As Jamoh bows out, many gaps begging to be filled by incoming DG

 

Editor’s Note

 

The appointment of Dr Bashir Jamoh, MFR, the 6th Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) since the merger of the National Maritime Authority (NMA) with the Joint Maritime Labour Industrial Council (JOMALIC) to form NIMASA; elapsed yesterday, Sunday, March 10, 2024.

Jamoh took over from Dr. Dakuku Peterside whose four-year term ended on March 10, 2020, following his appointment on March 10, 2016.

Unless government decides otherwise, pending the appointment of a substantive DG by the Federal Government, Dr Jamoh is expected to hand over to the most senior staff of the agency today (Monday, March 11, 2024).

As he leaves office today, he is a man that could rightly be said to have come, seen and…no, operators say he did not conquer.

But piracy came down under his watch

Jamoh on assumption of office, as the saying goes, inherited both assets and liabilities of NIMASA, the major liability he inherited was piracy and sea robbery in the Gulf of Guinea which Nigeria is part, it was at all time high in the history of the Gulf of Guinea waters. But it was not a bad situation nothing was been done about when he came on board as DG NIMASA.

Under his predecessor, Dakuku Peterside, the Federal Government had through the Federal Ministry of Transportation commenced the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure programme, also known as the Deep Blue Project, a robust anti-piracy project valued at a whopping sum of $195 million in maritime security contract awarded to the Israelis’ private military security company, HLSI Security Systems and Technologies Limited, to supply maritime security platforms and train personnel.

The project which was been implemented in phases was at the phase of training of personnel and supply of the needed platforms when Jamoh assumed office.

It was, however, during the tenure of Jamoh that the deployment of the platforms and personnel to the operational areas commenced and President Muhammadu Buhari was on hand on Thursday, June 10, 2021 to inaugurate the official take off of the counter piracy battle.

Under the watch of Jamoh also, the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act, signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in June 2019 was tested in court as a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos sentenced 10 pirates to a total of 48 years each in prison under the SPOMO Act, for hijacking a Chinese fishing vessel, FV Hai Lu Feng II, in May 2020.

The result of those and collaborative efforts with stakeholders in the Gulf Guinea, yielded fruit in  drastic reduction of piracy and sea robbery in the Gulf of Guinea waters.

According to operators, this is where the news ended as the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in its 2023 annual piracy report stated about the Gulf of Guinea: “While the number of reported incidents continues to be lower than 2021 (35 reported incidents) and 2020 (84 reported incidents), there has been an increase compared to 2022 (19 reported incidents). In 2023, however, these waters accounted for three of the four globally reported hijackings, all 14 crew kidnappings, 75 per cent of reported crew hostages and two injured crew in 2023.”

IMB then stated, “Considering the sustained targeting of seafarers, the IMB is apprehensive of the perceived reduction of incidents and continues to urge all vessels transiting these waters to follow recommended BMP guidelines and report incidents to the regional reporting centres and the IMB PRC as soon as there is a suspicion of an approaching threat”.

Commenting on this, a former Director General of NIMASA told Advocacy Times that this is definitely not a compliment to the NIMASA’s anti-piracy efforts. “It means a lot more need to be done this year, going forward” he said.

Other operators who spoke to our Correspondent in different interviews at the weekend said that if the global maritime community is impressed by Nigeria’s anti-piracy efforts, they would have removed the War Risk Insurance premium Nigerian bound vessels pay.

They insisted that the decline in piracy being parroted everywhere by Jamoh as his landmark achievement has not brought anything tangible to Nigeria so far excerpt for few positive comments here and there.

They averred that continuous payment of the War Risk Insurance premium means that the ant-piracy war is not yet won, saying the War Risk Insurance is partly responsible for high shipping charges Nigerian shippers pay which they said, have ripple effect on the cost of goods in the Nigerian markets.

Call for a audit of the Deep Blue assets

Meanwhile, some of the operators have called for an audit of the maritime security assets acquired under the Deep Blue Project to be sure that those critical national assets are still in the country and intact.

According to the operators who would not want their names published, even with the coming on stream of the Lekki Deep Seaport, most Nigerian bound vessels still berth at the Togo Port from where Nigerians are called to lighter their goods to the Nigerian ports.

CVFF, so close but very far for operators

In a similar development, Advocacy Times reports that Jamoh met the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) in controversy with the ship-owners having no hope of getting the fund disbursed to them to enable them acquire vessels, and he is leaving it as he met it. Operators told our Correspondent that Jamoh like successive DGs in NIMASA only made motions without moving an inch towards actual disbursement of the funds to the Indigenous Ship-owners. As a matter of fact he is leaving the Nigerian ship-owners as pauperized as he met them.

NSDP as conduit pipe funneling scarce foreign exchange abroad

Similarly, the operators have further criticized the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) which Jamoh also inherited and has retained it till now, saying it has overstayed its welcome.

They described it as a conduit pipe for funneling the scarce foreign exchange out of the country.

They said many years after the intervention scheme was started by Dr Ade Dosumu, to rapidly rebuild the nation’s aging seafarers population, successive DGs should have empowered the indigenous training institutions, specifically, the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron—which indication emerged last week that NIMASA under Jamoh’s watch has refused to remit the statutory 5 per cent revenue to the Academy for over one year. The Maritime University Okerenkoko, Delta State, has been struggling since inception due to inadequate funding. These institutions according to operators should have by now taken over the responsibility of producing Nigerian seafarers and the NSDP discontinued. But Jamoh has retained the scheme, wasting scarce foreign exchange on it, even as there have been claims that not all the cadets that have completed their academic programmes have been able to get the opportunity of doing their mandatory one year seatime after graduation. They added that if the CVFF had been released to the ship-owners to acquire vessels they would easily be mandated to take the cadets for their seatime and if possible provide them with permanent jobs.

Finally, they took a swipe on the DG for his failure to put the over N100 billion Floating Dock (by today’s exchange rate) into effective use throughout his four years in office. They said the amount Nigeria is losing for leaving the facility idle is better imagines. They stated that the facility could have added much value to the Nigerian maritime industry being the only major ship repair facility currently in the country. “The Floating Dock if put into use will  save time for ship-owners, save foreign exchange for the country and earn huge revenue for the agency and provide job for Nigerians,” they said.