By Oluyinka Onigbinde
The struggle to make Nigeria’s inland waterways safer has taken a dangerous turn in Niger and Kwara States, where passengers resisting the enforcement of life-jacket rules have allegedly threatened officials with daggers.
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Area Manager for Niger and Kwara, Mr. Akapo Adeboye, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent, revealing that only about 40 per cent of waterway users in the two states currently comply with the compulsory use of life jackets.
Adeboye said the resistance to safety enforcement had become one of the major challenges confronting efforts to prevent boat accidents, particularly in communities where water transportation is central to people’s livelihoods.
According to him, some passengers often argue that they understand the waterways better than the officials enforcing the regulations, making them reluctant to comply with safety requirements.
He said the resistance had on several occasions become confrontational, with officials facing threats and attempts at physical assault.
“They will always try as much as possible to resist us, telling us that this is where they understand the water, even more than us,” Adeboye said.
“At a point, they have removed daggers for me severally. They have even tried to fight us.”
The revelation provides a disturbing insight into the difficulties faced by officials working to prevent avoidable deaths on the waterways, where wearing a life jacket — one of the simplest measures available to protect passengers in the event of a boat mishap, remains a major compliance challenge.
Adeboye said the current compliance level was about 40 per cent despite sustained sensitisation and the distribution of life jackets to water users.
He explained that the challenge was particularly pronounced in the northern waterways because water transportation was not merely an alternative means of transportation but a critical part of the economic life of many communities.
According to him, large numbers of residents depend on boats to access markets and move between communities, resulting in heavy passenger traffic on market days.
“Most of the time, the market is normally on a Friday and a Saturday, scantily on a Wednesday,” he said.
“When they come out like that, they come all the way, en masse, from their communities, from their creeks, they come out to the water.”
Adeboye said the volume of passengers during such periods made it difficult for the available safety equipment to cover everyone.
He noted that about 3,500 life jackets distributed to waterways users had made an impact, but were still inadequate considering the number of people who travel through the waterways, particularly during busy market days.
The situation, he said, had made enforcement and continuous public education necessary.
Adeboye said NIWA had consequently intensified sensitisation campaigns through radio stations, waterfront markets and local communities, with officials also using local languages to ensure that safety messages were understood.
He said river marshals and emergency response officers had been deployed across several locations in Niger and Kwara states and were working around the clock to monitor the waterways and respond to emergencies.
The areas covered, according to him, include: Malale, Loko Mene, Shagunu, Duga, Okokoli, Wara, Jebba, Kacha, Baro, Budon and Shiroro, as well as areas towards Lokoja.
“We have our river marshals, our emergency responders, and they’re all cut across, working around the clock,” he said.
He added that NIWA also conducts patrols along the waterways as part of efforts to identify dangerous practices and prevent accidents before they occur.
At Jebba, Adeboye said, NIWA has stationed an ambulance boat with a driver and an assistant to respond to emergencies.
He said the authority’s emergency response time was generally between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on the location of an incident.
A safety and surveillance boat has also been stationed on the high waters of Kainji Lake since 2022, according to him, to provide surveillance and protect lives and property along the waterways.
However, Adeboye disclosed that NIWA’s emergency response capacity in Kacha had recently suffered a setback following the vandalisation of a rescue boat.
He said the two 75-horsepower engines attached to the boats stationed at Kacha were vandalised, forcing the authority to begin efforts to restore the equipment.
“That is one of the things that we are looking at to resuscitate and bring up that engine back,” he said.
He said NIWA was also working with other boat operators and stakeholders in areas where the authority’s own operational boats were not available.
Adeboye disclosed that there was currently no dedicated NIWA boat stationed at Shiroro, but said the authority was collaborating with boat owners in the area to ensure that emergency assistance could still be provided when necessary.
Beyond the threat of boat accidents, the NIWA official said the authority was also preparing communities for the possibility of rising water levels and flooding as the rainy season progresses.
He said residents living close to waterways were being sensitised to move to higher grounds where necessary, with NIWA working alongside sister agencies, including the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
