IMO day: Nigeria has nothing to celebrate - ship owners

ABIOLA Seun |

Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), has charged Nigerian government to focus more attention on resolving the myriad of problems confronting the maritime industry which have stunted its growth over the years rather than dissipating energy a d resources on celebrating this year’s the world maritime day.

Engr. Greg. Ogbeifun, the President of the association, who ventilated the feelings and thought of indigenous ship owners, urged the government on the need to synergize, so as to overcome the glaring industry challenges.

SOAN president gave the charge on Tuesday in Lagos, on the occasion of the global body’s birthday; and highlighting the need to see the IMO as a 70-year old Patriarch, with his children and grandchildren, at various stages of social and economic development.

Subsequently, he urged Nigerian decision makers, policy executors and stakeholders to be more altruistic, patriotic and committed as they appraise the nation’s human, physical and other resources with renewed determination to harness and uplift the country and the Nigerian people.

“Today the IMO is 70.The importance of celebrating this birthday and calling it the World Maritime Day by the world, is for each nation to take stock of the level of growth and benchmark it against the IMO set standard; and evaluating the level of achievements, the level of compliances, and otherwise; so as to know if the nation’s maritime industry is developing, is stagnant or is dying!”, Ogbeifun, the nation’s foremost shipping mogul stated.

“Today, some nations are already looking ahead towards the blue economy, towards completely unmanned remote ships, towards high breed ships and all sorts of futuristic growth to improve, enhance and make easy, safer and cheaper, their modus operadum in the shipping and maritime industry.

“Other nations assist travelling to gravel with the fundamental things, such as dealing with provision of their waters by such basic things as human defaecation on waters that people are swimming in; degradation of the aquatic life by oil pollution and no remedial action to mitigate against that; or to re-establish, the aquatic life and environment needed for the survival of the aquatic life and human life in these environments.

“While some nations have perfected the act of operating double haul vessels for carrying dangerous bulk cargo and protecting the nation and their environment; others are still struggling and arguing, whether they should get dispensations from other nations, or whether they should have dispensations to continue to operate single haul with its attendant issues.

“While some nations have perfected the act of training their nationals to enviable seafaring standards, that their seafarers are now sorry after all over the world; some nations are still unable to articulate an effective training scheme that will produce seafarers of any standard whatsoever!

“While some nations have taken advantage of the IMO regulations to grow their national fleet and become independent in the carriage of their cargo on export of their nation’s goods; others are still 100 percent dependent on foreign ships and foreign ship-owners to move their cargo both import and export!

“The question is: would there not be various types of celebration that the IMO and the world must have experienced today?

“It’s like a man that is 70 years old, and at 70 he has many children and grandchildren; those children must be like on different levels of success and failures, even though they all have equal opportunities from their background!

“So, what we are celebrating today are, of some children who have excelled, who have taken advantage of the opportunities given to them by their father to become chief executives in their own rights, to become successful entrepreneurs in their own rights.

And, of some, even though given the same opportunities, are still struggling to have/ make two square meals a day. They have the same opportunities and challenges, but for some reasons, they refused to take advantage and they are down there, with others up!

“So the question now is: Where does Nigeria belong in the above analogy?

“Have we, as a nation, taken advantage of the opportunities created by the IMO and the resources that God has bequeathed us in our environment, both human resources, natural resources and other resources? How have we fared as a nation? Do we have any percentage in carriage of our goods, both export and import?

“Do we have growing school of Nigerian seafarers who were even trained by Nigeria, or are we still depending on other nations to produce our seafarers? Do we still remember that we once had a national fleet that provided a platform that produced the aging skilled, certified and qualified seafarers?

“There has been no succession plan because certain platforms have disappeared that could have been revisited or re-established. What are we celebrating as a nation?

“My question is ‘What is Nigeria celebrating on IMO World Maritime Day?”, Nigeria’s foremost shipping guru, patriotically asked!