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The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has stated that the maritime sector cannot be functional without admiralty law because all shipping activities are governed by laws.
The Director General made this statement when he hosted the executive members of the Nigerian Maritime Law Association (NMLA), led by its President, Mr. Chidi Ilogu (SAN) who paid him a courtesy visit at the agency’s headquarters in Lagos.
Dakuku also noted that continuous cooperation amongst government bodies and relevant associations was critical to realizing a robust maritime sector.
Describing the legal association as central to the maritime activities, the DG stated that the agency would be willing and ready to partner with them, adding that an active legal framework is prerequisite to maritime industry’s functionality, in that the existence of the sector was reliant on certain laws.
“If there is a strategic partner we have without an iota of doubt, it is the Nigerian Maritime Law Association. In our industry, every stakeholder is affected by admiralty law; right from vessel acquisition, those who pilot the vessels, sea men, those whose goods are carried by the vessels, all of us are subject to one maritime law or the other. Without maritime law we have no job to do because ours is to enforce the maritime law, to ensure that we maintain standards and that everybody gets their own fair share in maritime transactions, whether as employees or as somebody whose goods are moved from one place to another, somebody who owns a vessel or even the impact on our environment. So everything we do is subject to law”, Dakuku remarked.
The NIMASA boss further reiterated that the maritime sector cannot be ignored because of the opportunities that abound in it.
“Nigeria is at a strategic point where crude oil and gas is no longer what it used to be, and this had forced the Federal government to look critically into other sectors. There is an urgent need to reform our laws to bring them in tune with current realities globally and locally and the other one is in the updating of our current laws in line with global best practices so that our maritime sector can be attractive and competitive in the comity of maritime nations for other people to do businesses with us”, he said.
The Director General also expressed hope that at the forthcoming seminar for judges to be organized by the agency, judges and maritime lawyers would have the opportunity to brainstorm and proffer possible solutions to issues relating to the growth and development of the maritime sector.
Meanwhile, the President of the association, Mr. Luke Chidi Ilogu, SAN commended the Director General for his passion in making Nigeria’s maritime sector rank high in the comity of maritime nations and assured continuous support of the body to ensure the agency realizes its mandate of repositioning NIMASA and the entire sector.
Ilogu also called on the agency to take advantage of the competence and expertise of professionals in the association for the good of the industry and assured of their availability anytime they are called upon.
