The immediate past President of the Nigerian Institute of Shipping (NIS); Mr. John Egesi, has kicked against the move to reintroduce the Maritime Security Agency ( MASSECA ) bill, describing it as a parallel Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)
In a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, the former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA) rechristened NIMASA said the people who are behind the bill are looking for a way of grabbing power from NIMASA through the back door, even as he said that the move has been on for a long time now.
“Don’t mind those people that wanted to reproduce a parallel NIMASA; it has been on for years. They wanted to produce a parallel NIMASA through the back door. The people that are introducing such a bill wanted to be very smart, they wanted to grab power from NIMASA through the back door and I am not in support of it at all”, he said.
He reiterated that NIMASA has go to a maturity stage, adding that what should be done is to develop the agency to what it is supposed to be.
“Over the years even when NIMASA was NMA, it has always been a group of people trying to come in through this ports security and all that.
NIMASA has got to its maturity as far as formation is concerned. What we need to do is to develop it to what it should be and whether that is being done is another matter, he said.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that recently, the promoters of the MASSECA bill appeared at a public hearing organized by the House Representative Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration which has Hon. Umar Mohammed Bago as the Chairman.
It will also be recalled that a former DG of NIMASA, Temisan Omatseye, warned against the promulgation of the MASSECA Bill into law pointing out that it would create more problems for both the maritime industry and that nations security agencies .
Discussion about this post