Otunba Sola Adewumi (NISA President)
One of the focus of NIMASA is shipping development. As far as we are concerned, Jamoh has not developed shipping in Nigeria. The four years he has used there was just zero. He didn’t develop shipping at all. We had an idea of the number of vessels that had been registered in the early days before he came on board. By the time he came on board, we know what is happening in the ship registry. He actually did not achieve anything aside from laundering his image all over; claiming achievements that were not even attributed to him. Maybe he thought that they were going to give him a second term. This is a DG of NIMASA that ship owners would be requesting to see and he would pretend as if he did not see the request. So, as far as I am concerned, he has not done anything aside from laundering his personal image.
Captain Adetayo Saliu (Chairman, Merchant Navy Shipping Zonal Council)
Jamoh has come and has gone. He has done what he has to do in NIMASA, but he left some things undone. He tried in some areas but in the aspect of training, he didn’t emphasize on the training of cadets who do not have training opportunities on vessels, leaving the majority of them stranded. The STCW certificates of some of the practicing officers on ground need to be upgraded so that they will be able to compete with other maritime nations. He should have also upgraded some of our Maritime schools to provide opportunities for cadets to train. Our safety assets should have been upgraded too but however, Jamoh has done what he has to do, and he’s out of the system. I will give him 50 percent. Not that he performed woefully but he has not done most of what we expected him to do. I believe the person coming in will take a cue from there and will have a better maritime industry.
Dr. Chris Ebare (Chairman, Institute of Chartered Ship Brokers)
Well, Shakespeare says the world’s a stage, you come, you play your role and you give way. Power is transient, it is not permanent. He has served his tenure, contributed his quota in NIMASA and he has bowed out. He has played his part in trying to reposition NIMASA. Well, there’s no doubt about it that he has led a certain foundation in opening up some opportunities particularly in some areas like the policing of the Gulf of Guinea and trying to tame piracy. The only regrettable thing is that he was not able to really reposition the floating dock even though he was not the one that actually started it and a number of initiatives he tried to achieve. All well and good, he has done his part being a professional transportant and somebody who has been in NIMASA for some time.
Gbolahan Adu (NISA Publicity Secretary)
Under the tenure of the immediate past Director General of NIMASA there was not much development of ship owners as per Cabotage compared to past administrations. This means that it is more of a tribal thing that this past tenure did. A lot of ship owners don’t really have business to do compared to the last four years. So what I feel is that the administration should see how to encourage ship owners in terms of Cabotage and local content to get business and remove the bias or tribal considerations. When ship owners have business, the ripple effect will be highly felt in the industry.
Engr. Matthew Alalade (Former President, Merchant Navy)
Well, I would say that during his four years’ tenure as the Director General of NIMASA, he tried his best to no avail to seafarers’ life. He did not focus on the core programme of NIMASA. I cannot appraise him well because he is just focusing on education asides other core areas of NIMASA. From the seafarers’ side, he did not perform well at all.
Otunba Sola Olatunji (Shipowner)
I think you should already know my answer. It is very obvious that Dr Bashir Jamoh did not do anything significant during his tenure as the Director General of NIMASA. Under his leadership, everything seems not to be interesting in the Marine and Blue Economy. The industry has continued to slip into deeper uncertainty, and industry players are wallowing in abject poverty. It’s an industry that should naturally serve as a catalyst to our one trillion dollars anticipated economy, but with this back and forth movement, we may never get out of this quagmire. Well, he has done his part and has bowed out. We look forward to a better administration.
Engr. Wale George (Vice President, Nigerian Merchant Navy)
I did not expect much from him since he is not a Maritime expert. His foundation is not Maritime; he is not a seafarer. Jamoh is not a Mariner. As a result, he refused to appreciate, promote or involve the Marine professionals throughout his tenure. He bought a floating dock for repairs that was never used and also sent people who had no interest in the profession abroad for training. He was able to achieve meaningful progress in terms of Maritime security at sea, credits to the Nigerian Navy involvement. We can not and will not get it right until we put a core marine professionals at the leadership of maritime administration.
Captain Williams Ogunsakin (South West Director, MESAN)
His tenure was not good for seafarers. We were diminishing. They trained cadets, but there were no places for them to serve. The officers working were replaced with expatriates on our waters. Cabotage did not work. He might have done well in some places, but I have not seen anything he did for seafarers. He made Nigerian seafarers more useless in the face of the international community. The certificate they gave us; we were not able to defend it. They allowed foreigners to take over our waters.
