By way of definition and identification, when we talk about seafarers, who are these people?
A seafarer is someone who is trained and certified to work on boarding vessel, when he’s trained, he must be certified. The certification must be recognized by the regulatory body which is the IMO.
What if I am certified but I am not trained?
It is not possible, except you want to buy the certificate.
Seafarers, Merchant Navy, The Navy, how do we differentiate these three people?
The word Navy, in which people does not really understand means
“ship”. People do not really have the understanding of the word “Navy”. The word “merchant” means “commercial”, so when you hear “merchant Navy” it means “commercial ship”, when you hear “Nigerian Navy” it means “country ship”. Globally, the country ship is called defense ship because their job is to protect the country from external attacks and the country’s territorial water. Every personnel that works onboard the commercial ship is known as a seafarer and they are called Merchant Navy personnel.
Do you all wear the same uniform?
No, we don’t. color white is a normal color, professionally we see it as a peace cloth, but what makes uniform different from cloth is the gadget on it. Merchant Navy personnel uniform have different gadget from the Defense Navy personnel uniform. Merchant Navy has been in existence before the creation of Nigeria, right from the First World War.
When we talk about seafarers and Master Mariners, what is the difference between the two?
Master Mariners are the highest level of seafaring. The first license rank on Merchant Navy is third officer/fourth engineer followed by the second officer/third engineer, chief officer/second engineer then captain which is the ‘master’/chief engineer. Merchant Navy rank goes with a license; you don’t just have Merchant Navy rank without the license. Merchant Navy also has the transition rank (fourth officer/fifth engineer, fifth officer/sixth engineer etc) depending on the capacity of the ship. Fifth officer or sixth engineer is equivalent to ‘midshipman’ in Defence Navy. Sometimes you can have a master license and have the position of a second or chief officer on board (depending on your contract) and the pay for that second or chief officer will be higher than when you are to serve as a captain in another vessel.
What are the roles and responsibilities of a seafarer?
Before I elaborate that, there’s another word I need to clear. When you hear the word NAVAL and the word Navy, they are two different things. I want to clear this. Navy is a ship but the word NAVAL is a ship that is engaged at sea, will need to understand this. So, talking about the roles of seafarers, let’s look at it globally. Seafarers run global economy they are essential workers. When you say essential, it means extremely important, something you can’t do without. Without them you can’t succeed you can’t even survive. Over 90% of what we use globally are being moved by sea; automobiles, medical, electronics, even the crude oil, the refined oil. Imagine if seafarers are not working what will happen to the entire world? During the pandemic period, the entire world was shut down but no country dared it to shut down their seaport, if they tried it, their country might not be able to even survive loss. I was actually at sea then. I was covering East Africa at that period, so you will know how important seafarers are because even to get the medical kit here, you need the seafarers to move it down if not the entire world would have been in a serious mess. No country, I repeat, no government in the entire world can survive without seafarers. They are extremely important.
So, if these group of people are that important, coming to Nigeria why is it that seafaring in Nigeria is not, permit me to say that we do not get to feel your impact?
Don’t say you don’t feel our impact. There are some people that are working in this country that the world does not even know that they are working and other people are taking the glory. I’m telling you, if seafarers shutdown operations for one day, NIMASA, NPA and Shippers Council will collapse. In fact, Nigeria economy will collapse. And I can boldly tell you that if seafarers should shutdown operation today i mean all seafarers in Nigeria, in the next 20 years Nigeria will not recover from the loss. Because where is that revenue you want to generate? If we don’t take out your crude oil, if we don’t bring in your refined oil, your automobile, your weapon, your medical kit, and the foods you eat etc. I mean everything you need to survive.
It looks like these community of people, they are not given the recognition that they deserve?
There are some people that are suppressing them that is why some of us have to step up our game and take up responsibility outside the country. Seafarers are highly celebrated outside the country. We have two types of license: the NCV (Near Coastal Voyage) and the FGN/OG (Foreign Going Nation/Ocean Going). We are well paid, well treated and well celebrated outside the country.
What can be done to revive NCV?
If our maritime curriculum can be reviewed to meet up the international standard, I think we will go places.
Who are those that should come together to review this?
That is NIMASA’s responsibility, apart from that we still have some Nigerians who are far better but the NCV license is limiting them.
FGN, NCV, what do you think NIMASA should do to be able to issue FGN/OG like Ghana is doing?
NIMASA knows what to do; it will not cost them anything to upgrade this license. There are some people in that NIMASA office that will not want the license upgraded because they will feel intimidated, they feel they will not be able to control these seafarers, they want to put them under their control.
What do I need to come on board?
Get into the maritime institution, get trained and get certified. After graduating from maritime institution, go for your mandatory, we call it STCW that is basic safety training and ISPS which is security awareness, and then get your seafarer medical certificate, your yellow card then go for your seafarer discharge book. You must have the basic training which is very important. NIMASA, please remove the limitation on Nigerian seafarers’ license and remove the waver so that these boys can have jobs.
*Courtesy: Merchant Seafarers Association Of Nigeria
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