, there was this work on the transportation code for the past nine years. And without this transportation code, there is no way you can enforce it. That’s why all these GMs that sat here worked together to make sure that this transportation code were worked on, to get results. We were at the Attorney-General’s office to make sure that we speed it up. There was an aspect that needed to be discussed with the National Assembly and we took it up. And I can tell you that that was the result of what we were doing. If we don’t have that transportation code, there is nothing that can convey that authority to NIWA to take a perfect charge and control over waterways. So now that we have this, it’s not difficult for us to take the next step and the step is to enforce and to enforce. So that is that. There is no disconnection at all.
I would like you to speak to the charting of our inland waters. I am aware that once upon a time, NIWA had partnered with the Nigerian Navy Hydrography Department to produce our own charts. I would like to know what the state of that issue is. Is the collaborative effort still on?
I remember that it came up in one of our meetings. And that collaboration and cooperation was actually commended by the Navy. The Navy said at the forum, that they didn’t know initially that NIWA has that human capacity and equipment especially in the respect of our hydrographical sector that can assist them so much. With regards to collaboration with Navy and any other federal or state agency with regards to charting, yes, we do collaborate and we did collaborate with Navy to survey an extension of river Niger from Lokoja to Burutu. NIWA has the capacity to carry out these surveys and we will do that. But an opportunity presented itself that we had collaboration with the Navy on that specific project which we successfully did. And the project is completed and the data is available.
From the inception of NIWA, the authority annually invests a significant amount of its annual budget on charting. Sometimes our charting projects go along with the installation of navigational aids. A significant number of inland waterways in Lagos has been charted and the data and charts are available. Every year we have 5 to 10 projects with different sections of the waterways being charted. But it is one thing charting, another thing is someone visiting. Charts and survey data are highly sensitive to accuracy, right? So we want people to know that these charts are available and we want them to use them. It is one thing sitting in your place and saying that NIWA chart is not available. The charts you are using are available. So we want you to use this opportunity to tell people that the National Inland Waterways Authority has a significant database of charts of various sections of the waterways in Nigeria.
In most of the jetties in Lagos, I discovered that most of the life jackets are either expired or substandard. I want to know what NIWA is doing in this area?
In Lagos, the expired life jackets are being destroyed, the ones that are used as pillows. So, Lagos is in action and they are doing well to take charge of that. And I can assure you that we will continue to enforce this, especially now that we have a document that gives us the authority and control.
We’ve had more mishaps in the north compared to the south. It looks as if the level of awareness in the north is nothing compared to the south. What is NIWA doing, particularly in channeling more efforts of awareness to the North?
On the issue of accidents that happen especially in the North during the rainy season, I think there is a little bit of stereotyping that goes on in this issue, saying the people in the north are not so educated. I think it’s very wrong and we should be a bit soft with that. What happens in the northern part of Nigeria is that we have rapid falls. At the high tide, the river Niger or whatever waterway they have, overflows the banks to several kilometers. And most of the navigation that goes on in this area do not go on from the channel from Lokoja to Baro or somewhere. It goes just across from one bank to the other. So they have problems. As an authority, I think we have taken note of this and we are available for you to invite us. If you know any place that is navigable, you can let us know. We probably don’t know all the places that there is navigation going on and needs intervention or probably we might be restrained by funds. But all the locations that we brought to our notice, we will be involved, place navigational aids and equally remove storms.
I am aware that most of the mishap occurs as a result of submerged logs and the reckless operation of dredgers. What is NIWA doing to collaborate or to enlighten dredgers, particularly those around our backwaters about their equipment that is also contributing to these mishaps?
Wreck removal is a continuous exercise in NIWA. We will continue to remove wrecks. Even when we notice and discover some wrecks that are not in the inland waterways, we contact NIMASA and NPA immediately to do the needful. At any time, the sister agencies discovered some wrecks before NIWA discovered it, they normally write to us that this wreck is outstanding and it is our responsibility. If you look at the statistics of most of our accidents, they are not caused by wrecks. Wrecks are not good. They are foreign bodies in our waters and they create a bigger problem. But most of the time, it is not the cause of mishaps. It is either the boats are overloaded, travel in the night or people travel without life jackets. And like I said, these are human errors.
