Barr. Osuala Nwagbara (Maritime Lawyer)
Barr. Osuala Nwagbara (Maritime Lawyer)
I my own opinion I think it is the sole responsibilities of the ship owners that engage the seafarers to take charge of their safety at sea. There is a provision that every employer of seafarers must ensure their safety and not just ensuring their safety while on-board a ship because the International Labour Organisation has an agenda which is known as decent work agenda for seafarers including dock labour. NIMASA only comes in to regulate their employment terms to ensure that they have fair employment terms and to ensure that they work in a safe and secure environment.
Engineer Mathew Alalade (President Merchant Navy)
I think all hands must be on deck in providing security for the Nigerian seafarers. All maritime agencies should support the seafarers at sea because it goes beyond NIMASA alone. The NPA, NIWA, Navy and NIMASA must work together and ensure100% security at sea. However the victims that have suffered in the hands of the sea robbers must be taken good care of by the welfare board through NIMASA. When you take a critical look at the agencies I mentioned then you will agree with me that it is the ministry of transport that should mandate all the agencies to provide a forum for the safety and security of the seafarers. All the agencies must be actively involved side by side with NIMASA in the protection of our seafarers at sea.
Mazi Joseph Anabaroanye (Registrar FFAN)
It is the duty of NIMASA to create and set up Coast Guard to protect our seafarers at sea because it does not remove anything from the agency and as far as I am concerned, NIMASA has so many responsibilities at its disposal and if the issue at hand is creating serious problem to the nation, then there is the need to have a special body that will concentrate on securing our seafarers, it is for the safety of seafarers and for everybody. The Act establishing NIMASA shows that NIMASA is supposed to take care of the seafarers and so the seafaring job is like every other profession whereby you must provide safety measures and the issue of attack on seafarers has drawn the attention of stakeholders to the need to set up a Coast Guard. Also NIMASA has the mandate to safeguard our coast and it is important to state here that Coast Guard is important at this point in time.
Reuben Ovai (Rector SMA)
The issue of protection of our territorial waters is supposed to be solely vested on the Nigeria Navy. The mistake that was made by the government is that they mandated NIMASA to man the waters and that led to the Navy becoming inactive at sea, because you don't expect the navy to report to civilians. Apart from that, it is a slap on the face of the navy to report to a body like NIMASA on cases that have to do with the territorial waters. In order words, it is long overdue for the Navy to take be charge and to protect seafarers.
Otunba Kunle Folarin (Chairman, Port Consultative Council)
This is definitely not a welfare issue, and people should understand and put in proper perspective where the issues lie. There are ship agents, ship charterers and ship owners, these are the primary people for every voyage, if you now look at safety administration then you will be talking about NIMASA, but when you talk about primary responsibility to the seafarer, it is the chatterer and the ship agents that are responsible, the welfare issue is just an addition to the mandatory responsibilities, the other aspect of the welfare issue has been spelt out clearly by the Maritime Labor Convention of 2006, it is the ship owner’s responsibility. But then we have on ground the National Seafarers Welfare Board, if they are in distress, this body comes in for communication, for release or for medical, but when it comes to repatriation, wages of seafarer it is not for the Welfare Board, NIMASA is just responsible for the safety of the vessel, if we continue to put all the blames on NIMASA it is unfair, because we continue to make the ship owner, the agent, and the charterer to feel lazy and allow someone else to take the blames, the three of them must be identified.
Tunji Obagbo (Port and Terminal Mgt. Academy)
The responsibility has been given to NIMASA, it is now left for them to take full charge of it, training and re-training of seafarers is supposed to be their responsibility, but the question we are asking now is; how well have they been performing? We see a lot of Nigerian seafarers languishing and wasting away without anything being done for them, I don’t think there is any agency protecting seafarers in Nigeria again, how can they survive when we don’t have any vessel, what would they be seafaring? If you look around we have different training institutions, yet no vessels and government is just there looking, and NIMASA says they are training people outside the country, after the training where will these people work when there is no national line? If they finish and come back home, what will they be doing? These are the problems on ground. Everywhere you go now, you see the Indians and the Lebanese on board vessels; they are the ones spoiling our economy.
Aloma Ibrahim (Seafarer)
It is the duty of NIMASA to protect Nigerian seafarers, but unfortunately poor wages, lack of sea time, poor working condition, especially with indigenous ship owners and the use of sub- standard vessels that put the lives of seafarers at serious risk is now the order of the day. NIMASA must look into the activities of manning agents, these people no longer consider Nigerian seafarers, and they resort to black market crewing rather than patronizing NIMASA seafarers’ pool. NIMASA should concentrate efforts on giving MAN, Oron a training vessel, instead of just taking money to maritime academies overseas under its National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP).
Sampson Chima (Registrar, NIS)
It still falls under the purview of NIMASA, they play virtually every role that has to do with seafarers in Nigeria, even the Merchant Shipping Act is being implemented by NIMASA, there is no way another body could become responsible for seafarers, it will become a duplication of duties. The major thing now is for NIMASA to improve on their function, especially as it concerns seafarers’ welfare, they need to wake up and ensure that the MLC 2006 is being complied with.
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