Engr Sarat Braimah is the Lagos Area Office Manager for the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA). In this interview, she opens up on the challenges of water transportation in Lagos. She speaks on other sundry issue too
What are the necessary precautions that boat operators should take to avoid the frequent boat mishaps on Lagos waterways?
We are just after safety. If you have good boats that will pay for jetty use, fine. I’m not targeting anybody. Going forward, the boats must have a speedometer. It will allow laymen that are inside the boats to know whether the guy is over-speeding or not. We want to ensure that they have life buoys on the boat. If there is an incident and you throw the life buoys, four people can hold on to it and would be safe. People are always afraid of water when there is an incident. But at least when you see that something is holding your hand and you are staying, that panic will be reduced. That is why we have made it compulsory for each boat to have four life buoys in them. Yes, they wear life jackets, but unfortunately many of them pull it off immediately they enter the boat. But if the life buoy is there and they throw it out, the people can hold on to it and be safe. That is the best way to save people on water. We all saw the Titanic incident. You will notice that they were just throwing life buoys and people were holding onto it. Some people were lying on it. There must be a speedometer, life buoys and at least a lifesaver. Someone that can swim, apart from the boat Captain. We call them life guards. In case of accidents, they are divers. So, they can quickly bring people out. This is the first response before the rescue boat will get there. There is what we call Blue Me. It was just recently launched. NIWA is already trying to purchase it. We have finished all the sampling and everything. We will give it to each driver or captain of the boats. If they press it, we would have signals all over the country. So, it has GPS and you can press it anywhere. It doesn’t have any issue of network challenge and it will give us the location and the name of the boat. Immediately you press it, it will come up. We have samples already. We have tested it at Badagry already. So, these are the precautions. We don’t want these mishaps to happen. No agency will be in charge of something and will see it falling and be happy about it.
How qualified do you think boat operators on Lagos waterways are?
90 percent of the boat drivers did not undergo our training and are not certified. They had a meeting and agreed that they will not undergo the training if the government cannot do it for them free of charge. The training was N21,250. But that is for the license and the certification. After you have done the certification once, it’s a one-off thing. The only thing you need is to renew the license every three years which is N16,125. It is just the first payment that is above 16,000. I don’t understand their level of nonchalance. They believe they are all in all. They want the government to buy them boats, but they are not ready to pay for the certification and training.
Does NIWA not have the powers and apparatus to enforce and ensure that they enroll for the training and certification?
Well, that’s what we are doing and they are fighting us. They will form a clique and say they will not allow any passenger to board the boats. We have the Marine Police that enforce regulations on the waters and Jetties. But you see, when we stop them, passengers will be stranded. It is now the passengers’ sympathy that they now use against us. Some of the passengers will even start begging that we should allow them to go while some will accuse us that we are wicked.
I believe we have associations for water transporters. Why don’t you engage the associations and let them know that these measures are to save them?
Yesterday, they were there with us including their Secretary and their members. They were the one begging us to let some of them go. I gave them five names of both operators that were arrested. I gave it to them yesterday and I think they posted it on their platform. You should come and see the comments they were making saying their President is coming to intervene. They were accusing NIWA of trying to make them suffer. They did not see our efforts as being to their advantage at all. They were abusing us and the passengers were also insulting us. Passengers. They will stop them from coming.
I believe we have a list of the passengers on the manifest.
Talking about the manifest, at every jetty there is a manifest for every boat. We have introduced the manifest for every boat. Many of them don’t write their real names on the manifest. I was going through some of the manifest last week and you will be surprised at the names that were written in it. Someone even wrote “Na your Papa go die” as his or her name on the manifest. We saw different things on the Manifest. They write some funny and invalid phone numbers on the Manifest. You see the country we are in. If they say they should write your name, does that mean you will die? When they are traveling on the road, they also ask them to write their names. But they refuse to use the waterways. So those are the kind of challenges that we face. But we will never be tired. We will continue to do our best.
Don’t you think NIWA needs to be proactive in enforcing these regulations?
That’s what we are saying now. We will stop anybody that does not comply. We would start enforcing the License for boat operators from next month. We want to join force with the Marine Police and our own Police. So that we would have wider coverage. We would also partner with the Nigerian Navy, Western Command. We have given them samples of the license. We don’t care who they (boat operators) are. If they don’t have a license they will be arrested and adequately sanctioned. And they will not say we are targeting them. It is not about LAGFERRY, they train their staff. They came for the training.
What is the level of sensitization programme that NIWA has put in place to ensure that boat operators and users are adequately informed of the waterway’s regulations?
A day before the recent incident happened, we were at that Jetty. We have a timetable for sensitisation. We have about six groups prepared for sensitization. When you come to the Jetty here at Marina at the peak period which is around 5pm, our officials go there for safety talk. In Ikorodu, we go there in the morning. We have stickers and signages with diagrams and illustrations at the jetties and on the boats to adequately inform the boat users on safety precautions. We have told them that they should not be sailing at night. Actually, night sailing is one of the major causes of boat mishaps on our waterways. We have told them why they should let us have information wherever they see any wrecks on the waterways, so that it can be removed immediately. Some of these wrecks are caused by dredgers. We will call the dredgers. We know all the dredgers working in our waterways. We will call them and tell them what to do next on the wrecks. They also have pipes on the waterways. So, I think with all this, we should be able to have safer waterways. That is our target.
How frequent will NIWA inspections be at the jetties in Lagos waterways?
I have told them that all our inspectors will be going out to inspect all the boats at the Jetties by every quarter. That is our target to make sure that they are all seaworthy. All Ikorodu boats have been inspected. The ones that are qualified are allowed; for now. The ones that are not qualified will not be allowed to operate. And we are working together with the Marine Police to ensure that they do not sail, until they perhaps refurbish the boats and make them seaworthy. We are praying that the CVFF money will be made available to the Inland waterways too. So that we can at least help these boat operators by giving them boats on installment payments, so that they can pay back to the government in installments. So that is our prayer and that is our target. This is because to be candid, most of these boats are very old. And most of these boat owners do not have the funds. They do not have the funds to buy good boats. So, the government has to come in. Maybe they will form a cooperative so that we know we are dealing with the cooperative. So that when 20 to 40 boats are given, they will know those individuals and associations that were given as well as the routes they ply. Maybe NIWA will work with the Bank Of Industry (BOI) so that they will be the one to help collect the money very fast, so that it will be easy for them not to evade paying back the loan. Because without this, they cannot do it. We don’t want to continue to deceive ourselves, most of these boats will cost more than N8 million, N6 million or N10 million and to get a good boat, it’s nothing less than N70 to N80 million. So, the government has to come in, and that’s why NIWA is pleading for that fund so that the boat operators too will be able to access it.
You also said that NIWA is going to commence twice a week routine patrol on the waterways. Can you tell us the areas involved in this patrol?
It’s all there in the inland waterways. In Lagos. We have zones. We have zoned it A, B, C, D. which covers Ikorodu, Epe Ogoloto and Badagry axis. So, if they go to this one Zone this week, they will go to another next week. At least when they are seeing that we are moving just like police being on the road, it will caution you. So, when they see a NIWA patrol boat coming, they will be cautious. especially during peak periods.
Do you have the personnel to cover all of these areas?
Yes, we have the personnel. That’s why we put ourselves into groups. Like here in Marina, Lagos area office, we have almost 50 staff and our Police personnel are 38 in number. We have the Marine Police too and we have the Joint Task Force (JTF). There are 100 JTF members. So, we can cover all these areas together.
