...Decries Lack Of Seafarers Succession Plan
By Rahanetu Abuh
Harboursandport.com: Lagos - September 27, 2024: The President of the Nigerian Shipowners Association of Nigeria, NISA, Sola Adewumi, has revealed how foreign ship owners frustrated him into selling his three 6,000 ton tanker vessels.
He also decried the fact that there is no succession plan in place and that the government is paying deaf ear to the cries of practitioners
Adewumi disclosed this while speaking at the 16th Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors, AMES's, technical summit which took place in Lagos.
The NISA boss explained that the foreigners who came with their mother ships that are anchoured mid stream, usually does mid stream transfer to smaller vessels that convey the products to tank farms onshore.
He noted that the foreigners deliberately put stumbling blocks on the way of Nigerian ship owners to disqualify them from lifting products.
He pointed out that even when their ships are sea-worthy, the foreigners still make demands that will make impossible for them partaking in lifting of products.
Adewumi stressed that once you meet one demand, they will allow to lift for a while and then make fresh demands.
He said the stress and the fact that vessels start deteriorating once it's not operational, led him to sell the three vessels.
He said; "there was a time when I first started, I had about three 6,000 ton vessels, and after freighting for three years, I sold the three vessels because of international conspiracy.
"Foreign conspiracy in the sense that, immediately the refinery stopped working, they brought product into this country and they will tell us we don't have a certificate meanwhile, they have a way of favouring the rusty buckets that they brought in from Europe," he said.
He further added that while vessels that cannot work were brought into the country from Europe unhindered operations, the foreigners were demanding for one certificate or the other to be tendered.
Worried about the future of the maritime industry, the NISA President raised concern about the lack of a succession plan for aging seafarers.
"In advanced maritime countries, ship owners move from one generation to another.
"We need to ask ourselves questions, we have the likes of my oga Chief Jolapamo, and my other oga Capt. Ihenacho, l know that Senator Ladoja was in the industry at a time and others here.
"The question we need to ask ourselves is, why are they not handing over to the next generation.
"There is no economy that the government doesn't subsidize anything but it is the way the subsidy comes that is the issue. If we like we can talk till tomorrow, it will not work," he noted.
Even though the succession plan is the only way to get the maritime industry going, he decried the fact that the government is paying deaf ear to the cries of practitioners, he noted.
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