Our seafarers, our pride!

ANOTHER June 25 has come! This is a day no one in the world should forget but somehow the day is still slipping under the radar. This special day has been dedicated by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to celebrate every seafarer in the world; in fact the day has been set to make everyone in this field feel truly special.

The 2022 Day of The Seafarers (DoTs) offers us another opportunity to beam our searchlight on the activities of these special people who help us connect all the dots in our maritime activities. This year’s theme “your voyage-then and now, share your journey” focusses on the challenges and progresses of seafaring profession and how these people have been able to navigate through every obstacle they face to make us comfortable and make a living for themselves.

According to the IMO, every seafarer is different but they all face similar challenges. The 2022 DoTs campaign with its theme focusses on the seafarers’ voyages, what it includes and how it has evolved over time and what remains at the hearts of seafarer’s reality. According to the United Nation’s maritime organ, this campaign gives seafarers a chance to share what resonates with them currently, whether it’s the crew change crisis being unresolved or the future technology.

This year’s theme truly emphasises that these gentlemen and ladies make a lot of sacrifice for us around the world and it further reinforces the need to protect these special beings as they sometimes pay the supreme price during the discharge of their duties. Which other profession would have been super active during the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe? As a matter of fact seafarers became strained during this period more than ever as number of countries including Nigeria came up with so many policies to protect them, knowing their importance in the logistics chain in other to provide COVID-19 vaccines and palliatives across the globe.

What goes through their minds while navigating deadly storms is what no one can phantom but being friends with some of them and having the opportunity of few of my seafarer friends share their personal experiencemakes me feel these should be the highest paying job in the world. These are people who sometimes do not see their families more than twice in a year facing a lot of health challenges onboard which also includes depression and also being suicidal at times. Just imagine living in your workplace for 3 months with the attendant dangers they face just to make the world go round.

It is true that every seafarer is unique, they face similar challenges but they also face different challenges and this makes the profession a unique one. This year’s celebration would create an opportunity for unveiling some of the challenges they face which sometimes go unreported or under reported as the power of the social media would be harnessed and they have been encouraged to take the advantage to upload their voyages in what I term the “good, bad and ugly” terms. Surely there are enormous benefits in being a seafarer because of the unique opportunity of travelling round the globe, seafarers also earn in foreign currencies and most times payment is inline with international standards except their uploads reveals otherwise which will be interesting to know but the ugly part of the uploads should be what the world should take note of and find ways of addressing them.

It is important to state that Nigeria has never treated the issues relating to the welfare of seafarers with kids glove. A case in point still remains the era of the COVID-19 pandemic where various notices were issued to ameliorate theirstress knowing fully well that crew changes within the period was a challenge and so the Dr Bashir Jamoh led Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) came up with so many notices to guide the operations of the seafarers in order to ensure no chain the maritime industry is not broken.

Again to note what the NIMASA administration has been doing well in relations to seafarers development, the Jamoh led administration has rejuvenated the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) programme to make it all encompassing by securing seatime berth for all cadets that has been enrolled for the programme in the best maritime institutions globally. It is worth saying that this had previously been the challenge of the programme before the Jamoh led administration came on board.

The NIMASA DG’s tenure in office has witnessed the registration of 589 cadets with various Maritime Administration for Certificate of Competency (CoC) examination and another 234 Cadets are already assigned to various maritime training institutes in the process of boarding various vesselsfor sea time training. There is also the recruitment of 200 cadets into third phase of the programme termed NSDP Terra these potential seafarers are already settled in India and Greece. These are no mean feat and the headship of NIMASA should be commended for being dogged to ensure Nigeria becomes a world producer of seafarers just like The Philippines.

According to Dr Jamoh while talking about the NSDP terra “we have redesigned NSDP to cater for the previous gaps and every cadet enrolled in any school across the world would have the opportunity of seatime and so you can call this a total package” Jamoh said.

Interestingly, the agency has continuously come up with protectionist approach for Nigerian seafarers especially when dealing with issues relating to Coastal and Inland Waterway Act 2003 (Cabotage Act 2003) which has one of its four (4) pillars as manning. And so to protect her countrymen from losing maritime jobs and as well encouraging them to participate in seafarers they are simply guaranteed through this act that they would get desired jobs in the sector and in the same light the waiver regime on manning is gradually but slowly being abolished.

I would like to say that seafarers are our pride and they are the most important professionals to our livelihood but unfortunately their impact in our lives have not been adequately given the credit it deserves. I hope this year’s celebration would play up how important these special people are because they truly connect the dots that make life worth living.

• Obiageli Chuma-Ugbo is a Chief Public Relations Officer with Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency (NIMASA)

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