Eunice Imo-Kalu
Lagos — The Nigerian Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has charged member states of the Abuja MOU on the need to achieve full ratification and domestication of all relevant instruments.
Oyetola, who doubles as the Vice Chairman of the Abuja MOU, spoke at the 13th Port State Control Committee meeting of the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control, PSCO, for West and Central African Region (Abuja MoU), hosted by the government of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire in Abidjan.
Meanwhile, the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, noted that the maritime administration in Nigeria is committed to the effective implementation of regulatory instruments in Nigeria.
The minister emphasised the need for regulators and stakeholders in the member states to ensure their maritime domains remain safe, secure, and environmentally friendly reiterated the need to achieve full ratification and domestication of all relevant instruments and compliance with the requirement for member states to inspect at least 15 percent of vessels calling at their ports.
Other identified areas are the imperative of recruitment and subsequent training of the Port State Control officers to avoid overburdening the few PSCOs in the field; and the need for us to collaborate and ensure that no substandard vessel is allowed to trade within the region.
Speaking at the session, the NIMASA director general noted that the agency, as Nigeria’s maritime administration, has ensured the ratification of not less than six international maritime conventions for proper governance of the country’s maritime space. These ratified conventions spell out the proper mode of governance for various areas such as standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for the fishing sector, pollution management, and carriage of passenger luggage by sea.
Nigeria has ratified the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships 2009; International Convention on Standard of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel, STCW –F, 1995, and Protocol Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties (Intervention Protocol) 1973.
Others ratified international maritime conventions are the Protocol on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims, LLMC, 1996; Protocol to the 1974 Athens Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea 2002; and Protocol of 2005 to the 1988 Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Act against the Safety of Fixed Platforms located on the Continental Shelf, SUA PROT 2005.
The Secretary-General, Abuja MoU, Captain Sunday Umoren, on his part, assured of continuous engagement sessions to ensure regional collaboration to attain globally acceptable Port State Control in the West and Central Africa region.
