The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has come under attack from local ship owners under the aegis of Nigerian Shipowners Association who alleged that the agency is highly incompetent in the execution of its mandate, especially as it concerns implementation of the Cabotage Act.
Chairman of NISA, Chief Isaac Jolapamo leveled the allegation on Tuesday while addressing maritime journalists at a press briefing in Lagos.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has come under attack from local ship owners under the aegis of Nigerian Shipowners Association who alleged that the agency is highly incompetent in the execution of its mandate, especially as it concerns implementation of the Cabotage Act.
Chairman of NISA, Chief Isaac Jolapamo leveled the allegation on Tuesday while addressing maritime journalists at a press briefing in Lagos.
Jolapamo said that NISA has only been tolerating NIMASA because of the frequent changes in the management of the agency which had not allowed it to have a firm grasp of its responsibilities to indigenous players.
He alleged that NIMASA has not been living up to the provisions of the Cabotage Act, and that it usually hire foreign vessels to carry out jobs that could have easily been carried out by indigenous vessels.
"We are very friendly with NIMASA, but the fact still remains that they don't meet up the obligations they are supposed to" he said.
Jolapamo drew an analogy from his personal experience with NIMASA over a ship that was supposed to carry wastes from a platform operating in Nigeria. According to him, his company had been contacted by NIMASA, but at the last minute, the contract was given to a foreign vessel.
Speaking further, he said: "I have a ship that has been standing in Calabar in the last five months that could have done that job of US$1million and I would have paid what I owed, but instead they got a foreign vessel that normally come in to pouch and carry stolen crude on Nigerian waters to do the job"
"They did not talk to me again because they got the ship readily, what they ought to do was to look for a Nigerian vessel to do the job, but rather, they preferred to collect their 2% from the foreign vessel and gave her the contract"
"Unfortunately, my crew went to NIMASA and said that I have not paid them, now NIMASA wants to use the big stick that I should pay them, but with what, my blood?"
Jolapamo further alleged that, if NIMASA had been doing its job as it is supposed to, sanity would have come into the Nigerian shipping sector.
"Thousands of ships are out there, they won't stay on the waters where Navy will collect money from them, they stay on Cameroun waters and Gabon, from where they sneak into Nigerian waters to carry stolen products", he alleged further.
He said that NISA had been trying to nurture NIMASA into understanding, but that the frequent change in leadership had prevented it from having a grasp of its responsibilities.
He said that ship owners have only now resulted into dialogue, because going to the trenches has not paid off.
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