Following the recent concession of the Nigerian maritime security to a private firm called Messrs Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, allegedly owned by a renowned Niger Delta ex-militant; the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners has lent its voice to the growing list of opposition to the contract.
Briefing the media in Lagos yesterday, vice president, Nigeria Association of Masters Mariners, Captain Emmanuel Omotayo alleged that the concession was done in secrecy without consulting major stakeholders in the maritime industry.
Following the recent concession of the Nigerian maritime security to a private firm called Messrs Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, allegedly owned by a renowned Niger Delta ex-militant; the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners has lent its voice to the growing list of opposition to the contract.
Briefing the media in Lagos yesterday, vice president, Nigeria Association of Masters Mariners, Captain Emmanuel Omotayo alleged that the concession was done in secrecy without consulting major stakeholders in the maritime industry.
He said, by the controversial concession, the government is sending a wrong signal to the international community and it will bounce back negatively on the economy of the nation if not properly addressed.
The NAMM vice president who was flanked by top officers of the association, urged the Federal Government to have a rethink on the vexed issue of handing over the maritime security of Nigeria to private hands.
Focusing on the global implication of the action, he added that: “while our association will appreciate any efforts made to secure the nation’s maritime trade, we reason that such strategies must be in accordance with international conventions to which the nation is a signatory and it must be hinged on the national interest rather than along pecuniary and inordinate ambition that are capable of ridiculing our nation before the international community’’.
Rather than use private hands to police Nigerian waters, NAMM which is the umbrella body of all ship Captains in Nigeria, advocated the setting up of a Coast Guard that will fall under the supervision of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency [NIMASA].
‘’There is an existing statutorily empowered agency saddled with the responsibility of providing security cover for the maritime sector, and that agency is NIMASA. Part iv of the Act setting up NIMASA clearly and specifically arrogates to the agency, the functions of provision maritime security and security measures compliance, air and coastal surveillance ,control and prevention of marine pollution, enforcement of provisions of the Cabotage act , search, rescue and safety provision to ships within Nigerian waters ‘’, the association noted.
Captain Omotayo said that contracting the nation’s maritime domain to private hands is the most reckless action undertaken in the nation’s maritime history that must be reversed to save the nation’s integrity of and stave- off the expected backlash on our maritime economy.
‘’Setting up an external agency to carry out aspects of responsibilities carved for a statutorily empowered organ of the same government without a constitutional amendment will be nothing short of recklessness’’, the group submitted yesterday.
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