After carefully perusing contents of the recent chat with the media in which it showcased achievements, goals and challenges, the Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA) has lampooned the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dakuku Peterside.
The body of shipowners took on the NIMASA boss on issues such as accruals from the controversial Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), the proposal for a training vessel and the planned alliance with United Arab Shipping Line.
In an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily at the weekend, Director General of NISA Secretariat and former Director of NIMASA, Engr Nnadi Ogbuagu accused the NIMASA DG of telling lies about the actual worth of the CVFF. He alleged that the figure of US$124million which the DG bandied could not have been correct.
At a breakfast session with maritime journalists in Lagos recently, Peterside had also revealed plans by the agency to enter into an agreement with three African countries including South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya to jointly acquire and operate a training vessel.
But, the NISA DG chided the NIMASA boss as lacking in knowledge and for saying that Nigeria cannot operate a training vessel at this time and that it would rather go for a trading vessel.
Ogbuagu said that the CVFF had accrued well above the $124million that was declared to the media by Peterside, even as he said that the association is calling for a forensic audit of the CVFF account.
According to him, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) collects 1% deductions and remittance on value of contracts executed in the upstream sector and the agency has declared over $700million in the Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF), NIMASA on the other hand collects 2% levy and is declaring a peanut of $124million.
He said: "Forensic audit of the CVFF should be done, we have to fact check it because the money is supposed to be more, NIMASA is collecting 2% while NCDMB are collecting 1%, they have so much money now that they are giving out money for purchase of ships and loan out money to Nigerians who approach them, they were talking of over $700million within six years. This is why they give out money to assist Nigerians"
"So, the $124million declared by NIMASA is too small, they should come forward with the right figure".
"I saw in their budget that they paid N1billion to recover Cabotage vessel fund, it is a specific 2% collection, so you don't need any consultant or third party, if they have this in their budget, then it means that somebody is fiddling with the money", he argued.
"The money (CVFF) should be distributed to those shipowners who are contributing towards the fund. The way it is done is that you sight a vessel, you send a surveyor to survey it, NIMASA will be part of the process, there is an equity contribution from the shipowner, when a vessel is good, you buy it for them, t is wrong for NIMASA to be keeping this money because it is not their money", he said.
The NISA top shot also argued that the Cabotage Act is not being implemented in totality. He cautioned that the NIMASA boss should stop de-marketing Nigerian shipowners by claiming that they operate rust buckets. He called for a review of the law, saying that it is not working.
On recent statement by Dakuku Peterside that the United Arab Shipping Line was willing to train 100 Nigerian cadets for free yearly, Ogbuagu described this as mere political statements coming from the NIMASA DG.
According to him, the NIMASA DG should reveal to Nigerians the list of the people benefiting and the names of the shipping companies so far involved in the sea time training of cadets in United Kingdom and Egypt under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Program (NSDP).
He said, "no shipping company will place Nigerian cadets onboard unless payment agreement has been made, nobody will train you for free, even NNSL was charging NPA for putting their cadets onboard"
"It is not possible, nobody will do it for free anywhere in the world, who will feed them and pay their stipends, Nigerian government will pay them for training the cadets and this is the money they don't want to pay to local ship owners".
While reacting to the proposed agreement with South Africa, Ghana and Kenya on acquiring and jointly operating a training vessel, Ogbuagu said the NIMASA DG is not competent to speak on the matter.
"I will suggest that the DG should talk less and face his job, he should not talk on issues that he has no competence to speak on, he should get advice from his officers who are mariners before he talks"
"There is no question about Nigeria's competence, how can the number one mariner in Nigeria be saying that we cannot train cadets here, to say we don't have competence is a complete insult to my colleagues and I "
"MAN Oron deserves a training vessel, all other shipping companies could have a training and trading vessel , NIMASA should not do it, they had one before, MV Trainer, but against our recommendation, they gave it to Brawal Shipping to operate it, they couldn't manage the vessel and it ran into problem in Alabama, USA"
"Why would you have partnership with South Africa, for what reason? We are better than them, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana, maritime wise and expertise, we are just not organised , the partnership he is talking about is nonsense"
"It is not about profit, it depends on the model a country adopts, training vessels are run by academies all over the world, Nigeria has what it takes to run a training ship, a training and trading ship", he said
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