Captain Thomas Kemewerigha is a former National President of the National President of the Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers/Water Transport Senior Staff Association (NMNO/WTSSA). In this Interview with Joshua Yousouph, he discuses the state of the nation’s seafaring profession, the plight of seafarers and high unemployment rate.
How can you appraise the maritime industry in the last third quarter of the year?
Well, there is not much improvement In totality in the maritime sector. There are some areas that have been some improvement. But in general, it’s below the average. By the time you pick them in segments, you can know exactly the area they’ve done a bit okay, the areas that requires much improvement and the areas they have not even started at all. So generally, they have not done very well.
Recently, it seems there has been a decline in piracy at Nigerian territorial waters. Do you agree with this and what do you think is responsible for it?
Look, when you talk of piracy, it erupted in the Nigerian sector because of depression and neglect. People were pushed to the wall for survival. It was not like that before. All of a sudden, it started coming up because people were angered. People were pushed to the wall. People needed to survive. People needed to eat. It was not politically motivated. It was survival of the fittest and today I can confidently say the reduction of pirate activities in the high seas is because of the involvement of Tompolo who has absorbed most of them as security and surveillance personnel and they are getting something to feed their families. It is nothing more than that, it is no magic. It means if the region is properly taking care of in terms of their infrastructures, their companies and others, all this rubbish will stop. That is the truth. Let’s not deceive ourselves. NDDC is awarding contracts to politicians and after every four years, another minister will come. They will change it, repeating the same contract, not executing them and sharing the money. That is just the truth, I am from that region. As I speak with you, I am in the village. So it is not a fictitious story.
One of the major challenges Nigerian seafarers have been crying out for is the issue of employment. Why do you think Nigerian seafarers are unemployed and what do you think can be done to solve that?
I have given my opinion so many times and I get fed up repeating the same thing because you keep talking and nobody is listening. Why must you be continuously talking and people know the right thing but they are not doing it? The International Maritime Organization (IMO) controls certification and safety. The ILO controls the welfare of seafarers and other employees. Nigeria is a key member of the IMO and IMO has never found Nigeria wanting because they have auditors who audit members’ states In terms of safety, SOLAS and all those. Then if that is the case, why are our Seafarers not being employed? And when eventually when they are employed, they are underpaid. Why? Why will Nigerians absorb foreign seafarers from ratings to officers against the wish of Nigerian seafarers? Creating employment for those members’ states is creating unemployment for Nigeria. Why? Is it proper? There must be something wrong. And we have laws in this country that should have addressed those issues. The laws are there but the implementation is zero because the so-called opportunists who are supposed to implement these laws are also the culprits. I will explain further why they are the culprits.
Now we have certificates we call NCV which is the Near Coastal Voyage. Every country has Near Coastal Voyage which is a certificate that is limited to your coastal water. So it is not out of place For Nigeria to issue NCV certificates to Nigerian seafarers officers, ratings and so on. These maritime activities are taking place in our territorial waters. Why is it that our certificates are neglected by these foreign companies that have dominated the industry? The maritime activities are taking place In our maritime domain and the flag state has issued a certificate to her seafarers to be engaged for those jobs, yet they are not engaged. Foreigners are coming to do these jobs. It is very terrible.
NIMASA should tell us how many MoUs they have signed with other flag states. How many MOUs for bilateral agreements she has gone into with other maritime states for recognition of the certificate issued under the compliance of IMO for endorsement. This is because if you have an endorsement With Panama flag, any Panama flag working in Nigeria should automatically employ Nigerians. But before the agreement, they will go into a lot of technicalities and all those things. How many has NIMASA gone into? Another area is on ship acquisition. How many ships both offshore vessels and coastal tankers does Nigerians have? How many Nigerians own vessels hundred percent? For me, I call them paper directors. They are in place and opportune to discuss with foreign partners undermine our laws here. They go into agreement with all their laws and they know when the vessels come here for operations, they can bend the Law and nobody talks. There are few Nigerians who own vessels and employ Nigerians. But the number of Vessels operating In this country are 100 times more than Nigerians owing.
Nigerians brought them in as Directors and Shareholders. They know the role they play for them to make their money on yearly basis. They sign all sorts of agreements with the foreign partners and we have the Cabotage Law which is enough to hold Capital and create multiple employment For Nigerians. Unfortunately, the Cabotage Act has not been working.
Why has it been difficult for the Cabotage Act to work sir?
The Cabotage law has been very difficult to work because the law is not for the rich. The law is not for the few that are able to opportune to bring in foreign partners into this country. That is why Cabotage law is not working. They say they created room for waivers. You only create waivers when you don’t have the professionals in that country like Nigeria in this case to work on those vessels. Which vessels can Nigerian professional not handle? I have not seen any. They grab the waivers, they pay in dollars, but the contract they acquire here is in billions, so they are not losing. If you ask the DG of NIMASA, he’ll tell you he has not granted any waiver. If you ask the minister, he’ll tell you he has not granted any waiver. For the past eight years, all the ministers, from the from the Minister of Transport to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, they will all tell you they have not approved one waiver. So who is approving the waiver? They have the expatriates working on board the vessels. They should go to the Cabotage department and investigate whether waivers are not paid. It is a terrible situation.
How will you appraise the welfare of Nigerian Seafarers compared to their counterparts?
Speaking on the welfare area, the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) of 2006 was overwhelmingly accepted by all Maritime States, Nigeria inclusive. I was opportune to be among the Nigerian delegation that went to submit the article of ratification at the ILO in Senegal. The law says “equal work, equal pay”. That is one of the major criteria of the MLC. There should be no discrimination on board the vessel. The same work should attract equal pay. But today you will see a foreign rating earning more than a third Nigerian officer on board the same vessel because their engagement conditions are not tied down to Nigeria. Their engagement conditions are tied back home to where the vessel is coming from. Or, there’s a common agreement signed with ITF from any part of where they are coming from. Nigeria is a member International Transport Workers’ Federation. Nigeria has somebody who’s at the board level representing Africa. Nigeria has somebody who is the chairman of African Seafarers at that level. To be precise, the President of Nigeria Merchant Navy Association is the chairman and head of all African Seafarers under the ITF. The President General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria is a board member in ITF representing Africa and Asia. All the seafarers coming from Europe, Asia and everywhere respect the ITF agreement except Nigeria. They signed a MoU with NIMSA and other stakeholders called NJIC. NJIC is not even close to Global Ruminations but employers are not respecting it. For me, we are back to square one. We are to begin with the ruminants that make up their profession.
One of the major arguments that I’ve heard about the NSDP is the fact that there is probably a skill-set gap among Nigerian trained seafarers. How successful do you think the NSDP have addressed that?
I will say the NSDP was not implemented well. It has defeated the aim of the program because we were also dashing into the international community to produce officers with foreign tickets to produce officers with foreign tickets who come back and work in our territorial waters against Nigerian tickets issued by our institutions. That was the aim because most of these foreigners prefers their tickets than Nigerian tickets and they are working in Nigeria. It is very wrong. The seafaring profession is unique in every country because, like I said earlier, IMO audits every aspect of that institution to find out whether they are up to standard and meeting all the requirements. They have not faulted Nigeria. In the Nigerian context, we have Oceanography and MAN Oron who are grooming the home-grade officers that up till now are not able to get jobs to do in their motherland. Most of them are now Okada riders and Korope drivers. Do you know why? It is because they don’t have jobs. Some don’t even have the required sea term because when you come out of the academy, you must have a sea term. That sea term is also basically the challenge those assigned under that the NSDP are also facing. Most of them are graduated from the various foreign maritime academies but there is no sea term to go for their professional exams because when they come back home, they don’t have vessels to work on. So why are we wasting billions of dollars? A lot of people are benefiting from that program and millions of dollars are going every year. They need to audit that program to know whether they actually trained the number of cadets they are quoting every day because it’s quite capital intensive. I am beginning to believe that they are training less people and quoting higher figures. The people they are training cannot meet up with the challenges of today because they don’t have sea term. So 80 percent of the money they have spent in training these young Nigerians that cannot get sea term is wasted.
If half of that money they have invested in that program was used to acquire a training vessel, it will be better. A training vessel does not mean it is only for the cadets but something like the National Shipping Line. All these graduates coming from the academies will get sea term from there. NIMASA will only make them dress colorfully, wear ceremonial uniforms and all that to glorify the nation, make it big and colorful to tell the world that we are doing something. We are not doing anything. That’s the truth.
Do you think Nigeria needs a national shipping line, and if you think so, how do you think we can go about it?
The question is what are we exporting? We had a shipping line. What are those fleets of vessels carrying out of the country to other countries apart from Crude? When Obasanjo was the head of state and brought in export vessels from the shipyard, people did not see beyond their nose that those vessels were general cargo vessels and Nigeria was drifting from exporting groundnut, timber and cocoa to oil exportation. If they want to have a national fleet, under which group of vessels do you want to acquire a national fleet? You will go empty to Europe and Asia to bring your finished products to Nigeria as you are now exporting your crude and importing fuel. Since we own the project, raw materials and the products, we should also have a percentage of right to lift those products anywhere they are going. We don’t have that class of super tankers that come to lift our crude. We don’t have one. But the law says we have the right to also acquire some percentage of that product you are taking from our country. Is it human beings you want to buy cargo vessels as a national fleet to carry? Is it the Cocoa that you are no longer producing to the volume of exports? The government and politicians have killed every sector and the agricultural sector and are focusing on the crude. We need technocrats that will sit down, think and reposition this country. We are deceiving ourselves. The generation coming has no hope and every meaningful developed nation is aided by the maritime sector. It’s not every nation that is exposed to the water that is the maritime state. We were blessed, but we got it wrong. Cocoa House was not built with oil money. So please, let us know what you are doing. The country is finished.
Finally, you mentioned the issue of acquisition of ships but it has been difficult for the government to disburse the CVFF. What’s your take on this sir?
I am afraid if that money is still there because I still remember a time during the Buhari regime, when they tampered with pension funds. There was a period when the government was looking for money everywhere as this current government is doing now. This current Tinubu’s government is a tax regime with extra burden on the masses as Buhari did that they were looking for money everywhere. If they have that type of money somewhere, you think they will not touch it? I want to believe we don’t have that money anywhere. That is why they are tossing them to and fro. I don’t think that money is anywhere.
Ship owners are still paying that money, but I don’t think the cumulative money is anywhere. This is because parastatals like NPA, NIMASA and Shippers Council are the target of the government. This is why we don’t get the right people there. They get people that will dance to their tunes and make everywhere dry. This is because Nigerian banks are not ready to give loans to Nigerians, in terms of acquiring vessels. The interest rate is very high. There is even corruption in the banking system where the bank manager demands for his percentage and others. By the time you get the money, it cannot even meet up with all the proposals you submitted. Paying back these loans to the banks has been a problem in the past. They are not even getting it so who will give you a loan? They will not because of our corruption level.
