The
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency
(NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has urged Nigerians to partner with the Agency
to ensure a virile maritime industry as the activities of the Agency impact on
the lives of all Nigerians. This is given the fact that virtually every product
used by Nigerians comes through the Sea and NIMASA is the government Agency
saddled with the responsibility of ensuring seamless and secured sea
transportation, without negative impact on the environment.
The DG
made this call during a breakfast meeting with media stakeholders held in
Lagos. He said that the essence of the Agency’s continuous interaction with the
media was in recognition of the role they play in information dissemination and
in educating the public. He charged them on professionalism to generate sufficient
and accurate information on issues to advance credible and reliable reportage
to elicit trust and hope in the public.
He
further urged them to use their platform to educate the public on the
activities of NIMASA stating that it will create awareness on the Agency’s
strides to advance the maritime industry for the growth of the Nigerian
economy.
According
to the DG “A lot of Nigerians have various misconceptions about NIMASA
and its activities, hence the need for synergy with the media. We are regulating
the maritime sector on behalf of Nigerians with the backing of the Federal
Government to ensure that we advance our maritime sector. NIMASA is charged
with the responsibility of regulating shipping activities and the promotion of
indigenous shipping in Nigeria. 90% of world trade is by sea and 65% of vessels
heading to Africa visit Nigeria. By this we have the responsibility of ensuring
safe and secure transportation of goods and services to Nigeria” he
said.
Dr.
Peterside said that the present management of the Agency which was given the
mandate of restructuring, repositioning and reforming the maritime sector by
President Muhammadu Buhari through the Honourable Minister of Transportation,
Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi has taken strategic steps to ensure that the
mandate is achieved in line with the Administration’s change Agenda.
In his
words “to ensure that our mandate is achieved, we developed a medium term
strategic plan with five pillars viz; Survey, inspection and certification
transformation; environment, security, search and rescue transformation
initiative; Digital transformation strategy; capacity building initiative and
cultural and structural reform”.
The
Director General noted that the steps taken are yielding results and this is
evident in the reduction of piracy and other sea related crimes in the Nigerian
territorial waters.
Dakuku
also stated that the Agency is in the process of rebranding and that the New
NIMASA brand would be unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 20th of
April, 2017. This would coincide with the meeting of the Association of African
Heads of Maritime Administrations to be hosted by the Agency in conjunction
with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in Abuja from 19th -21st of
April 2017. The DG said with the hosting of the event, Nigeria is set to become
a leading voice in the comity of maritime Nations especially as the country
seeks election into the category C of the IMO Council seat in November, 2017.
In
response, to the DG’s comments, the Chairman of the Association of Radio News
Managers, Mr. Charles Kalu commended Dr. Peterside for his achievements within
a short time of assumption of duty, he said that as a pressure group, meetings
of this nature would help them during their reportage. He also appealed to the
DG to look for avenues on the various media platforms to reach out to the
public.
It
should be noted that NIMASA was established by the merger of the defunct Joint
Maritime Labour Industrial Council (JOMALIC) and the Nigerian Maritime
Authority (NMA) in 2007 to regulate shipping and shipping activities as well as
promote indigenous participation in shipping.
No comments:
Post a Comment