If there is anything that stands out about the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) in recent times, it is its commitment to ensuring safety of the country’s waterways. Also is the fact that its efforts are yielding fruits as the waterways are becoming safer.
Talks about the remarkable achievements in that line formed the discourse on October 25, 2024 at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, when the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIWA, Mr Bola Oyebamiji, had an interactive session with editors of various media organisations.
Although the focus of the session was generally to give a low down of the activities of the agency under the leadership of Oyebamiji, so much attention was given to issues bordering on the efforts to ensure the safety of the Nigerian waterways and how so much was being achieved.
Sparked off by the curiosity expressed by some editors about some of the boat accidents and accompanying loss of lives, the session apparently offered the opportunity for the chief executive to bring to the fore, the numerous steps that have been taken since his assumption of office, to reduce to the barest minimum, if not totally eliminate, the amount of accidents recorded.
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It was in the course of showing the unrelenting efforts of NIWA that Oyebamiji revealed further efforts in the pipeline to achieve a zero level of insecurity on the waterways. One of such steps to be taken is the phasing out of wooden boats on the inland waterways as he announced at the meeting.
He has a cogent reason for this: The wooden boats which constitute over 90 per cent of boats on the waterways account for majority of the accidents across the country. He explained that to a reasonable extent, they are often guilty of violating operational rules which include travelling at night, overloading and failure of both operators and passengers to use life jackets.
Phasing out the wooden boats, NIWA is convinced, would ensure the effect of other measures put in place, especially in the area of safety of the waterways.
The planned phasing out of the wooden boats would be an addition to some of the measures that had been deployed by the Oyebamiji-led administration at NIWA. Upon assumption of office a few months back, he had found very crucial the need to put in place, the Nigerian Waterways Code, believing it was a fundamental step to take if the desired goal of ensuring safety and boosting investments in the water transportation sector must be achieved.
For a code which had for many years remained a mere dream and its documents had gathered dust, bringing it to reality is a remarkable achievement. Specifically, the code is to define the supervisory role of NIWA regulating the activities of boat operators and the conduct of passengers among others.
The importance of making the code to see the light of the day was not lost on the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, in the area of safety when he paid a working visit to NIWA. His words: “I must commend the management of NIWA for their visionary intervention in ensuring that the Water Transportation Code comes alive after several years of being in the pipeline.
“With the code, I am convinced that we can now standardise water transportation, thereby reducing accidents on our waters to the barest minimum.”
Ensuring safety on the waterways, is certainly not about putting the code in place alone, but also providing and deploying the required infrastructure for adequate execution of the agency’s activities.
The Oyebamiji-led administration knows this much and has been unrelenting in doing the needful. One of such steps is the creation of NIWA River Marshals. Made up of carefully selected personnel, the marshals provide useful information to passengers and others at jetties and loading points across the country. They also see to the compliance with safety regulations by not only operators, but passengers as well.
At the initial stage of its inauguration, it had 80 personnel. However, within a short period, the figure has grown to 350 to be able to cover the country.
No fewer than two marshals are stationed at each jetty per time on a daily basis. In fact, they carry out morning and night shifts in order to bridge any gap or cover the vacuum that may exist. Through them, the agency has continued to embark on massive campaigns about safety across the country in both English and local languages.
Of focus are campaigns to, among others, dissuade operators and passengers alike from embarking on night travels, overloading and the dangers of not using life jackets.
Workshops are also organised for boat operators. It was at one of such sensitisation activities with boat operators to ensure sanity on the waterways in Lagos, for instance, that NIWA announced a three-month deadline for boat operators to obtain licenses.
Also put in place, among other facilities to ensure ease of operation and the consequent safety of the waterways, is the provision of 15 boats of varying capacities and uses, comprising three boats with 150 horsepower each (for surveillance to ensure that NIWA police officers are more visible); provision of five boats with double 75 horsepower each for enforcement of safety rules and regulations; provision of one combat-ready gun boat with 115 horsepower for emergency response to security threat; and the provision of one 62-seater passenger boat as a pilot scheme to replace the wooden passenger canoes.
Others are three fully equipped water ambulances for prompt response to emergencies and two hydrographic survey boats with multi-beam echo sounders to provide a more detailed and accurate picture of the seafloor among other projects.
NIWA is not taking the importance of various stakeholders for granted in the drive towards achieving its goals, especially in the area of safety on Nigerian waters. It is the seriousness with which it takes the complementing roles of the stakeholders that has led to the formation of a database for them.
It has also ensured that it relates well with them such that accessing their support wherever and whenever necessary comes naturally and effortlessly, thus promoting the cause of the security of the waterways.
Of particular relevance, for example, are the police, Navy, Customs and many others. Reason, for example that the agency provided a befitting security post for its police.
With all strategic steps ongoing, almost at the same time, it appears that it is only a matter of time for all and sundry to see the kind of transformation that has greeted the waterways administration agency and applauded the leadership for a job well done.
The proposed phasing out of the wooden boats promises to be a masterstroke, which will make apparent the amount of work that has gone into ensuring the safety of the Nigerian waterways.
Labiran wrote from Lagos
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