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The International Maritime Organisation (IMO)
considers marine environment management as one of the major aspects of maritime
that will engender sustainable shipping. Indeed the United Nations its
specialized organ, IMO recognizes the fact that shipping is a major mode of
transportation of goods and services from different parts of the globe but with
an unfortunate caveat of coming along with a huge burden to the environment
largely due to distortion and disturbances that may occur during the course of
conveyance of goods and services through the waters.
In order to ensure that a proactive stance is
taken to protect and safeguard the interests of the marine environment and the
ecosystem, the IMO established the Marine Environment Protection Committee
(MEPC) to deal with issues regarding the environment and proffer solutions that
will be adopted by member states to ensure environmental friendly shipping.
Observers and key players in the maritime
industry would not forget in a hurry that NIMASA in her bid to ensure a cleaner
and safer marine environment created a specialized Marine Environment
Management Department in 2008 to perform the functions of MEPC in Nigeria. This
Department was charged with the responsibility of ensuring the protection of
the marine environment in line with the global best practices. However over the
years there has been lack of political will, clear cut strategies and a strong
missing link which is the buy-in of the past headship of the agency on issues
relating to protection of the environment.
As if someone had whispered these issues in
the ears of President Muhammadu Buhari; 2 years ago he appointed Dr. Dakuku
Peterside to lead the Executive Management Team of the Agency to reform and
reposition not only NIMASA but also the entire Nigerian Maritime Sector.
Immediately, and not minding the
apprehensions in the sector that came along with his appointment, Dr. Dakuku
set out to work and came up with 5 strategic pillars in which his
administration’s agenda would be driven. And up there with others was the
strategic Environment, Security, Search and Rescue Transformation
Programme.
Interestingly, the man whose appointment did
not come without the normal hullaballoo knew that for the Nigerian Maritime
sector to be effectively revamped, there was the need to put issues of the
Nigerian Marine environment in the front burner because there was no way we
would not consider the sustainability of our environment while trying to
realize the shipping potentials of Africa’s most populous Nation.
For instance, the issue of marine litters has
always been a challenge of the sector, a quick glance at the Nigeria water body
back then would immediately put you off. But Dr. Dakuku came up with this
strategy of employing locals as marine litter marshals that will serve as
watchdog around their areas.
This strategy is worth emulating by every
administrator because apart from tackling unemployment, it gives youth a sense
of belonging as stakeholders in their environment. This decision by one man is
also seen as one to ultimately tackle youth restiveness in the riverine areas
which hitherto was a challenge for the Federal Government. As we speak a number
of youths are in the books of NIMASA serving as marine litter marshals in their
respective domains.
Surveillance is a major challenge of maritime
all over the world, recently the Director General stated that NIMASA as the
lead agency in providing security for merchant vessels is about making an
investment of $195m to acquire purpose built specialized mission patrol
aircraft and vessels as well as a command and control centre. Accordingly, this
will not only provide safety and security for merchant vessels it will also serve
as deterrent to perpetrators of illegal dumping at sea.
Emission of gases during the course of
transportation by sea has its own fair share of attribution to climate change. The IMO
estimates Carbondioxide emissions from shipping were equal to 2.7% of the
global human made emissions in 2007 and expects them to rise by as much as 2 to
3 times by 2050 if no action is taken. These calls for worries and the need for
development of a technical basis for the reduction mechanism of majorly
greenhouse gases from shipping should be put to the front burner by every
maritime Nation.
Under Dakuku’s watch, the agency has
commenced the registration of Local Fuel Oil Suppliers in line with the
regulations of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by
Ships (MARPOL) Convention and IMO Resolution MEPC. 182 (59). This will ensure
that ships running on unadulterated bunker fuels that have high sulphur
emission prospects would not be allowed to visit our ports as well as set
emission limits for vessels calling at our ports. It will also compliment the
agency’s ratification of Annex VI of MARPOL Convention on Air Pollution in
which Dakuku had set up a Think Tank Technical Committee to bring up modalities
for full and effective implementation of the Annex in order to control the
hazardous effects of air pollution and climate change in Nigeria. We should not also forget to mention that the
agency has in place a Climate Change Observatory Station at the NMRDC Kiri-Kiri
and it is also planning to set up same in various institutions that would aid
the analysis of the weather in the sector.
Implementing the IMO Marine Environment
Instruments have now become easier under Dakuku’s watch and visibly more
attention is being given to various Marine Environment Conventions such as:
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from ships (MARPOL),
The International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and
Co-operation (OPRC), 1990, The Protocol on Preparedness, Response and
Co-operation to Pollution Incidents by Hazardous and Noxious Substances,
(OPRC-HNS) 2000 to mention but a few.
Remarkably, while discharging her duties,
NIMASA keeps on opening windows of opportunities to various stakeholders and
also creates a lot of employment opportunities for job seekers.
Phase out of single hull tankers has opened a
new window for ship scrappers and the business of ship recycling is on the
rise. The Agency has brought a strict supervision regime that ensures that
scrapping and recycling of ships are done in line with the global best
practices. Ship wrecks on our water ways are now becoming a thing of the past
as there is a committee in place that is vigorously monitoring the removal of
towable wrecks.
The sea is now blue and Dakuku is still bent
on removing the word potential from Nigeria being a country of great maritime
potentials to a great maritime nation with the Agency’s strategically carved
mission to achieve and sustain safe, secure shipping, cleaner oceans and
enhanced maritime capacity in line with global best practices towards Nigeria’s
economic development.
Ganiyu Alayaki is a public relations officer
at NIMASA.
Source:
daily
trust. 29 March 2018
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