The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety
Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has urged Nigerians to partner with
the Agency to ensure a virile maritime industry as the activities of the
Agency impact on the lives of all Nigerians. This is given the fact that
virtually every product used by Nigerians comes through the Sea and NIMASA
is the government Agency saddled with the responsibility of ensuring
seamless and secured sea transportation, without negative impact on the
environment.
The DG made this call during a breakfast meeting with media stakeholders
held in Lagos. He said that the essence of the Agency’s continuous
interaction with the media was in recognition of the role they play in
information dissemination and in educating the public. He charged them on
professionalism to generate sufficient and accurate information on issues
to advance credible and reliable reportage to elicit trust and hope in the
public.
He further urged them to use their platform to educate the public on the
activities of NIMASA stating that it will create awareness on the Agency’s
strides to advance the maritime industry for the growth of the Nigerian
economy.
According to the DG “*A lot of Nigerians have various misconceptions about
NIMASA and its activities, hence the need for synergy with the media. We
are regulating the maritime sector on behalf of Nigerians with the backing
of the Federal Government to ensure that we advance our maritime sector.
NIMASA is charged with the responsibility of regulating shipping activities
and the promotion of indigenous shipping in Nigeria. 90% of world trade is
by sea and 65% of vessels heading to Africa visit Nigeria. By this we have
the responsibility of ensuring safe and secure transportation of goods and
services to Nigeria”* he said.
Dr. Peterside said that the present management of the Agency which was
given the mandate of restructuring, repositioning and reforming the
maritime sector by President Muhammadu Buhari through the Honourable
Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi has taken
strategic steps to ensure that the mandate is achieved in line with the
Administration’s change Agenda.
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In his words “*to ensure that our mandate is achieved, we developed a
medium term strategic plan with five pillars viz; Survey, inspection and
certification transformation; environment, security, search and rescue
transformation initiative; Digital transformation strategy; capacity
building initiative and cultural and structural reform*”.
The Director General noted that the steps taken are yielding results and
this is evident in the reduction of piracy and other sea related crimes in
the Nigerian territorial waters.
Dakuku also stated that the Agency is in the process of rebranding and that
the New NIMASA brand would be unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari on the
20th of April, 2017. This would coincide with the meeting of the
Association of African Heads of Maritime Administrations to be hosted by
the Agency in conjunction with the International Maritime Organisation
(IMO) in Abuja from 19th -21st of April 2017. The DG said with the hosting
of the event, Nigeria is set to become a leading voice in the comity of
maritime Nations especially as the country seeks election into the category
C of the IMO Council seat in November, 2017.
In response, to the DG’s comments, the Chairman of the Association of Radio
News Managers, Mr. Charles Kalu commended Dr. Peterside for his
achievements within a short time of assumption of duty, he said that as a
pressure group, meetings of this nature would help them during their
reportage. He also appealed to the DG to look for avenues on the various
media platforms to reach out to the public.
It should be noted that NIMASA was established by the merger of the defunct
Joint Maritime Labour Industrial Council (JOMALIC) and the Nigerian
Maritime Authority (NMA) in 2007 to regulate shipping and shipping
activities as well as promote indigenous participation in shipping.