From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Worried by the increasing spate of boat mishaps across the country, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has commenced training and certification of boat drivers nationwide.
Managing Director of the agency, Dr George Moghalu, made the disclosure at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
He enumerated factors responsible for the increasing cases of mishaps experiencing across the country, revealing that it has initiated measures aimed at addressing the menace in the country.
Moghalu also said that apart from regular security and compliance patrols on the Waterways by NIWA police and Mariners, it has also established nine search and rescue stations for timely rescue operation.
“Boat mishaps are unfortunate and embarrassing incidents and it is horrifying to hear of the series of mishaps suffered by Nigerians.
“Boat mishaps are mainly as a result of mechanical, human and natural factors such as overloading, careless driving, over speeding, negligence, turbulent weather, wreckages, use of old wooden boat, tree stumps, snags, and night sailing.
“Other factor are untrained boat drivers and flagrant disregard for safety regulations, most especially sailing in the night and lack of usage of life jackets, closure of village markets in the evening, which result in night journey.
“Another challenge is that most of these boats involved in mishaps take off from illegal jetties and ordinary steep banks at all times,” he itemised.
Bringing message of hope to boat users, Moghalu said that; “NIWA being the regulator of the Inland Waterways Transportation System, has initiated measures aimed at addressing the menace of Boat mishaps in Nigeria.
“The most important of the measures is the introduction of Inland Waterways Transportation code, being the hand work of all Inland Waterways stakeholders conference held in Uyo.
“The code tends to regulate inland navigation generally but particularly passenger services, loading and unloading operations, safety of navigation, ship waste management, search and rescue operations, extinguishment of fires on vessels, etc.
“NIWA has also commenced the training and certification of boat drivers nationwide with a view to ensuring professionalism, regular safety awareness and sensitization campaigns across the country. This is in addition to regular security and compliance patrols on the Waterways by the team of NIWA police and Mariners.
“NIWA has also established nine search and rescue stations in Lagos, Lokoja, Port Harcourt, Yauri, New Bussa amongst others for timely rescue and the establishment of additional three for other locations is ongoing.
“NIWA has standardized its inspection of vessels to ensure standard and safety compliance, that is river worthiness of the vessels before registration and permit are authorized.
“NIWA has also provided surveillance gadgets along the Waterways to enhance safety and security. NIWA’s personnels have also been deployed to various loading terminals to provide pre-boarding safety talk to passengers and prevent overloading and night sailing,” he said.
Reacting further, the former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Auditor, said: “The Authority also realized that inadequate number of vessels (boats) may be responsible for overloading and has therefore awarded contract for the provision of “mass Transit” passengers’ boats to be deployed to various locations nationwide.
“The provision of life jackets to Boat operators nationwide is a constant exercise, In NIWA. The Authority’s safety programme commenced five years ago with massive installation of navigational buoys from Baro to Warri on the River Niger and Marina to Mile 2 and Ikorodu to Victoria Island in Lagos.
“The programme is intended to cover the whole navigable waterways network in Nigeria. However, despite these measures, boat mishaps still persist, what else can anyone do to stop illegal operators who render services after 7pm and from illegal jetties and terminal, thereby violating the Inland Waterways Transportation Code?
“What else can anyone do to stop turbulent weather, which causes some of the mishaps? What else can anyone do to force passengers to wear life jackets while operating from illegal jetties? What else can anyone do to stop usage of old wooden boats in this harsh economic period? What else can anyone do to stop village markets from operating up to evening, in order to stop night journey?
“In view of the aforementioned therefore NIWA wish to state that subjective criticism does not have certain value and uses, but objective criticism can be a more beneficial type of feedback because it is less likely to offend and is more likely to promote performance improvement and greatness,” the NIWA MD quipped.

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