“Pofessionalism and Continuity as the Panacea for Sustainable Development and Growth in Nigeria’s Marine and Blue Economy, ” is the topic the Editorial Board of Maritime Media Ltd, Publishers of Shipping World Magazine, has chosen as its theme for its annual lecture next year. This topic is in response to concerns and recent calls for the full professionalism in the new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. Goggle describes profession as ” a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and formal qualification. It also describes a professional as ” relating to belonging to a profession; engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as a past time”. If there is any sector in our recent political history that has suffered a high influx of ” past timers” , nay political appointees, it is the Maritime Sector. Expectedly, this has led to low delivery of tangibles and a steady decline in the Nigeria’s quest to catch up with the global Maritime community. It is a given that professionalism and capacity are factors depending on themselves and actually reinforcing each other.
In 2017, while hosting officials of the Nigerian Society of Marine Engineers in his office during a courtesy visit, the former helmsman of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr Dakuku Peterside, had made it abundantly clear that the greatest assets of Nigeria’s Maritime Sector are the human assets. Said he: ” In this industry ,it is good fo have assets. You can have ships, have other assets but the greatest assets we can have in the industry is manpower. We need manpower to drive the industry and that is where marine engineers and surveyors come in”, he had said. In the past two decades or thereabout, the Ministry of Transportation, as it was then called, and the agencies under it, had become a dumping ground for political appointees.
Apart from the supervising ministry where civil servants were deployed, notwithstanding their professional competence, it was a usual practice to have civil servants or politicians deployed to sectors/ departments irrespective of their professional competence. Perhaps, the hardest hit were the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA and the Nigerian Ports Authority, as well as the Nigerian Shippers Council. Even in specialized agencies like the Nigeria Customs , we have had the likes of Hameed Ali, a retired army colonel calling the shots as Comptroller General of Customs between 2015 and 2023.
Before Hameed Ali at Customs House, we had Gen SOG and Ango and Dr Bello Mohammed who is a veterinary doctor. At NIMASA, the list appears endless with two legal practioners , Mfon Usoro and Temi Omatseye and Dakuku Peterside and Dr Dayo Mobereola. At the Nigerian Ports Authority, the most recent appointment of outsiders were Ms Bala Usman and Mohammed Bello koko. The duo will remain in the annals of the history of the NPA as the most controversial for their style of Leadership. The National Inland Waterways Authority as well the Nigerian Shippers Council were also not spared; they also had their fare share of outsiders. But frankly speaking, it was not a sad tale in each of the instances. For example, Dakuku Peterside gave a good account of himself as DG NIMASA. He was pragmatic and innovative in his style of Leadership. Same is playing out at the Nigerian Shippers Council where the current Executive Secretary/ CEO, Barr Pius AKUTAH, though a lawyer by training, he has shown sterling leadership traits. He has repositioned the Council to take up its proper role as the Ports Economic Regulatory Agency. He was recently adjudged the Maritime Man of the Year, 2024 in recognition of his outstanding leadership which has earned him applause on the global maritime space. But notwithstanding these few exceptions, there are fears that Nigeria’s maritime space is largely dominated by neophytes who no are being deployed to critical positions purely due to political exigencies, rather than on competence. The corresponding effect of this development is a downward slide of Nigeria in the comity of Maritime nations. And the consequences are better imagined. Speaking recently in Port Harcourt at a Seminar and Gala night organised by the Energy and Maritime Reporters Association, the National President of the Nigerian Institute of Marine Engineers and Naval Architects (NIMENA),Dr Daniel Tamunoduodibipi, said it was completely unacceptable that non professionals have taken over critical positions under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. Speaking on the theme ” Understanding the Maritime Subsector and Issues in the Coatal Areas “, Dr Tamunoduokobipi urged the Federal Government to employ only qualified maritime professionals in regulatory agencies. He said ” people are employed in ministries and agencies where they have no competences. For instance, the newly created Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy has no marine engineers,no maritime experts, their website is empty because the people there are square pegs in round holes. In NIMASA, the people there are not marine engineers, they are maritme Lawyers and there is no way the Agency can perform optimally , he concluded. This revelation is not only frightening but it points to an undeniable fact that Nigeria has been lacking in almost all the critical spheres in the global maritime domain. And this perhaps explains why the country has been struggling for over a decade ,to occupy a seat at International Maritime Organization, IMO, Council, Category ” C”. We urge the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy to heed this clarion call by professionalizing the Ministry to achieve its vision. The Hon Minister and his team may start by sending a bill to the National Assembly to make it mandatory for the Ministry to hire and deploy core professionals to man the various departments and agencies ,like we have in the Ministry of Justice . Only last year, former President Muhammadu Buhari , signed into law a bill which made mandatory for only career officers to appointed Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service. Same could be replicated at the NPA, NIMASA, Nigerian Shippers Council, National Inland Waterways Authority barring ” outsiders ” from appointed either as helmsmen or Executive Directors into the parastatals under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.