Maritime security: There’s nothing wrong if we award contracts to ex-militants – NIMASA DG
A former Transport Minister, Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio obtained the Federal Executive Committee (FEC) approval for the establishment of a Coast Guard, as it is obtainable in the US and other countries, to secure the nation’s coastline. However, NIMASA abandoned the idea and contracted the security of the coastline to an ex-militant, Tompolo. What informed […]
A former Transport Minister, Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio obtained the Federal Executive Committee (FEC) approval for the establishment of a Coast Guard, as it is obtainable in the US and other countries, to secure the nation’s coastline. However, NIMASA abandoned the idea and contracted the security of the coastline to an ex-militant, Tompolo. What informed that decision?
The true picture of this is that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) or the Federal Government had not given out on concession maritime security to any private company, neither did we engage the services of any former militant for the purposes of enforcing maritime security. The concession that was granted to Global Wealth Investment Specialist Nigeria Limited is to provide electronic platform system that will enable NIMASA to police the territorial waterway and bring accountabilities in terms of vessels that are coming in and going out or trading in our territory. Also, it will enable us know cargoes coming into the shores of Nigeria, for the purpose of enforcing our statutory levies and for the purpose of disallowing harmful products, unauthorized products or dangerous products from coming in to our shores without government’s permit.
On the issue of Coast Guard, it is left for the Federal Government. If it wants a Coast Guard it can establish one. Of course, for the coast guard to come into effect, it may require the National Assembly’s approval and we, in NIMASA, are not pursuing that option. But if the Federal Government opts for it, so be it, because the powers rest with the President and the National Assembly. If on its own the executive arm of government sends a bill to the National Assembly to incorporate Coast Guard activities into NIMASA’s activities, since we derive our legitimacy from government and the constitution of Nigeria, we are not going to say the contrary. But, right now, that is not what NIMASA is pursuing. If the Navy and other security agencies are strengthened and they relate well with NIMASA in enforcing regulatory compliance in our maritime domain, the same job can still be achieved.
What is the role of Tompolo (Mr Government Ekpemupolo) on this?
I don’t know who they called Tompolo. I’ve said government did not give or award any contract to any ex-militant. As we all know, there is freedom of information law that has been assented to by Mr. President and I think what people should have done is to go to Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to know the true owners of this company, and we have said it repeatedly. Nobody wants to take our position. I, as a person, the management, staff and PRO have communicated that no ex-militant owns this company from the day it was incorporated till today, but I don’t know if tomorrow the ownership can change to one Ibrahim in Sokoto and go to capital market to incorporate people or he may bring retired military officers or other people. It is the prerogative of the company if it wants to go public, but now it has nothing to do with any ex-militant. There is also another dimension to it. This same company people are talking about got a similar project in 2008. The project was awarded by a former minister of transport. I was not here then and this President was not in power. As at the time I assumed office, over a year ago, this company had an existing contract with NIMASA. The truth about it is that there is a history that we followed and eventually the company was recommended to the federal government to provide the platform.
The Navy and the board of NIMASA are supposed to jointly provide the platform for security. Unfortunately, we, NIMASA, are not allowed to carry arms, ammunitions or explosives, as they are called. That is why we are given opportunities to interface with other agencies. It is in our own power to bring some service providers to do that but not to carry arms, and that explains the reason government approved the MoU we have with the Navy. If you go to our resource centre, there is a team of naval personnel domiciled in NIMASA for the purpose of that and what we plan to do is for this service providers to get us, in conjunction with NIMASA officials and other relevant departments to enforce Cabontage Laws, Maritime Labour Law, to enforce collection of our revenue and to enforce International Maritime Organisation (IMO’s) convention and sustain the standard, nothing more nothing less.
There is also another dimension to it. Even if a militant, as they so call it, because I don’t know who is militant and who is not militant, if they say a militant owns this job, the question to ask is: Is an ex-militant not legally entitled to own business concern under our law? We should also go ahead to ask that, is the militant an ex-convict for which there is a provision in our law that says he must not be involved in any business activities? Even if the project were to be given to ex-militant, as they claimed, what offence has he committed as a Nigerian to own a company and to provide a logistic support to earn a legitimate living? We should go back in history. Chief Awolowo of blessed memory was a wonderful leader, particularly in the South-West, living or dead, the Yoruba people have not produced anybody more than Awolowo in this our generation. The way I understand the perception of Yoruba people, either rightly or wrongly, Awolowo was charged for so many criminal offences. He came out of it, contested for the post of Nigerian president. If he had won, he would have become president of this country. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, either rightly or wrongly, Abacha said he was involved in a coup. I cannot defend it, anything could have happened. However, he was locked up. Sometimes, an innocent man can be found in the prison. He was pardoned and he came out to contest as president of this country and led us for another eight years.
The late Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was a regional leader, involved in Biafra uprising because of what he felt was an injustice in his own interpretation. He fought, and later he was pardoned. He came and contested for the presidency of this country. If he had won he would have ruled us in this country.
The easiest way to ascertain the status or the correct position of the ownership of a company is to go to corporate affairs instead of relying on insinuations, and we expected the media to do that. There is another dimension to it, for over 15 years, private individuals in this country, up to this moment, are providing patrol boats to multinational oil companies for purposes of security by the navy in conjunction with the service providers (the private people), whereas all those engagements never pass through the strenuous procurement process we are passing through, going through the ICRC, the PPP, Attorney General of the Federation, Ministry of Justice, going through the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Executive Council. Why has nobody complained about that? Is it because, by and large, those that are benefiting from the business engagements with the oil companies are outside the Niger Delta? The late President Yar’adua would have been the one to give out this job, if not that he died. The process had been on before I came in. It started with Obasanjo, then Yar’adua picked it.
Of late, there have been reported cases of pirates hijacking vessels on our waterways. What are you doing about it?
The issue of piracy is not well understood by some people. There are some vessels reported that had been hijacked by pirates when they came to our territory but there was no information available to NIMASA and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). The vessel owners might have got more than one bill of lading with poor documentation and then disappeared with petroleum products they have siphoned from different places, just because they wanted to benefit from subsidy. They will raise a flag that there was a pirate attack. You will see them disappear and after one week or one month, they will come back and say this is the product and ask you to write approval for subsidy and that is why 90 per cent of the attacks are claimed on vessels with petroleum products. Is it only petroleum products we are importing or exporting? Why is it that it is only vessels with petroleum or fishing products that are always attacked? Fishing trawlers were also attacked because the operators of the fishing trawlers may have made some fraudulent deals and may not want to report accurately to the owners of the trawlers. They will raise alarm that they were attacked by pirates, without giving proper account to the owners. These are the two classes of pirates that are reigning. Any time you hear of pirate attack, you need to ask, why is it only these two products?
Another perspective is that, all the vessels that are coming into our territorial waters have been insured outside this country. They are likening our situation to Somalia’s scenario and want to charge world risk premium on vessels that are coming into our territory. If we don’t raise a flag that classifies us as a state that abound with pirate attacks, this classification cannot be achieved. Nigerians should sit down and reason. Nigerians are such that they want to show to the world that we have serious challenges in all sense of life than any other country in the world. There are many countries that are going through hard times but have managed to survive, but the kind of publicity our media is giving has not helped us. We must unite to build this country.
Have you made any arrests?
Yes, we have made arrests. Since we started our anti-pirate campaign, we have been arresting and detaining vessels on illegal bunkering. Last year, we made so many arrests.
What is NIMASA doing to address insecurity on Nigeria waterways?
That is why we go into the concession to provide all the enabling platforms and the electronic system to police our area. If Mr. A that supplies water and claims fuel subsidy is denying others opportunity in doing that, we, in NIMASA, cannot be in our office and think that we will ensure security without practically being in the water. And that is what we are doing.
What measures NIMASA is taking to ensure that contraband cargoes do not end up in Nigeria?
Substandard goods are dangerous to our health. We are importing a lot of things and people want to make the world believe that anything can happen in Nigeria. They want to bring expired products. If you go to stores you will see expired goods. They have been entering our shops because of the enforcement problem. The approach we are using is to go to checkmate them largely. That is not to say we don’t need the collaboration of other stakeholders or other agencies. We need the support of the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), NPA, the Nigeria Customs Service and so many agencies because we are fighting for a common goal, which is for the good of this country. So, we are going to monitor what comes into the country. Few days ago, because of our intelligence gathering, before a ship arrived, we knew it was coming with arms, explosives, and as it came, we accosted it. That is what we want to be doing.
What are you doing to ensure that malfunctioning ships are removed from our waterways?
We are making efforts at removing wrecked ships. We, in NIMASA, have finished in-house workshop on the project. The minister has said so much in wrecks removal and we believe in due process. Because of that we have forwarded every proposal to the minister for approval for us to start work. If they revert to us today, the company will go on site to start removing them and the minister has promised to expedite action so that we can start work.
What approach are you using to remove the wrecks now because your predecessor alleged that he spent over $5 million on the project?
The approach we are using right now is to remove the wrecks at no cost no pay. There is international benchmark per tonne of a wreck. For whatever we sell, we’ll compensate the service provider, so we are not committing any resources for now and it is a good way of conserving money for the agency. Although, not all of them can be removed through this process, I still believe that the ones that would be removed are a little bit easy and will be used in possibly paying the debt for the ones that may be so submerged.
NIMASA has had six DGs within a sphere of 10 years. What do you think is responsible?
NIMASA is a mini-Nigeria and everybody is interested in what is happening here, but Nigerians must change their orientation. The first thing is that they see NIMASA as cashcow and that impression is affecting us so much. The expectation that public funds should be shared is increasing day-by-day. That’s the problem, but we don’t have money. Our budget is barely a quarter of NPA and not up to 1/20 of Customs, not to talk of NNPC. Secondly, bureaucracy is a major problem in governing generally-speaking, either in local government areas, state governments or in the federal government. Delay in implementation is one problem. Because of the responsibilities our Act has given us, we are subject to civil service culture. I must wait until the paper moves around.
A procurement process that starts today may not see the light of the day in the next six months and the job is waiting. If you want to fast-track the process, due process is also there waiting for you. You don’t even have so much approval for this thing to be done. In some countries, their maritime administrations can approve budget of millions of dollars without recourse to ministry or PPP, but here, unfortunately, I don’t have any approving power that can sustain us.
What is your approval limit?
My approval limit is nothing to talk about. Honestly, I sympathize with my predecessors. The government directed us that we should take our anti-piracy campaigns to Benin Republic. We went there; we asked for money after approval. Unfortunately, we are yet to get the fund to pay the service providers. We have been sourcing for funds. This is as a result of the endless bureaucracy. The first six months that we were given by the service provider for us to make the payment has elapsed, no payment yet. But look at the wonderful success in Benin Republic.
How do you combat piracy?
The strategy is in my chest. The most important thing is that we are using legitimate ways to fight the menace. Security-wise, it is not ideal to tell you how we are fighting them. It is a security matter.
What is the proof that you are working on anti-piracy?
In Cotonou, they said there were 35 attacks on the shipping industry and vessels within a very short period. We have been there for six months now; we have less than three reports of piracy. Of course, the leadership of the country also came here to confirm and thank the president of Nigeria for the success. The United Nations has commended us, saying it was a success, they have also written us that we should continue with anti-piracy programme. What other statistics do you need?
What is your hope for NIMASA?
I’m going to leave NIMASA a hundred times better than I met it. In the area of piracy insecurity we will achieve zero piracy; free maritime environment; in the area of illegal bunkering we will achieve zero illegal bunkering; and in the area of capacity building, we are going to make huge successes. In the area of revenue generation for the government we are going to achieve huge success as well. Right now, we have embarked on costs-cutting measure. Unlike my predecessors in the office, I don’t indulge in travelling around the world because I believe there are jobs to be done and that is why I’m here and I will do my best. One of the initiatives we are executing silently is job creation. Before I sign any paper for any company that has any dealings with, my first question to them is how many Nigerians are on your payroll? From our investigation, we discovered that even cooks are sourced from abroad to come and work in Nigeria. But we are putting a stop to all these and the idea is working well. We need to empower our youths.