Stakeholders in the Maritime sectors gathered in Port Harcourt on Wednesday the 30th of October for a one day workshop for Energy, Maritime Reporters of Nigeria to highlights challenges bedeviling the Maritime operations in the Niger Delta, which constitutes more than 70 per cent of the Nigerian coastline.
This was revealed by the National Vice President of the Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dr. Emi Membere-Otaji, at a seminar/award event by the Energy Maritime Reporters (EMR) Corps in Port Harcourt spoke after handing the Best Maritime Reporters Awards to the winners. by His firm, Elshcon Nigeria Limited
The EMR Seminar and Awards 2024 has the theme; Understanding the Maritime Subsector and Issues in the Coastal Areas.
DR Emi Otaji said Niger Delta has enough human and logistics resources to lead the maritime industry because of over 68 years of oil exploration which has taken place mostly in the coastal states and within the waters, has discovered many locally-made solutions for the associated maritime industry. ‘the use of locally-made and manned flat-bottomed tugboats to move containers away from the Apapa Port in Lagos to other areas where trucks could pick them to ease the traffic gridlock at the nation’s sea ports. He suggested the use of locally-built flat-bottomed barges, tugboats, etc, to move containers away from the ports to terminals, so as to ease the gridlock. “Since crude oil was commercially discovered in 1956, exported from Bonny Terminal in 1958, the likes of Wheat and Bush of old, many years ago, had been building these flat bottomed barges and tugboats, because those are the things they used in ferrying the oil and gas tools to the rigs. “But then it was not offshore, it was mainly in the rivers and creeks. So, the flat bottomed barges can just avoid the gridlock,
“Dr Membere-Otaji who also bagged the industry award of the year,said,One of such solutions was His part of solutions to the Apapa gridlock, “I went to NPA headquarters and made presentations on how to solve the gridlock. They accepted the idea and thus used solution from the Niger Delta experience to solve a national emergency in terms of trucking and port congestion plus gridlock. Today, if you go there (Marina), you will see a lot of the tug boats. “There was no single flat-bottomed boat in Lagos. So, all of them came from Port Harcourt to Lagos. It takes about 14 days by the creek to move a tugboat from Port Court to Lagos, because of security and other challenges. We know it’s faster through the coast (ocean),”he explained.
Dr Membere-Otaji commended the Energy Maritime Reporters for taking the initiative to boost maritime reportage in the Niger Delta, said his foundation, Dr Emi Membere-Otaji Foundation, will continue to support the ‘Best Maritime Reporters Award.’ He also commended developments in the maritime sector in the region, such as the Charkin Maritime Academy and innovations and the marine engineering departments at the Rivers State University. “I thought I would meet my friend Charles Wami (Charkin). What he has here in Port Harcourt is something commendable.
There’s a lot happening there. If he had put the academy in some other locations outside the Niger Delta, they’d be reporting it every day. “Also, the maritime engineering department (at Rivers State University), I think it’s one of the best and one of the oldest. I know this because I studied at the College of Science and Technology (CST) that gave birth to it as the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) and now Rivers State University (RSU).” He maintained that it would not be a surprise to find the RSU coming up with startling innovations as mentioned by the Head of Department (HOD), who is chairman of the seminar, Dr Daniel Tamuno because it was first among higher institutions in Nigeria. “And they’ve consistently kept the pace.” He added that his company, Elshcon, has for the past 10 years supported the award for the best graduating student in Marine Engineering in the RSU.
Also speaking at the event the National Chairman of Nigerian Institute of Marine Engineers and Naval Architects NIMENA, Dr Daniel Tamunodukobipi, raised alarm over absence of professionalism and lack of standardization of the maritime sector in the country, noting that some certifications were being ridiculed abroad due to poor certifications of boats, which have led to increased boat accidents in the country and urged the government to employ core professionals in order to harnesses the blue economy.
“People are employed in ministries and agencies where they have not competencies. For instance, the newly created ministry of Marine and blue economy has no maritime experts, they have no marine engineers; their website is empty because the people there are square pegs in round holes.
“In NIMASA, the people there are not marine engineers but maritime lawyers; that is why that agency is not functioning optimally as it should.
“Core professionals should employ every agency bothering on maritime. NIMASA and NIWA certify vessels that cannot meet international best standards, because the people in these regulatory agencies are not professionals.
“Certifications from Nigeria are ridiculed abroad. During my PhD in South Korea, the Koreans kept wondering why marine engineers in Nigeria were unprofessional and inept. Unfortunately, the people they were referring to were not marine engineers but people who found themselves into the sector through cronyism. For instance, NPA put people with just WASSCE certificate on board, people who have no training on marine engineering.
“If the government and regulators partner with the academia to develop local technologies, Nigeria will be better off.”
NIMENA also decried pollution and marine debris on waterways, saying “Security agencies contribute greatly pollution of the maritime environment. Instead of arresting suspected oil thieves, they will rather airstrike the site and these fires will burn for days polluting the land, air, water and the entire ecosystem. It is unheard of that people pour petrol and bomb a rat, as it is been done in part of the world.”
Earlier, the Chairman of NUJ in Rivers State, Mr Stanley Job Stanley, challenged maritime reporters to draw government attention to the seaport in Rivers State to ensure their maximum utilization like Lagos ports.
“Journalism, just like medicine and law, has many fields and maritime is just one of them.
We are not utilizing our maritime potential in Rivers State. Our maritime sector is underreported in the Niger Delta, I don’t know how functional Port Harcourt and Onne ports are right now, because it is the duty of maritime reporters to report it
“We have seen reports that Lagos ports are over congested and it takes months to clear goods at Lagos ports. The question is, why are importers not using Rivers Port that are not congested? Why is the seaports here not functioning like Lagos ports? And if they are working, why is it not reported?”
Earlier, Chairman of Energy and Maritime Reporters Corps, Mr Martins Giadom, urged stakeholders to take a significant step towards promoting the maritime sectors’ growth in Rivers State, calling for collaboration with critical stakeholders.
Giadom emphasized the need for collective effort to develop the sector and highlighted EMR’s commitment to building a strong maritime, oil, and gas industry in the country, particularly in the South-South zone.
“We seek active collaboration from critical stakeholders, including NIMENA, MACBAN, CFRRRN, MWUN, NIMASA, NIWA, Customs, Indorama Petrochemicals, NPA, clearing agents, terminal operators, Shippers Council, to support the maritime subsector,” Giadom urged.