By Steve Agbota
Indigenous shipowners have called on the Federal Government to clamp down on foreign vessels violating the nation’s Cabotage law by illegally operating in its coastal waters.
The group also warned that the exclusion of Nigerian shipowners is costing it billions of dollars as Nigerian own vessels are left out to play a role in the lifting of crude, with saying foreign vessels remaining key players in the conveyance of the product.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Nigeria Shipowners Association (NISA), Chief Issac Jolapamo, stated this at the weekend while inaugurating a 6-man Reconciliation Committee, on the crisis rocking the first local Shipowners’ Association in Nigeria.
The 6-man reconciliation committee has the mandate of bringing back its aggrieved members and others who exited the embattled association in the past.
The committee members include Emmanuel Ilorin, Akin Akinyemi, Adewale Ishola, Paul Omolodun, Edmund Martins, and one outsider in the person of Olayiwola Shittu, the former president of the Association Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents.
The group at the event, said the continuous undermining of the Cabotage Act of 2003 which forbids foreign vessels from operating within the Nigeria coastal water has become an issue for urgent also called on the Federal Government to clamp down on the illegal practices.
Jolapamo however lamented that shipowners have lost out in the present government’s, stressing the need to hold an election before year end in order to constitute new executives to move the Association forward.
“We must not allow NISA to die. There is a need to chart a new way forward. The main issue is how to bring back the association to take its pride of place in the maritime industry. We need to reposition NISA before the next government comes into power,” he said.
He said NISA members were the foremost contributors in the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) but the government has excluded shipowners from benefiting from the proceed of the fund.
He said NISA needs to form a strong force to be able to take its pride of place in the shipping industry.
“We got the Cabotage Act to be passed into law. We also got the past governments to give recognition to NISA or even when it was ISAN and I believe we can still do it again,” Jolapamo added.
On his part, Emmanuel Ilorin, a member of the association, said that a house that is divided cannot stand, adding that the challenges facing the association is enormous, which it cannot deal with unless the association reconciles with the aggrieved members.
He called for reconciliation before going for election in order to put an end to the actions of people who are undermining the association.
Adewale Ishola, another member, who called on members to rally around the BOT to save NISA from crumbling, said the association needs to go for reconciliation.
He pointed out that ship owners need to push for the change of Nigeria’s trade policy from Free on Board to Cost, Insurance, and Freight in order to improve the opportunities available for Nigerian ship owners to participate in the crude oil lifting business.