By Fortune Ulu & Loveth Anyaegbunam
Nigeria now has in place the Water Transportation Code, among other achievements, which became reality within one year of the assumption of office of Bola Oyebamiji as the managing director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).
Oyebamiji said this was made possible through the supervisory effort of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy under the leadership Dr. Gboyega Oyetola.
Speaking at a media parley in Lagos on Friday, he said within the period, NIWA had also been able to deploy several operational assets including 15 boats of varying capacities and uses to promote efficiency and service delivery.
“Similarly, we have provided greater incentives to our workers through the official commissioning of several capital projects to promote a better working environment. Not only this, we have continued to treat the welfare of our workers as a priority always,” Oyebamiji further said.
Despite the positive outcomes, he is concerned that there is a sore point that has always put NIWA in a bad light. “The twin issues of safety and insecurity on the inland waterways always overshadow every gain recorded by NIWA whenever it happens,” he pointed out.
To address this, he said NIWA has reconsidered its safety campaign approach to focus more on the grassroots using community resources.
“Within one year, NIWA has carried out more grassroots safety campaign than at any other time within the same period. Also, we have deployed water marshals across different loading and offloading points in the country.
“It may interest you to know that within three months of its launch, we have increased the number of our water marshals from 80 to 350 personnel. Recently, these officers were directed to commence 24-hour surveillance within selected locations to arrest the ugly incident of night travel and overloading,” Oyebamiji disclosed.
Beyond this, he said NIWA has taken the issue of safety on the water ways to the state governments who are also critical stakeholders with a meeting in Abuja on Thursday to evaluate the current challenges on the inland waterways transportation and find possible solutions.
The meeting which had in attendance the commissioners of transportation from more than 24 states, among other groups, he said, highlighted several important measures that must be taken to arrest the twin issues of safety and insecurity on the inland waterways.
He said there was the need to increase the level of awareness and campaign within the sector.
He urged the journalists, as opinion shapers, to partner with NIWA, in its mission to promote safer waterways through media advocacy.
“This is important to us because, of all the causes of accidents on our waterways, human error takes the lead. A further evaluation reveals that poor attitude and blatant disregard for safety protocol account for the greatest cause of boat mishaps.
“We therefore call on you to join us in educating our people on the need to be safety conscious always,” Oyebamiji implored.
