Captain Thomas Kemewereigha is the immediate past National President of the Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association. In this interview with Shipping Position Daily correspondent DAPO OLAWUNI, Capt Thomas disagreed with a statement made by the association’s incumbent president, Engr. Mathew Alalade in which he told this newspaper that the certificate that NIMASA issues is not in compliance with IMO standard. He spoke on other issues too.
Captain Thomas Kemewereigha is the immediate past National President of the Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association. In this interview with Shipping Position Daily correspondent DAPO OLAWUNI, Capt Thomas disagreed with a statement made by the association’s incumbent president, Engr. Mathew Alalade in which he told this newspaper that the certificate that NIMASA issues is not in compliance with IMO standard. He spoke on other issues too.
Is it true that the certificates issued by NIMASA to seafarers are below IMO standard?
I read it in your publication and from that point, I started assuming that my president, Engr. Alalade who is a ‘guru’ in the maritime industry with respect to electronics, he is an electronic surveyor with Lloyds, NIMASA and so on, I find it difficult to believe that somebody like him will issue such a statement. I have to make it straight that NIMASA certificates are acceptable worldwide, NIMASA has not gone outside the guidelines of IMO because as a member of IMO and as a agency that is compliant of STCW 95, they follow the due process of five years of grace in validating home trade certificates to compliance, they follow all the processes and till date IMO has been sending auditors to audit the system and they have never found NIMASA wanting, if IMO as an authority that sends auditors to member state to check procedures has not found NIMASA wanting, I don’t know where this information is coming from, that is why I believe my president, Engr Alalade is too knowledgeable to have used that type of language.
If this is true, then why are the Certificates not recognized outside Nigeria?
There is something missing somewhere and it is called bilateral agreement, if you go to Ukraine to read medicine and you come back to Nigeria, you cannot practice, you must first of all meet the requirements of the medical association of Nigeria here before you can practice in Nigeria, every flag state produces their certificates through authorization of the IMO in compliance with STCW. IMO has set a guideline and every member state must follow that guideline, we don’t build ships, we don’t own ships, so if flag state ‘A’ says before you own my flag these are the conditions, Nigeria also has its own flag state, the two flag states have to marry at the lower level why the IMO is watching at the upper level, if there is an MoU, then we can interchange our certificates, Nigeria also has a right not to recognize British certificates in this country simply because we do not have an MoU with them, the cloud is open but there are routes that airlines must follow in another man’s country, these are the little things we should know and not to discredit the efforts of our leaders, all we need to do is to have more bilateral agreements with flag states.
Is it not because Nigeria lacks training vessels that our seafarers are being rejected?
No, if you go by that way then I will ask you how many training vessels does Ghana have. The number of vessels operating in our Cabotage regime because of our abundant resources are enough to absolve our cadets from the maritime institutions, buying training vessels is not what matters but the ability to be onboard a vessel to get your sea time is what matters, the number of vessels from coastal tankers and other vessels operating on our waters, if there are laws that bind them to absolve our cadets as they come out of the schools, then they will get their sea time, because without that sea time, you cannot get a professional ticket.
If the certificates are okay, why are our people still travelling out, especially to Ghana?
If you tell me that there are some courses that are not obtainable before this time and they were been obtained in Ghana I agree with you, and all these things border on foreign exchange, if you go to Ghana to get your mandatory and you needed to upgrade yourself you will have to get verification from Ghana, and unless Ghana replies us Nigeria will not accept your admission to upgrade yourself, but I can bet you today that people are beginning to realize and the interest to Ghana is just few courses that are not obtainable in Nigeria, also, most of these certificates are renewable certificates, so it is easier to renew than to start afresh, this does not totally mean that people are running to Ghana.
Are you optimistic that the new executive of the association can carry on the legacy you left behind?
I am very confident of them because they were not just appointed or elected, they are tested credentials in the maritime industry, and it will also interest you to know that we that we are retired but not tired, we are still in the system and giving advice, the association is not a family affair, it cuts across the world with ITF affiliation, so we advice ourselves, we are working collectively, even my past presidents are also contributing till date, it is not like in other places that whenever a system fails you hold the man at the top, here, if the president fails all of us have failed, and he will never fail because all of us cannot fail, it is a collective responsibility to champion the course of the association.
During your tenure, is it true that identity cards were given to every Tom, Dick and Harry?
Even government agencies like the Army, Navy and Customs often have fake persons impersonating as officers, not that the office was issuing these identity cards to them, in the same vein the Nigerian Army authority will not issue identity cards to unknown military personnel, it is everywhere even in the medical sector and even in the judicial system. There are certain things that baffle me; my president said identity cards were issued, I don’t think he will say that, he has spent four months in office and how many has he issued to the people that do not deserve it, the bottom line is that the association is a beautiful pride and even those who are not qualified wants to associate with it, we don’t issue identity cards to non-members.
What is your assessment of the security on Nigerian waters presently?
On the issue of security, I always believe that security issues should not be for public digestion because human lives are involved, by the time you discuss it openly you endanger the lives of those directly involved and you also help your enemies to develop advance technologies based on your discussions, there are certain issues that are discussed and sealed at particular areas because of its importance, if I tell you my point of view on how this issue can be curbed and you publish it, those directly involved in these activities will now know where measures are being taken and they will advance before that, so I think security issues should be left with the security agencies, but I must tell you that it is not as rampant as it was before. The reason why we have not been achieving much on security is because every step the government wants to take they first blow it all over the place, the bad guys now know where they are heading to and they move ahead of them, information should be passed to those in charge so that our faceless enemies will not know our intentions.
How will the death of Global West Vessel Specialist managing director affect the security on our waters?
Yar Adua died and today Jonathan is there, nobody is indispensable, may his soul rest in peace, he came played his part, now he is gone, we are praying that whoever will come should emulated Capt Romeo’s good deeds and surpass them because in this world nobody is indispensable. Somebody might have good intentions, might be more knowledgeable than him, so his dying does not mean it will in anyway affect security, because the legacies are there already, it is building on the legacies that matters, if you die today it does not mean all your endeavors on earth are ended, your child could pick it up and excel than you did. I must tell you the truth, the defense sector killed the economy of this country, they killed the medical, the education and so on because of the budget, the budget is always on paper but not applicable or real, so if somebody now came and said he will supply the platform that is lacking, every other year the Nigerian Air Force, Navy, and the Army are recruiting, I don’t even know if the number of people they recruit supersedes those they retire, and yet the platform to use these people for is not available, and budgets are dashed out every year, so if somebody is now coming out with platforms, I think it is one good thing.
Do you think Nigeria should ratify the Maritime Labour Convention?
Even though you are a member of ILO and you did not vote or you voted but you have not ratified it, once these conditions of ILO are met, the convention binds you, just a week ago, ILO met with 33 member state for enforcement of the convention next year, so whether you ratify it or not, the enforcement will catch up with you. But I thank God today that Nigeria is at the verge of ratification of that convention, they have done the preliminary at the Labour advisory council, on the 28th of this month we are going back for the final stage of ratification, so we are on course.
What effect will this convention have on our Nigerian seafarers?
It can be referred to as the maritime Bible, some people do not even know why the convention is coming up, it has 70 maritime instruments and components that were brought together, it is very expensive and cumbersome to ratify international conventions, but by the time you ratify this, you have ratified everything. The document on the MLC is tripartite, in it, ship owners are represented, workers are represented and so on, the discussions bothers on the betterment, good bargaining and so on for the seafarers, including safety measures, it is all for the interest of the maritime family.
What do you think is responsible for Nigeria losing its seat on the IMO?
We have been on that seat for quite some time and for that period a lot of things happened that one of the publications referred to as lobbying member state for votes, it goes beyond local politics, but the bottom line is that if we begin to do the right thing at the right time we don’t need to lobby negative things to turn it into positive things all the time, if we do our home work well and make ourselves an exemplary maritime state in West Africa, we don’t need to lobby, people will come. Like the Cabotage law we have today, it is a beautiful pride but it is not being implemented properly, if we start doing the right thing at the right time, we will become a pride to other member states and without lobbying they will be supporting us, they will beg to vote for us and not we begging them.
What will you consider your greatest achievement when you were the president?
They are very many. The major one I will always remember is that this association was dully represented in the formation of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 which brought about 70 maritime instruments, this association was represented from 2002 to 2006 and even voted on behalf of Nigerian workers. We were also directly involved in the fishery convention of 2005, we have been actively involved in internal policies in the maritime sector, and during our own tenure too, we were able to come up with benchmark for seafarers even though we are having some hitches on its implementation, the maritime domain was very peaceful.
Discussion about this post