Nigeria recently lost bid to get elected into the decision making organs of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) which it left since 2011. In this interview with TOLA ADENUBI, a former Director of Operations of NIMASA, Captain Warredi Enisuoh speaks on why Nigeria failed to get elected and what needs to change if the nation hopes to return to the elite group of maritime nations. Excerpts
Nigeria just lost again election into IMO Council. Are you surprised?
If you are going to make decisions for other countries at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council meetings, then it is very important that you ensure you do things right in your own backyard. At the IMO level, they are not stupid. They won’t let you come and make decisions for them when they are the ones helping you to keep your house in order. You allow people to help you take care of your problem (insecurity) and now want to be in the IMO Council to make decisions for those same people that are helping you fight insecurity, how does that work? We came up with Deep Blue maritime security, and till date, it is yet to intercept anybody disturbing our waters. We allowed foreigners to come and be solving our problems for us by tackling insecurity in our area of jurisdiction, and we expect other countries that are seeing these things to vote us into the IMO Council. Things don’t work like that. When the IMO audited Nigeria, some gaps were discovered. Have we closed those gaps?
Can you be more detailed as regards some of the gaps that were highlighted by the IMO during the last audit?
The IMO audited Nigeria and found out some gaps. Those gaps were written out in a long document during the time of Dakuku Peterside as Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). How well did we close those gaps? Have we even closed those gaps at all? The gaps were detailed in a very big document. If Nigeria wants to get back in the fold of the leading committee of maritime nations, then we need to start doing things right by closing those gaps. One of the major issues raised in the IMO audit that were documented is that NIMASA does not have enough professionals in its fold. Again, the IMO said we lack the process for employment of professionals in core maritime organisations. Another issue raised in the IMO gap analysis is that NIMASA lacks enough operational vehicles. The IMO also said that our Coastal, Flag and Port States Control systems were not working. These were just how basic some of the issues raised by the IMO were, very basic. IMO likes professional continuity. The level of Nigeria’s professional continuity in the sector is being monitored internationally. The whites don’t play politics when issues border on safety. You either get it right or get it wrong.
What are your views on winners of the just concluded IMO Council election?
For me, there are still some good winners in the IMO Council. Australia still won re-election into Category B of the IMO. Kenya also won re-election into Category C. Maybe we should go and ask these countries what they are doing that we are not doing right. Our major issue is that there is too much of politics in Nigeria’s maritime sector. When people like us were in the system, we advocated the toning down of politics in the system. I asked that we focus more on the technicalities in the system rather than the politics. That is why those of us who stood for the truth will forever be remembered, though we faced persecution.
But even when you were in NIMASA, Nigeria also failed to win election into the IMO Council, is there any difference between then and now?
Point of correction, we didn’t even go for the IMO Council elections in 2013. I was the one that advised the then Director-General of NIMASA, Mr Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi not to go for the IMO Council elections until we have succeeded in closing the gaps raised in the IMO audit. I told the then DG that we would just end up wasting public funds on an election that we couldn’t win. The country had just lost its re-election bid in 2011 when I was just coming into NIMASA. In 2011, because I was new in the system since I just joined NIMASA, nobody trusted me. So I wasn’t involved in the committee planning for the nations re-election bid. However, when I knew what that committee was doing, I told the Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi that this committee will fail. Lo and behold, we failed. That was in 2011 when I joined NIMASA. We had won election into IMO Council seats in 2007 and 2009 and were gunning for re-election into the Council in 2011. I told the then NIMASA DG that we would fail, and we lost. I knew they would fail then because I had just come from the Australia Maritime Safety Authority at that time, and knew what IMO should look at if we were to win re-election. But nobody was ready to listen to me then because I was new in the system. After my prediction came to pass, the then DG started listening to me more and in 2013, he followed my advice that we should not go for the IMO Council elections. I told the DG that we should concentrate on fixing the gaps raised in the IMO audit rather than wasting public funds to go for an election that we could not win. That was when we started closing the gaps. One of the gaps was that more professionals should be employed in the agency. In our efforts to close these gaps mentioned by the IMO, we bought more operational vehicles at NIMASA. Go and check how we were slowly closing the gaps before the new government came and said we should leave the agency. Because IMO said our Coastal State is not working, we decided to revitalise and revamp the Regional Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Kirikiri. I was one of those that put up the plan to renovate that place and put in modern equipment. Due to our efforts in closing the gaps raised in the IMO Gaps Analysis, that was why NIMASA under Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi never went for an IMO Council election till we were asked to leave office. Dakuku Peterside took over from Akpobolokemi, and the IMO came again and listed noticeable gaps that needed to be closed. However, Dakuku didn’t listen and went and contested the IMO elections in 2015 and we lost. We were laying the foundation before we were asked to leave. Yes, people will say when I was in NIMASA, we didn’t win IMO Council elections, but we never contested and didn’t stay that long to finish closing the gaps. The gaps were too many and we couldn’t close all of them in four years that I spent in NIMASA.
Going forward, what do you think Nigeria needs to do to return to the elite group of maritime nations?
You see, Nigeria needs to do away with politicising maritime industry. Just about two weeks ago, about 200 people were recruited into the nation’s maritime industry. How many were Ship Captains and Engineers? None, but the previous management also did recruitment all through its four years span, how many Ship Captains and Engineers were recruited? None moving forward, we need to do away with politics when managing our maritime industry. We need more professionals to help us man our maritime domain. It takes 10 years to become a Ship Captain. Somebody in the administration will think he’s supposed to start from level eight, nine or 10 after doing some two months courses in Harvard or Yale. Where in the world is that done? I was employed in the Australian Maritime Safety Authority at Decision Making Level owing to my seagoing experience. Anything from Chief Officer and Second Engineer above to Captain and Chief Engineer is considered Management Level at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The Nigerian maritime environment lacks the understanding of this. Until we stop politicising maritime and allow professionals to man technical areas, we might never return to the IMO Council.
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