At a maiden Fellows’ Luncheon of the Centre for Marine Surveyors in, Nigeria, which held in Lagos, chairman of the programme and CEO Integrated Oil and Gas Company, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho, gave rich insights into the issues that require urgent attention in addressing the problem of increasing boa mishap in Nigeria. President of the Centre, Engr. Akin Olaniyan, also talked about key areas for attention, particularly public enlightenment on the right way to use a lifejacket.
Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho –CEO, Integrated Oil and Gas Company Nigeria Ltd., and Chairman, Waterside Centre.
How should the regulatory agency deal with the issues of capacity gaps in managing inland waterways transport in Nigeria?
That capacity has to be established. One of the things we don’t want established in our history is the fact that so often, on a monthly basis we will be recording so many Nigerian ships that have become casualty and we will be counting in tens Nigerians who have died. I make reference to that study carried out by Premium Times when they worked with reports within a four-year period. And they saw that 71 casualties had occurred and 1,032 Nigerians have died. Those Nigerians needn’t have died if we had taken precautions to ensure that we had Surveyors. Surveyors guarantee quality in terms of how you comfort yourself within the marine environment, the type of equipment that you use , the type hardware that you use, the type of infrastructure that is there , the processes that you follow.
It was extraordinary that our discussions dovetail. Fortunately, four days ago something happened that made us possible for us to pick this topic and dissect the issues.
But the idea is that there has to be a lot of investment in the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA). Government has to vie that money from other causes and put it in NIWA, so that they can develop the capacity, and they can ensure that we have safer inland waterways transport.
Engr. Akin Olaniyan– President of the Centre for Marine Surveyors in Nigeria.
What is the major objective of this Centre for Marine Surveyors?
The Centre is to promote marine surveying and marine Surveyors, and their activities. And the fundamental thing is to make the public aware of the position of marine surveying in Nigeria. It will improve the economy, it will improve the industry. Therefore, it will create more jobs. It will allow us to grow. No investor will come into the country if the industry is in shambles. We by ourselves must take the initiative to make our waterways safer, more viable. That is what the Centre for Marine Surveyors in Nigeria stands for, to improve on the quality of facilities by users of the waterways, the ocean passages, everywhere within the maritime domain.
No doubt, Captain Iheanacho has been one of the few people who have genuinely grown the industry and add value to the industry.
There are many more people who are into this, but this is the first of its kind. By God’s grace, we should be doing an annual thing, every year. This is the President’s Fellow Luncheon.
Subsequently, we should be taking people from the industry, who have contributed to the industry. We have always advocated for this. We had the first outing at the Shippers’ Council some years ago when things were not this bad. Now, it is really bad. We can only appeal to the government to give more attention to this sector of the economy. Lives are being lost every day, and the least we can do is to assist the government to make something meaningful. People don’t understand how our waterways should work. But, this Centre wants to throw more light to this.
The other day, they talked about having life jackets on when you are in a ferry. But, let’s use an airplane for example. When you are inside an airplane, they would tell you that if the plane ditches you should get out of the airplane before you inflate your lifejacket. The same thing applies to our waterways. If you have an open boat you can put on your lifejacket. But if it is closed system, the jacket should not be worn. But, it must be really available. Having the lifejacket on in a close boat system can even be the albatross. That can be the cause of death in the eventuality of an accident.
Life jackets should not be worn inside an enclosed boat, it should be outside. Floating jackets should be available on every boat. That is the key point.
