Harboursandport.com: Abuja - Nigeria’s recent experience at the
International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Category C Council elections losing
by just a vote, has given the nation a broader understanding of how politics
dictates countries positions in the Council.
 |
| Add caption |
The Director-General of Nigerian
Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Dakuku Peterside, shared
that view while addressing newsmen in Abuja at the sidelines of the
just-concluded National Transport Summit organized by the Chartered Institute
of Transport Administration (CIoTA) Nigeria.
Dakuku stated that though it would
have been great for Nigeria to win, losing the IMO Council elections wasn’t a
reflection of poor maritime administration for the country.
He referred to the fact that the
Nigerian maritime administration was doing more in terms of maritime activities
compared to other African maritime nations who won the elections.
“The election of any country is a
function of international politics. It is not a function of IMO or as a result
of what the administration of the country does or didn't do. Liberia has been
at the IMO Council for a long time but Liberia doesn't have a strong maritime
administration. Kenya doesn't have a better maritime administration than
Nigeria.
“I'm proud to say that in Africa,
Nigeria is the maritime administration that you can reckon with. You may argue
that Liberia has the largest tonnage in Africa, but Liberia has an open
registry. This means that most of the vessels in their registry aren't owned by
Liberians.
“Nigeria owns the highest tonnage and
this is verifiable in the continent of Africa. Nigeria is ahead of South
Africa, Egypt and all other African nations. In every area of maritime
administration, we are ahead of most countries, if not all African countries.”
Dakuku noted that in the case of
Qatar, bearing in mind international politics, the country had to withdraw its
candidacy for the elections when it saw that it would get regional backing.
“Qatar put itself forward to run for
this election, however, they discovered that other nations within their region
had come together to vote against them. They also discovered that Europe had
agreed to vote against them, so they pulled out of the elections.”
He, therefore, assured continued
efforts for optimal maritime administration in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the NIMASA DG advised
CIoTA to maximize its status as a chartered institute to improve standards of
transport administrators in the country.
He noted that transportation around
the world had observed massive technological advancement and encouraged
CIoTA to be central to research in order to get Nigerians up-to-date with
transport innovation and administration.
Speaking further, Dakuku said: “CIoTA
owes Nigerians the responsibility of protecting the interest of those who use
transport services. CIoTA should also be at the forefront of technological
changes that would see transportation make minimal negative impact on the
environment.”
In his response, the President of
CIoTA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, assured that the communique from the conference would
address numerous issues plaguing the nation’s transport sector.
Dr. Jamoh reserved special praise for
Dr. Dakuku who was also conferred fellowship of the Institute.
“It is an honour to have a
distinguished personality like Dr. Dakuku Peterside addressed as a Fellow of
CIoTA,” Jamoh said.
No comments:
Post a Comment