Stakeholders Bemoan Absence Of Data On Nigerian Seafarers

Maritime and shipping industries stakeholders who gathered at a forum to mark the 2013 World Seafarers’ Day have decried the non-availability of data on Nigerian seafarers to the extent that the number of seamen in the country is not known.
At an event organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Lagos, in honour of the unsung seafarers in the country, a master mariner and the managing director, port operations, Dangote Port, Capt Joshua Oyewunmi, lamented the ugly condition of Nigerian seamen despite their contribution to the country’s economy.
Oyewunmi said that in the 1960s, data on seafarers were intact but are no more today, adding that it was a shame that the safety administrator has no data on Nigerian seafarers.
“Government has failed woefully in this aspect of not treating seafarers well and this has extended to the authorities of other countries who treat Nigerian seafarers as nobodies.  We pay more on vessel charges but even after that, we are treated as nobodies because that is how our government treats us. It was government that wrecked the Nigeria National Shipping Line. It is sad that even up till now there are no vessels to train seafarers. The seamen are looked down upon as just drunkards but we know that we move this economy,” Oyewunmi said at the event laden with accounts of Nigerian seafarers.
Blaming the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for the woes of the indigenous shipping industry having failed to enforce the Cabotage Act, the seafarers passionately appealed to the agency to do its work well.They called on NIMASA to rise up to the occasion and purge the nation’s waters of the multiples of Ghanaians, Filipinos and many other nationals who had flooded the countries coasts, taking away jobs from them.
The defunct NNSL’s captain and consultant to International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Capt Biodun Omoteso, who was guest speaker at the forum, decried the poor welfare of indigenous seamen, adding, however, that the job must be there in order to talk of welfare.
“The Cabotage Act says that every vessel must be pulled by Nigerians, but a waiver clause that enables them to hire expatriates was introduced and the Cabotage was buried. Today it is waiver upon waiver and the Nigerian seafarers lost all opportunities to get jobs,” Omoteso said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the MARAN President, Mr Bolaji Akinola, said the occasion is set aside by the IMO recognise the 1.2 million seafarers worldwide. He noted that despite the fact that the nation’s life is tied to the sea, with over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s income generated from oil exported by sea, the Nigerian government has shown no regard for the seafarers.
Source: Leadership