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 played 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.
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.