Dayo Mobereola Receives Rousing Support to Succeed at NIMASA
… Promises to align with stakeholders’ inputs to form his administrative goals
Barely two months of the appointment of the new helmsman at the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dayo Mobereola, an avalanche of maritime stakeholders and industry gurus were all gathered at the Grand Ballroom Hall of Eko Hotels and Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos for an interactive meeting with the new DG, to offer support and in like manner to set agenda for the new NIMASA boss.
The session which had almost all the past headship of the agency present save for the immediate past DG, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, Dr Dakuku Peterside and Alhaji Jafaru who all personally called in to pledge their support is said to be the first of its kind organised to welcome a newly appointed head of agency in the sector with a view to garner support for him to succeed and move the maritime industry forward to another realm of development.
Aside the presence of past Director Generals of the agency like Dr. Ade Dosunmu, Arc Ferdinand Agu, Temisan Omatseye and Alhaji Ahmed Tijani, the Pioneer Board Chairman of the Agency, at the elaborate discussion event, captains of the industry such as Ship Owners, Terminal Operators, Shipping Companies, Unions like Maritime Labour, Seafarers, Women’s Professionals in Maritime, as well as private professionals in the industry among others were largely available to fill the hall to capacity, to give a remarkably robust interactive participation.
Firstly at the forum which was held on Thursday, May 09th, 2024, the new DG tends to have largely received the assurances of his past predecessors and other stakeholders to run a purposeful and successful administration, with strong advice to avoid, and perhaps learn from past mistakes.
Dr. Ade Dosunmu in his remarks and on behalf of past NIMASA Director Generals (DGs) welcomed Dayo Mobereola to the Agency and also on their behalf promised their support and commitment to make him succeed. He noted that, “We are a phone call away anytime you need our advice”.
Other past DGs also spoke with enthusiasm and passion they have for the agency, exposing their unflinching bond with NIMASA, as they unanimously express their commitment to always support and offer useful advice to the Dr. Mobereola to succeed in their separate speeches.
On his part, Temisan Omatseye, a former NIMASA DG, gave an interesting speech that attracted mixed feelings when he hilariously ruled out the disbursement of CVFF under Mobereola, and as well said NIMASA has lost focus of its original mandate.
The former Director General of the agency initially bewildered guests at the fully packed hall when he pointedly told the incumbent DG of the agency, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, that he would not be able to disburse the controversial Cabotage Vessels and Financing Funds (CVFF) during his tenure, no matter how hard he tries. He declared, “Let me be frank with you, you will not be able to disburse CVFF”.
Omatseye however gave reasons for his pessimistic stance hinging it on the conflicting position of the CVFF guidelines and the regulations of the Banks and Other Financial Institution Act (BOFIA).
He explained that by virtue of the CVFF, NIMASA is engaged in risk assessment before the funds are discussed but BOFIA does not allow an outsider to do risk assessment as it relates to funding. He also said that Mobereola does not need to be held captive by the politics that has stalled the disbursement of the controversial CVFF since 2006 as he has an escape route in the guidelines of CVFF disbursement.
In his words, “You can go outside the box. The beauty of it is that the CVFF has to be disbursed according to the guidelines made by the National Assembly and approved by the minister. So you don’t have to be held captive,” Omatseye said.
Also in a bold manner that was generally applauded by the highly attentive audience, Omatseye declared that the main core function of NIMASA is not about regulation but promotion and development of the capacity of indigenous ship owners to compete in international trade. He buttressed this with Section One of the NIMASA Act which encapsulates the core function of the agency which is to develop the indigenous ship owners’ capacity, noting that the regulatory aspect is secondary.
According to him, the main objective of NIMASA is to develop the capacity of the indigenous ship owners as he captured it in 3 Ps: to Promote, Protect and Provide the enabling environment for indigenous ship owners which is the most important objective of all maritime administration worldwide. To achieve this, he said NIMASA must return to her core function.
Omatseye also revealed that the agency does not have a maritime and policy strategy approved by the National Assembly to drive its operations.
“We must first ensure that the National policy and strategy on maritime is approved. Secondly, we must have Nigeria’s policy and strategy on maritime that is well outlined on what must be achieved and then set a timeline on when to achieve them. Also, NIMASA must be professionalised by reviewing the agency’s organogram and everybody in NIMASA must have a job description while all NIMASA staff should have a career path”, Omatseye advised.
He also advocated for salary review for NIMASA staff to engender motivation, while also calling for process audit and full automation of the agency and devolution of operational powers to the agency’s Zonal offices. “The operations of the agency should be decentralized and taken to the zones of the agency in the East and West and Abuja.
“Stakeholders, including ship owners, need not be converging on the offices of the agency before they can register their vessels. They should be able to register their vessels in the comfort of their offices,” Omatseye said.
Furthermore, Omatseye advised the agency to streamline the issuance of Certificate of Competency (CoC) to eliminate forgery and quackery in the seafaring profession in the country.
Elatedly, the new DG, Dayo Mobereola however grabbed the opportunity as he said he would not hesitate to grab the offer of support from his predecessors, saying such advice would be useful and come in handy in order to chart and navigate successfully the difficult terrain of the maritime industry.
“To avoid the mistake of the past, we must learn from the past.
“We shall be calling on you from time to time for your advice” he informed his predecessors and audience.
He said he has been learning the intricacies of the industry since two months after he resumed duties and promised to develop the objectives, goals and strategies from all that he had learned, especially from the array of inputs made by the stakeholders at the interactive session.
“We need to move the industry forward and align with the vision of Mr President”, he declared.
Mobereola said he was at the interactive session to listen to the comments, advice and complaints of the stakeholders. “I have listened and taken note of all your comments and all what you said shall be put to plan”.
He however promised to immediately build his plan for the next four years around the inputs made by the stakeholders.
Earlier, stakeholders of different shades of opinions have set a broad-based agenda for the new NIMASA DG.
The aggregate opinions centered on safety, capacity building of Seafarers, marine engineers and maritime businessmen/women, environmental protection, infrastructural development, and ratification of IMO conventions that are only relevant to the needs of the maritime industry and its operators in the country.
Other agenda include automation of NIMASA operations, professionalization of the agency and digitalization of NIMASA’s ship registry.
Again in his response, Dr. Dayo Mobereola promised to work on the automation of the ship registry without delay. He also promised to look into gender inclusion and rectify any area of shortcomings.
“All these suggestions will be considered and worked on to get a sustainable plan for the maritime industry which will be acceptable to the regulators and practitioners”, he said.
He however promised to escalate his engagement to the sectional stakeholders to enable him to get a fair representation of the wishes and aspirations of the operators in the industry that will help him develop a robust maritime strategy.
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