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…LAUDS NSDP….FAULTS DEARTH OF SHIPS!
Seasoned maritime administrator, Dr. Danjumah Dabo has tasked industry administrators to put in place, enabling environment which would guarantee that Nigerian cadets currently undergoing overseas seafaring training find jobs when they finally complete their studies.
Dabo, a chieftain of the All Progressives Party and an anchor man of Muhammadu Buhari campaign in Bauchi, made the observation, in a chat at the weekend, stressing also, an urgent need for a parley, between industry stakeholders and Government functionaries, in bid to create the desired synergy to ensure the desired future, for Nigerian seafarers.
Lauding the National Seafarers Development Programme, a brainchild of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dabo said the only thing remaining was that enough ground was not currently being prepared for the return of the cadets, especially in the area of creating employment opportunities.
“So far so good, the seafarers have been trained. But we need to understand that the seafarers when trained must also be provided with jobs.
“If you train me and there is no ship for me to work on, then what have you achieved? Nothing!
“So, we need to provide the trained seafarers the place to stand and work. We need to place them in ships!
“Except the dream is to train them and keep them by the port side as touts, looking for what to do. And of course, that wouldn’t augur well for the country”, he indicated.
“We cannot spend so many resources on them, only to abandon them mid-way!
“We have expanding opportunities to create jobs in that industry. And I think the solution lies in the operators and the government simply coming together to identify the simplest and most vibrant way to achieve this. And I know the solution lies in the full implementation of all the relevant maritime laws, to enable us reap the full benefits that currently abound in the Nigerian maritime sector for now”.
Making a critical appraisal of the industry, the maritime guru posited that the industry would grow faster, if stakeholders and the Government representatives, particularly the parastatal heads regularly meet, to synergize.
“Is there any where you don’t have synergy and you still have the best output?
“The things is: that these operators are out there—and they need the supports of government to achieve the nation’s desired goals—in one way or the other.
“The government must create the enabling environment for them to optimize the benefit of the maritime sector.
“The maritime sector all over the world is a revenue earner. So, if you don’t assist the operators and first try to understand their problems, giving them the best possible business-friendly environment that they needed, how can they assist you to give the country what the government and the citizens want.
“Why do we give waivers on ships when we have Nigerian with requisite equipment and experience staying unemployed?
“Why don’t we support and assist these people to meet the global standards so as to become useful to the country and the people?
“Of course, that is why it is very important that at this point, the stakeholders in the maritime sector and the government functionaries must regularly sit together, to explore specific and relevant areas where they must jointly agree to harness and synergize on, especially in terms of consolidating on all the efforts that have been put into moving the industry forward.
“We must explore how the CVFF can be deployed to achieve its original vision; so that the true Nigerian maritime operators that are genuine may now take charge of the maritime industry, and ease off the charlatans.
“We have a lot of opportunities in the maritime sector. And this opportunities need to be harnessed, so that both the government and people can optimally benefit from whatever programme it is pursuing.
“Look at the Cabotage law for instance; it is no gain saying that we have not maximally benefitted from the Cabotage regime.
“There has been a lot of lackadaisical attitude towards the (full) implementation of the Act. So, government needs to really push for full implementation of the Cabotage Act.
And beyond that, we need to drive for a full optimization of the benefits of the maritime sector.
“The industry so far, has seriously suffered from the ineptitude of those at the helms of affairs; especially from those set of people that are currently leading the industry. It appears some of them just found themselves there; and basically like I said before…it is the entrenchment of the reckless abandonment attitude in the running of things”, stated Dabo, noting that the incoming government never knew that things were as bad as they currently are, until it took over..
“The former government did not give the complete picture of what was actually on ground. It is only now that people are beginning to see things from a clearer perspective.
“You must have also been following the trend in the media too.
“If governance is about carrying the people along, then, by coming out to tell the citizens the true position of things on ground, then you can be rest assured that the people have been seriously short-changed.
From your perspective, the President has not spoken enough?
“Well, let’s be honest with ourselves. If you look at the little he said in South Africa recently and you see the way it was being mis-represented, then can you still blame him if he decides to keep his words to himself?
“One has to be careful on what one says in a situation like this. Especially, at this point in time, when expectations are so high from the populace because they have been suffering from a lot of hardship.
“So, one just has to be careful of what one says—otherwise, you may un-wittingly say something that when some fellows twist it finish, it may turn around and hunt you.
“Everybody –both the government and the citizens are so eager to change the situation of things in Nigeria and make it better that we tend to forget that you have to have the material resources to make those things happens.
“And where you think those things are not readily available, you have to start thinking in terms of what readily options are open to you. And how do you deploy them to achieve the best possible results—within the shortest possible time.
“As regards the need to rush things; we must recognise that the deterioration had taken a long time. It was something that had been wrecked with reckless abandon. It’s like talking of several years of the very last government.
“We really need time to fix things up and in understanding the best way to do it.
I know it would be fool hardy to say that the incoming government ought to have known things would be so bad. Of course, it couldn’t have known it would be as bad as this!
“It is only now that Mr. President is really seeing the real picture of things that one could realize that it must stake, a lot of composure, patience and the determination to tackle it, especially in terms of committing the little resources that are available”, Dr. Dabo, who was once an Executive Director of NIMASA concluded.