Former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Mr. Temisan Omatseye is contesting for the number one position of Nigeria Indigenous Ship owners Association (NISA). Last week, he spoke with some maritime journalists about his ambition, his vision, and how he intends to impact on NISA and its member s and the maritime industry in generals, if elected as NISA president. He spoke on other sundry industry issues as well. Roland Ekama was there for Shipping Position Daily.
Former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Mr. Temisan Omatseye is contesting for the number one position of Nigeria Indigenous Ship owners Association (NISA). Last week, he spoke with some maritime journalists about his ambition, his vision, and how he intends to impact on NISA and its member s and the maritime industry in generals, if elected as NISA president. He spoke on other sundry industry issues as well. Roland Ekama was there for Shipping Position Daily.
What actually informed the idea of your wanting to contest for NISA top position?
The bottom line is very simple, I am so grateful to God because before I became the Director General of NIMASA, I was a member of the Indigenous Ship Owners Association (ISAN) and I am one of those persons that pursued the enactment of the Cabotage act, with the likes of Chief Isaac Jolapamo, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho and others. We were those that worked assiduously to ensure that those people who tried to frustrate the act did not succeed. But as God will have it, I became a maritime administrator and thereafter I was able to see it from a different perspective which is the government perspective, to understand what it takes to be behind the hot sit of the government. I noticed that sometimes the private sector put more pressure on the government because they don't understand the bureaucracy in government. Now, I have been able to weigh both options. In the last three or two and half years, I have been deeply involved in issues surrounding vessel operations ,commercial ship operations etc and I thought quite clearly and observed where the bottlenecks are and how this relates to government. What informed my decision to contest for NISA presidency is that I believe that with the perspective I have, I will tell the people in government how to solve the problems that we are faced with and will also make them to understand how to clear those areas as well. I will also be able to bring both the private and government sector together, so that the sector will be appreciated by all. As it is I have been able to weigh both the private and public sectors and being on that seat will also allow me align with government position. I am not going to look at it from a governmental regulatory point of view but from a business perspective, in the sense that I will engage government and make sure they see what is happening in the maritime industry; make them realise the loopholes and where revenue are being lost because I have been able to appreciate that fact now and I think that is what informed my decision to want to contest as NISA president.
Often time, most indigenous ship owners have been complaining of being sidelined by government and now that you will be talking for both sectors if voted into office as NISA president, what should we expect?
First of all, we have to look at Nigeria as a country and the laws that surround ship owners. The laws we have in the country are in place to encourage shipping business and Nigerian ship owners. We have the Cabotage Act and not only that, we have laws that allow and encourage international players and the indigenous owners to become major players in the business because we have the cargoes. The cargo is in the oil and gas sector alone. The cargoes that are moved on our waters for example crude oil, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), gas, and others make us (the ship owners) to be a major player in shipping business. For example , right now , the Nigeria government is doing what is called the crude swap transaction and what that means is that where our refineries are not working, we are now exporting crude oil and importing refined products. Now if you want to develop your economy, I don't see why you cannot use what you have to develop the maritime sector since it is the sector that is developing the country. Again, why is it that one drop of oil are not being exported by Nigerian vessel, no drop of gas is being carried by Nigerian vessel even the Nigerian LNG that owns over 24 vessels do not fly Nigerian flags rather they fly Bahamas flag. So the point I am making here is that if we do not start to encourage Nigerian ship owners (even though we have our shortcomings) then it will continue to be a problem. The international guys that are doing this business are really different from us but unfortunately the guys in Abuja just want to give out this business to foreign ship owners but if they can give us such jobs to do , I tell you within five years of such contract we will be available to buy additional fleet of such vessels and what that means to the Nigeria economy- it means that we can easily employ the Nigerian seafarers, they become exposed to the business and not only that, the food they will take onboard such vessels are Nigerian food which means we are going to empower the people , the engineers are all going to be Nigerians and the one Nigeria seafarer on board will be able to train five others, which means that we are building capacity the way it ought to, besides you can imagine the impact it will have on the Nigerian economy. Definitely it will have a trickle-down effect on the Nigerian economy.
It is proper to say that there is a conspiracy between the people you referred to as the guys in Abuja and the foreign operators?
No, I will not say there is a conspiracy, rather I think it is lack of understanding. My own issue here is that what we have failed to do is to make government the economist and the failure on their part to empower Nigerian ship owners. The economist is very simple because when you pay a foreign ship owner money, it is purely capital flight and what we are trying to do now is how can we bring back those money to Nigeria, thus I don't think it’s a conspiracy. I think the right word should be out of ignorance because what happens is that the guy comes around for business but Nigerians who are making noise every where are not being allowed to come and say hey what that Greek man is offering Nigeria , I can do the same transaction as well , I can provide the vessels and all I am asking for is the contract of afreightment. If you can give me the contract of afreightment , let me have cash flow and with the cash flow I can go to my bank and I can borrow that same money because we all are going to the same place to buy these vessels from the same market.
What would do for seafarers if eventually you become NISA president?
To develop human capacity in Nigeria is very simple. If you don't have the machinery to train them, then you won't be able to bring them to line as regards what they are doing and the most important thing there is the certificate of competency, because we all know that it is what the seafarers always make references to and you can only get that certificate when you are been engaged on board a vessel. Again being on board a vessel is a problem. Now if we don't have a Nigeria flag vessel, how can you get your certificate of competence? So for every seafarer to get such certificate, you must have sail for some certain hours on board a ship. What is happening now is that foreign flag vessel will rather put their own countrymen on board their vessels and trade on Nigerian waters than engage our own seafarers and If we can have our own Nigeria flag vessels and we can get the contract of afreightment; I can assure you that we will be able to address issues surrounding Nigerian seafarers as regards employment and engagement.
Are you satisfied with the National Seafarers Development Programme for seafarers?
The bottom line there as regards the NSDP is that when the seafarers finish their education overseas in the next three or four years time, where are they going to work? I don't think after training the seafarers overseas, they will come back to Nigeria because the machineries are not in place. We don't have the vessels for them to do their certificate of competence; so guess what; foreigners are going to engage those seafarers that are under the NSDP, because they are going to be offered better salary.
The CVFF has not been disbursed to the ship owners for so many years, what will you do if you become the NISA president?
The CVFF belongs to the ship owners as far as I am concerned and it is the money that the ship owners have collected that have built-up to the CVFF and this is money that the ship owners are supposed to manage in acquiring vessels; it is a private sector money. We already have our system in place about how to go about it, but we don't want to unveil it because of our competitors in the association who might hijack our concept as regard the coming election, but when we get into office we will tell you those things that we have in place to ensure that the CVFF is disbursed to ship owners. I can tell you that as I am now, we are already engaging government on what to do with the CVFF and they are listening to my points .
What is your perception about the Cabotage Act?
I can tell you that there is nothing wrong with the Cabotage Act. The only problem we have about it is the implementation and the enforcement of the said Act and I can assure you that NIMASA is on top of it.
What are your visions for ship owners in Nigeria?
Our vision becomes a reality when there are platforms for expression. It’s my heart desire for so many years to see a new maritime sector that can evolve in our nation. However my vision for NISA and other Nigerian ship owners is what I have tagged our collective vision – "Improvement" and it is summarised as ‘I’ for Infrastructural improvement, ‘M’ for Management of the maritime industry, ‘P’ for Public and Private partnership for sector development, ‘R’ for Rapid development by stakeholders, ‘O’ for Open door policy at all times, ‘V’ for Venue for cross fertilisation of ideas among professionals, ‘E’ for Environmental sanitation well enforced, ‘M’ for Mass mobilisation of stakeholders for all round industry development, ‘E’ for Empowerment of all sea operators, ‘N’ for Neighbourliness among sister agencies and ‘T’ for Transparency. Probity and accountability would be our watch word. I also have no doubt in my mind that we can collectively build the Nigeria shipping industry of our dream where peace , justice and security will reign for us all and I want all NISA members to do it together.
Discussion about this post