The Honourable Minister of Transport, Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio has tasked the newly appointed Secretary General of the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in West and Central Africa; otherwise called (Abuja MoU), Mrs Mfon Usoro to use her experience to uplift the sub regional body.
Mrs Usoro who is the pioneer director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) was recently appointed to take over from Engineer Bryant Oluwole who has served in that capacity for 10 years.
The minister who gave this charge in his office last week at a brief ceremony to mark the formal handing over between Usoro and Oluwole stated that the organisation needed to be energised in order to achieve the purposes for which it was created.
The Minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Edugie Abebe, urged the new Secretary General to put the organisation back on track within the short time that she has, even as he commended the outgoing secretary general for rising up to the challenges posed by the organisation especially as the pioneer Secretary General and wished him best of luck in future endeavours saying that the only permanent thing in life is change.
In her response Mrs Usoro expressed appreciation to the thanked the minister and other ministers in the MoU for her appointment. She disclosed that she already has a blueprint which can move the organisation to the next level.
The new secretary General also promised to commence an aggressive revenue drive for member nations that are still indebted to the organisation, just as she urged other member nations that are yet to accede to the charter of the organisation to do so.
To give vent to the promise, she disclosed that upon her announcement as the new Secretary General, some states that were owing the organisation had called her to congratulate her and to ask her to let them know their level of indebtedness which they have promised to liquidate within two weeks.
She promised to look into the Agreement of Cooperation between the organisation and the International Maritime Organisation( IMO ) so as to find quick wins in the agreement during her short tenure.
Mrs Mfon also solicited for the cooperation of the Chairman of the Abuja MoU in reaching out to other key members of the body.
Mrs Usoro however remembered her controversial exit from NIMASA, saying that her new appointment is coming three years after she left the agency. She consequently thanked the former Permanent Secretary in the ministry of transport, Alhaji Numaan Dambatta and the former Managing Director of NPA, Chief Adebayo Sarumi who ensured that she was exonerated from the circumstances which caused her ouster.
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