The Maritime Industry Advocacy Initiative (MAIN) has kicked against the proposed creation of another agency supposedly to enforce peace and reduce violence against maritime, as well as oil and gas investments and personnel within the volatile Niger Delta region, post amnesty.
The non-governmental organisation (NGO), in a statement issued in Lagos described the plan by the presidency to create a post-amnesty security outfit for the oil rich Niger Delta as an uninformed decision and one that is capable of creating confusion and conflict.
In the statement which was signed by MAIN’s executive director, Mr Sesan Onileimo, the group advised President Yar’ Adua to seek sufficient advise and guidance in the quest to ensure that maritime and oil and gas installations and investments are protected.
“As much as we commend the President for his commitment to enthroning lasting post-amnesty peace in the Niger Delta, it is quite shocking that the President is canvassing the support of the National Assembly for the establishment of a maritime security agency that will protect ships, oil facilities and ports in the Niger Delta region; apparently, oblivious of existence of certain subsisting legislations and without due consideration for the implication of his desires on the nation’s maritime security”.
According to MAIN, “it is shocking that in the process of wanting to create another agency, the entrenched interests within the presidency only got a new nomenclature for the moribund and expended Presidential Implementation Committee on Maritime Safety and Security (PICOMSS) and presented it to President Yar’ Adua as the panacea for peace in the Niger Delta”.
The body added that official documents detailing the responsibilities of the proposed body confirmed that it will have wide ranging powers, including performing coastguard functions, inspection of ships, arrests of suspects and carry firearms within the Niger Delta region. These responsibilities are in addition to providing security information on oil and gas pipelines, rigs, platforms and all other established installations, it stressed.
“Our worry is that the new body will be in conflict with the provisions of the Act which established the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); it will also be a duplication of the Coast Guard Bill which is currently before the National Assembly and which has already passed second reading at the Senate”.
According to the NGO, the NIMASA Act of 2007 is an Act of the National Assembly which explicitly saddles the agency with the responsibility of promoting maritime safety and security as well as protecting the marine environment.
These responsibilities are to be carried out within the ambits of commercial shipping within the nation’s exclusive economic zone, territorial and inland sea as well as waterways and within all the nation’s seaports, the body pointed out.
“We are at a loss as to why our President whose catch-phrase is rule of law will allow himself to be misadvised into creating a maritime security agency that will duplicate the statutory responsibilities of NIMASA, even in his commendable attempt to bring political and economic peace to the Niger Delta and by extension, to the Nigerian nation”.
“Apart from undermining the NIMASA Act, the proposed agency will also be a duplication of what the Coast Guard Bill sets out to achieve, because, the proposed Coast Guard is the National Assembly’s answer to the high rate of piracy, sea robbery and general insecurity of aquatic activities within the Niger Delta and some other parts of the country; including, Lagos.
The MAIN argued that cloning PICOMSS and branding it as the answer to insecurity in the Niger Delta may turn out be a misguided and uninformed decision. “The PICOMSS which we all know only served as an avenue to ensure that Nigeria met the deadline of the International Ships and Ports Facility Security (ISPS) Code in 2004. Since then, it has continued to fight for recognition, to no avail”,
According to the group, rather than dissipate energy and funds to create another agency specifically for post-amnesty peace in the Niger Delta, President Yar’ Adua should lobby the National Assembly to expedite action on the passage of the Coast Guard bill.
Discussion about this post