Ekiti State-born Comrade AKIN BODUNDE, the President, Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government-Owned Companies (SSASCGOC), is of the HR Department of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA. He is a personality who is grounded in maritime labour issues at the junior and senior levels. In this special interview with Falcon Watch Online, he discusses maritime labour matters from the perspective of one with deep knowledge. As the SSASCGOC welcomes the creation of a new Marine and Blue Economy Ministry, he challenges the government to quickly come up with a blueprint on many unanswered questions regarding the new creation and what differences Nigerians should expect in her operations, going forward. He spoke to IZUCHUKWU OZOEMENA.

Q: You’re often noticed in events organized by the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN).

What’s the relationship between the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies (SSASCGOC) and the MWUN?

Ans: MWUN and the SSASCGOC are twins. We work together. In NPA, we have two major unions – the SSASCGOC and the MWUN. SSASCGOC belongs to senior officers from level 8 and above while the MWUN is for junior officers. We work together; we do things as a group. If we’re writing to Management as a group, for instance, we fight together.The MWUN President- General is a father to all! We respect him. He coordinates properly and that’s the reason you witness the harmony between us. Anything we’re doing, they’re there; anything they’re doing, we’re there.

We are partners-in-progress.

Q: What’s your impression about ‘Maritime Labour Voice’, an inhouse magazine MWUN recently unveiled?

Ans: It’s not a new thing in the maritime labour industry. I hope the initiative will be sustained. We at SSASCGOC will start ours soon. That’s why we were there to encourage them. We pray they sustain it because we need to make the noise ourselves. You cannot rely on people to do the shouting for you. Our own magazine can go many areas and people will hear us better. I really appove the move of the PG towards that direction. It’s a good initiative and we support it totally.

Q: The Marine and Blue Economy Minister talks about refloating the moribund NNSL without any pronouncement on the erstwhile seafarers whose entitlements have not been cleared.

Ans: I believe that was a political statement. The issue came up recently at the reception of the new ship at Grimaldi. You can’t be talking of establishing a new shipping line without knowing what is on ground. The NIMASA DG said something concerning the agreement not yet reached (on the entitlements of former seafarers involved). More than 20 years, somebody is being owed his gratuity and some of them are dead. The government and members of the maritime labour family should come to a round table and finalize it. I know the PG will fight it to the last. Bringing a shipping line now is a political statement which I don’t think is feasible. Even the Blue Economy we are talking about is all in name as the paper work has not been done. The same Permanent Secretary is still serving the two ministries – Transportation and Marine and Blue Economy. That means documentations and proper divisions have not been done. By the time they finish, let’s know the direction. For us as a union, we are waiting to know the direction they’re going. We’re sending letters to them to explain their focus. Where are the areas they want to do better than the former Minister? We’re concerned! Marine and Blue Economy is a good name as is being practised in other countries. But we cannot just imbibe the name without following the rules. Let’s see how it wants to go because there are a lot of issues. For instance, a lot of job overlaps still exist among NIMASA, Shippers Council, NPA, NIWA, etc. Don’t just change the name. Let’s look at the structure. This must be clearly stated. All these clash of interests is the major problem the new Marine and Blue Economy will address because we have raised issues with this overlap of functions which needs to be seriously looked into. Everybody is rushing to make revenue. If you make revenue generation your focus, you will lose the track. We are waiting; let’s see how it goes.

Q: You and your association didn’t attend the Minister’s recent stakeholders engagement in Lagos. Why?

Ans: We didn’t want to force ourselves to a meeting because no invitation was extended to us. Anything they’re discussing we are watching. We will still have our own meeting with him to tell him our own side of the story, the way things are being run and to propose better ways to him. We are insiders. We cannot be biased. Your stakeholders may be biased; the management may be biased. Every other person may be biased because of personal interests. But our interest is the Nigerian interest- how to run the place, make it better, more efficient and make people have access to what we are doing. When we talk to the Minister, we talk to him as Nigerians not as an interested party whose interest is what to share. We’ll be able to tell him the truth, nothing but the truth!

He should explain to us the name, Marine and Blue Economy. What does he want to do with it? What is the agenda? What is the master plan and how does he want to run it? What new thing is the new Ministry bringing on the table? A lot of things should be changed alongside the name. Maybe talking about functions or looking at areas not tapped into. Those are the things we want to see.

Q: D’you foresee the new Ministry making a difference?

Ans: Yes! The Minister made promises when he visited Lagos ports that he wants to do things better. He repeated same thing at Lekki Deep-sea Port. I don’t want to preempt him. We are hoping for the best.

What does he want to do with the new Ministry? What is the agenda? What is the master plan for it and how does he want to run it? What is the new thing the Blue Economy is bringing to the table? These are the things we want to discuss. We are not just interested in change of name. A lot of things should be changed alongside the name.

Q: D’you foresee the new Ministry making a difference?

Ans: Yes! We briefly interacted with the Minister when he visited the Apapa Port and he promised to do things better. He repeated same thing at Lekki Deep-sea Port. I don’t want to preempt him. We are hoping for the best.

Q: There are concerns that because they are jobless, many well-trained seafarers may be behind cases of oil theft and insecurity in the Niger Delta because non-specialists cannot successfully dabble into such acts. Your view?

Ans: We don’t have ships owned by Nigerians. This being so, there’s no way we can employ our people. Foreign ships that come in, discharge and go have their own crew already. Regrettably, when the Cabotage Law started with NIMASA, we expected that the focus would be how to empower our local people to own ships. If we own ships, they can’t go abroad to employ. They’ll employ from here. Unless we have indigenous lines owned by our people, no employment will be created for our people. We will continue training seafarers with certificates but doing nothing. Government should encourage home-grown shipping lines so as to have ships locally owned by Nigerians to create employment for Nigerians. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

Q: In the new dispensation, signing performance bond is the in-thing whereby ministers and directors under them commit to performance or be booted out. What d’you suggest government should do to anyone who fails to deliver after signing the bond?

Ans: The President himself said it that if you don’t perform, you go! Those who perform have nothing to fear. I know the minster has repeated same thing to parastatal heads under the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry. It’s a good statement. We are watching! Let’s see who becomes the first casualty in the next six months.

Q: The Nigeria Shippers’ Council has become a rolling stone that gathers no moss. As one CEO tries to have a grasp of the work he is appointed to do, he is swept off and a greenhorn appointed to start learning the ropes all over.

Ans: As a parastatal under the Marine and Blue Economy, Shippers’ Council belongs to government. It’s headship appointment is not permanent. In parastatals or government job, you can be appointed and you can be disappointed. Soldier go and soldier comes, barrack remains. However, some areas, professionals are required. When you’re changing, you should bring professionals to run them. It is true many of us graduated from schools and what we are doing are not what we learnt. Government should try to let us have professionals who understand the job to head departments. This makes the job easier and better with higher performance.

Q: How do you rate the performance of the current NPA management?

Ans: My organization, the Nigerian Ports Authority, the management headed by Mohammed Bello Koko is doing its best. We are supporting him to do more for our workers because our priority is the welfare of our members. We cannot do anything less than that.

Concerning the Ports and Harbour Bill in the National Assembly, we fought it but it is coming back. We had a press conference on it some weeks ago. We are still on it. The NIMASA bill is going to second reading. But ours has not started. We are seriously interested in the bill because there are certain items that are not good for the country. The security of the ports cannot be compromised, for instance. Some people want to take over the ports for selfish interests. The wealth of the country belongs to the people of Nigeria. It’s not for individuals. That’s the reason we’re fighting the Ports and Harbours Bill. If the Bill is clear enough that it will create jobs and opportunities for people, we don’t have problems with it. But in a situation you want to take the wealth of the country to an individual, we will not take it; we will not agree with it. That’s our position.

Capt Sunday Umoren, the Secretary-General, Abuja Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in West and Central Africa (Abuja MoU) is an interviewer’s delight any day.

In this exclusive chat with Falcon Watch Online, he clears the air on the widely-held impression that the agency is grossly under-reported. Among other issues, he talks about the job of MoUs worldwide, relationship with the IMO and the ILO, training of port state control officers, challenges of bilingualism and marine pollution.

IZUCHUKWU OZOEMENA reports.

Q: Do you share concerns that the Abuja Memorandum of Understanding (Abuja MoU) is grossly under-reported?

Ans: I can actually understand people’s point. They also need to understand what Abuja MoU is all about. It’s a regional body covering 22 countries – from Mauritania down to South Africa for the West and Central African region. What do we really do? We’re set up to harmonize an inspection regime such that substandard vessels do not trade within the region. Most of the things we do are not for us to be there in the dailies- calling people around us to showcase.

We have the headquarters in Nigeria, meaning that we are the host country to the MoU. In the Charter, we are supposed to be an even-playing field; whatever we do in Nigeria, we must do in other member-countries in the region. So, Nigeria should not unduly influence the activities of the Abuja MoU.

You can actually see where the skewed understanding is coming from. In Nigeria, we are not the field workers or those who actually go out there to do the job. Who works for us? The maritime administrations in all the member-states work for us. In Nigeria, NIMASA runs the show for us; in Ghana, it is the country’s maritime authority; in Cameroon, the maritime authority runs it. It is same in Sierra Leone and any other member-country. We can’t come out to compete with the maritime administrations in all the nations. But we coordinate the activities with respect to port state control. After that, we work towards training the port state control officers to ensure they meet international standards. Probably, that’s the major reason to say that we are under-reported.

Maritime administrations in the host nations wear our mask and carry out the activities with respect to port state control. Abuja MoU is happy about it. If same thing happens in Ghana or any other host country, Abuja MoU is happy about it. That’s where we are.

Q: How do the MoUs relate with the International Maritime Organization (IMO)?

Ans: The IMO Resolution 689 brought about the Abuja MoU regime. It’s the IMO that partitioned the maritime world into 9 regions. IMO is the founding father, the bedrock and that shoulder we stand on in the execution of our functions. What are the mandates? All the mandates and relevant instruments we have are IMO and ILO Conventions. These are what our port state control officers use in the inspection regime.

Q: In a nutshell, take us through the specific mandate of Abuja MoU especially as regards the monitoring of vessels in and out of the ports.

Ans: As I said earlier, the major mandate is to ensure that no substandard vessel trades within the region. You do that by harmonizing the inspection regime so that whatever a vessel is subjected to in a particular country applies to others. It is the safety net that covers the regime that no substandard vessel can slip through because wherever you go, you can be fished out. That’s basically what we do. How do you get this done? You do this by having inspectors, those you call port state inspectors from the maritime administrations conducting the inspection to check every vessel that comes to confirm that it meets international standards. When a vessel defaults, she is either asked to fix the deficiency before leaving the port or detained until this is done. We have cases in Senegal where a vessel had been detained for over a year. It is not punitive but purely to enforce standards. We don’t work against the commercial interests of ship owners. We work on enforcement to ensure that there is compliance. When this is so, it means the vessel is safe with respect to operations, safety of the crew onboard, the waterways and the ancillaries. For instance, if a tanker comes into a port that is not safe and explodes, the whole thing is gonna blow up. What about protecting the marine environment against pollution? You have a vessel of 100,000 tons carrying oil getting involved in an accident and the oil spills into the waters. Where’s that gonna put us?

We talk of blue economy. What’s the bedrock of blue economy? If there’s no enforcement of international conventions and rules, the environment is affected, the blue economy is seriously affected. Fishing, maritime tourism and related activities will come to a standstill. Even drilling will be affected because if you have oil spill covering the entire area, it’s an exposure. We eliminate the use of substandard vessels; we work towards protecting the marine environment by having well trained inspectors who we constantly train and retrain. We link countries struggling to have minimum standards to others that are doing well through our mentor-mentee scheme in which Gambia port state control officers are currently being mentored by NIMASA.

We also work with maritime training institutions within the region to ensure that they

have certificated programmes to train port state control officers. Most countries send their staff to Italy and this is quite expensive. If we have such training locally, we can train more. The front runners we have are called port state control officers. We’re also looking at engaging the port authorities. There’s a training package we have already announced at first such as with PMAWCA for us to come in and sit with the port authority. Call it training or sensitization on the need to synergize and work together. But sometimes, the port authority may misunderstand the actions we take especially concerning risk assessment, elimination of risks which actually pays off at the end of the day.

We’ll not unduly detain a vessel. It is only when we realize that the condition of the vessel exposes the environment to risks. We have such training packages; we are the first MoU to think about that. Other MoUs are looking at doing such things too. If we don’t have the policy makers supporting the port state control officers, we end up beating the air. We also work to get training for policy makers as was done in 2021 when we did it for directors-general of maritime administrations in the region being brought into Lagos by the IMO for a training. There will be a second one next year. So, we’re looking at every foreseeable action that can help us achieve our aims. We also have ships called standard ships. Other MoUs can also flag some vessels and question us on them, saying they had issues years back. We work with countries that have maritime domain awareness to track such vessels. We try to see what such vessels are and inform all member-states about the location and movement and they will be prepared to wait and apprehend such vessels. Why do we bother about substandard vessels? They are the major causes

of maritime accidents.

Q: Can you comment further on your recent training in Nigeria?

Ans: It is the mentor-mentee scheme by which NIMASA is mentoring port state control officers from Sierra Leone. Harmonization of the port state regime is for all countries to be at par such that none is doing poorly. However, there is a bit of issues with capacity development in some countries. Some are struggling while some others are doing extremely well. By our Charter, member-states should inspect a minimum of 15% of vessels calling at their ports. Some countries are struggling to meet the number probably because they don’t have sufficient port state control officers. What we do is merge a struggling nation with the ones doing so well.

We started with the Nigeria-Sierra Leone mentor-mentee training currently going on. It is a structured on-the-job training programme endorsed by us. There are also other levels whereby some port state control officers, say, from Nigeria, could be taken to other countries to work for a period and bring them up to speed. I am proud to tell you that we started this a year ago.

The MoU regime is like a family. We stick together, we learn from one another and support one another. In Paris, if MoU has trainings to do, it could call us to join. At the end of the day, the harmonization is moving away from being regional to global. Whatever you see in Paris is what you see in West Africa. Two other MoUs have also looked at taking up the mentor-mentee scheme which we also learn from. We are getting to that point where people take up innovative ideas we bring to the table.

Q: Plastic waste and other junks still litter Nigerian waters, talking about MARPOL @ 50 and the need for cleaner waters. Aren’t you concerned?

Ans: By virtue of our position which is similar to what the IMO does, we’re on the side of advocacy. We don’t go criticizing our member-states but we engage them to ensure they respect, implement and enforce all IMO conventions. MARPOL is specifically for the protection of the marine environment and this is key. If you comply and implement the stipulations, we’re guaranteed cleaner seas and safer environment.

We also work with the technical co-operation department of the IMO to specifically support the member-states on compliance with specific IMO conventions on ballast water management, MARPOL Annexe 1-6, etc. If vessels are compliant, it means less pumping of effluents into the sea. We’ll have safer seas. That’s what we are working out with the maritime administrations. Most pollutions into the sea often do not originate from ships. You’ll be surprised that some people intentionally dump waste into the sea. Some hotels by the coastal waters pump their effluents into the sea. Our appeal to everyone is to understand that the marine environment is our world. If you’re lucky to be in the littoral area bordering the sea, you have the chance of enjoying the aquatic front to harvest fish and for swimming. Visitors will like to visit your country.

Go to Brazil and see their coast. Tourists flock there. But if you mess up your beach, nobody comes and you’ll be losing out in an aspect of the blue economy.

Every country is actually supposed to map out its maritime cluster. What can you actually do from the sea? Where can you create a niche? If we work together towards projecting the marine environment, we’ll be thumbing up for the blue economy. If you are probably on a speed boat and see a ship pumping something into the sea, call the maritime authority. If you notice a vessel smoking into the air for more than a minute, report to the maritime administration. By so doing, you are part of the enforcement team helping to make our seas safer for all. It is a joint effort.

Q: How does the Abuja MoU manage the challenge of bilingualism in West Africa?

Ans: What works for us is that the port state control is an English project. Even in the Paris MoU, meetings are conducted in English. In Abuja MoU, however, we have three official languages. In our meetings, we translate in French and Portuguese. We work together to appease the Anglophone, Francophone and Spanish member-countries.

A major impediment to the development and exploitation of the potentials of the marine and blue economy today is marine pollution. At the sidelines of the 2023 LIMWEEK and the 8th International Maritime Business-To-Business Conference and Exhibition hosted in Lagos by Zoe Maritime Resources Ltd, ABDULKADIR AHMED, Managing Director, Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd, spoke to Falcon Watch Online on the need to address the menace of marine pollution and the embarrassment it is causing across board.

He spoke to IZUCHUKWU OZOEMENA.

Q: Can you comment on MARPOL @ 50 and the relevance to today’s event?

Ans: The theme of this year’s conference is ‘MARPOL at 50’. That is the reason the International Maritime Organization (IMO) set up the MARPOL Convention which is really to address all aspects of marine pollution especially those that come from sea-going vessels. It is a standard.

I think the key challenge for us in Africa has been the domestication of these conventions into local laws and following up with enforcement. It is also important to recognize the duties and functions of the regulator.
Enforcement is about the practitioners themselves; what we do! The laws are there; standards are there. Do we adhere to standards as operators in the industry? Again, that relates to the practical elements of the laws.
Domesticating the international standards when it comes to marine pollution and remediation, the most important thing you notice is the regulator and how he goes about with enforcement which is critical.

Another aspect of marine pollution really has to do with plastics. In Nigeria and some African countries, we are still lagging behind when it comes to laws around the generation and disposal of waste. For us at Liquefied Natural Gast Ltd, that’s why we came up with the NSML Clean Waterways Initiative. It’s about what do we do to, one, sensitize and inform everyone of us about the menace and dangers of plastics in our waters? Two, to drive advocacy because it has to be across boards, coming up with the right initiatives, coming up with the right standards in terms of how we single out used plastics and how we dispose them? But most important is driving collective action. It’s not just about one entity or one person, regulator or company but about everybody coming together across the entire spectrum – from the communities, local areas, state to federal government to players like ourselves and even individuals.

What do we do with plastics? It is a major environmental health hazard with socio-economic consequences in terms of the marine and blue economy. We can’t successfully achieve the goals of the marine and blue economy if we continue to allow unfettered dumping of plastics and pollution into our marine system.
Q: What’s your take on the statement that Nigeria is not yet a maritime nation?
Ans: I think it’s a statement of fact. But are we on the right path? Yes, we are! The creation of the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry is just one way of consolidating all efforts aimed at exploiting sustainably the benefits of our marine and blue economy.
Are we there yet? No, because it is a whole spectrum of activities. When you look at shipping, what is the involvement of our nation in offshore shipping? A large number of trawlers are traversing our coastal waters, catching fish. Do they belong to Nigerians?
Again, I always go back to the domestication of activities locally. There are two steps in the marine economy. One, the domestication of activities. It’s a question! Let this be done locally so that our people can participate and benefit from it.
The next step is ship ownership. Let’s domesticate, let’s ensure that our people are involved and then we can move on as it should be. When you can’t move from nothing to ownership, you don’t talk about domestication; you have to postpone it. Like I said earlier, the creation of the new ministry is a step in the right direction because there’s a lot of things to be done. But it requires every hand to be on deck to get to that stage.

Q: Intra and inter-African trade among African nations require that goods are taken to Asia and Europe before coming back to Africa. Is that not a problem? How do we get out of it?
Ans: It is a problem. I am hoping that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is a step in the right direction. But then, is it not about how we create a unified effective African market? Africa is a large market today in terms of size, population and potentials. But it’s just that we are fragmented. We have small markets independent of one another. Trading among ourselves is so difficult because there are so many restrictions and regulations affecting that.
So, first thing first. AfCFTA is a step in the right direction in terms of creating unified standards for everybody within the African continent. Coming from that, hopefully, we will be able to create what is an interconnected market interconnecting all the fragmented small markets within the African continent to build one single African market. If you do that, you then have the potential of attracting right investments and right processes and ensuring that it is effective and profitable for everybody to participate in it.