Twenty eighty of the 36 states of Nigeria are connected by water and the nation is blessed with natural waterways, described as a goldmine, while many countries of the world are creating artificial waterways.
The disclosure was made by the Area Manager of Port Harcourt Office of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Abdullahi Dabai, while hosting the visiting Chairman of the Board of NIWA, Vice Admiral Ishaya Ibrahim (rtd.), who is a former Chief of Naval Staff (CNS); the Managing Director of the authority, Senator Olurunnimbe Mamora; and other members of the board of NIWA.
Dabai, in his progress report at the Port Harcourt Area Office of NIWA in Marine Base, Rivers State, during a facility tour by the board members, described the office as one of the oldest and largest area offices of the authority in Nigeria, manned by highly-dedicated and efficient 23 members of staff, consisting of 17 permanent and eight temporary staff, stressing that the staff strength was grossly inadequate, thereby militating against their effective performance in monitoring and revenue campaign outreaches in the rivers and creeks.
The area manager of Port Harcourt office of NIWA also disclosed that from the activities of the Port Harcourt area office, a little over N481 million was generated in the year 2017, while calling for the speeding up of the amendment of the NIWA Act, thereby catering for the conflict with other agencies and the involvement of local and state governments in the development and provision of waterfront infrastructure.
Mamora, a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly and two-term senator, who was just two weeks in office as managing director, as at the time of the visit, also stated in his remarks that the agency (NIWA) had so much to offer Nigeria, while admonishing the members of staff across the nation to do more.
He noted that with safer waterways, cargo transportation would be enhanced, thereby increasing NIWA’s revenue, ensuring less pressure on the roads, which would last longer and accidents drastically reduced, while describing water as a cheaper means of transportation, which according to him, would boost tourism.
The managing director hinted that the amendment to the NIWA Act, currently being undertaken by members of the National Assembly, would be a turning point in ensuring the efficiency and optimal performance of officials of the agency.
He noted that sister agencies must stop encroaching in the legally-defined activities of NIWA, but to leave the officials of the agency to continue to effectively and efficiently perform their roles, while declaring that having casual staff in NIWA for over seven years was unacceptable, assuring that the needful would be done.
Mamora called on the staff that in spite of the constraints and challenges, to always put in their best and plug the leakages, stressing that he was not in NIWA to boss anybody, but as a captain of a team, with everybody having roles to play.
Chairman of the board of NIWA, while also speaking, described Nigeria as a blessed nation, with the citizens sitting on goldmine, through the waterways.
He said: “We are sitting on a goldmine, but we do not know how to mine it. The white men came to Nigeria through the water. Any nation bound by water like Nigeria is a blessed nation. We need very little efforts to improve our life as a nation, through the waterways, but crude oil does not allow us to see the potential. Water is enough to sustain Nigeria.
“As a sailor, I sailed round the world. Nations dig canals for water to flow, for good and services to be moved. We do not only have canals in Nigeria, but God gave us the waterways, but we are abusing them. I wish to commend President Muhammadu Buhari for his interest in NIWA, in order to improve the situation of things.
“Nigerian Navy is to help NIWA to succeed. Take your problems to the naval officers. If they refuse, I will take it up. Navy will definitely enforce the decisions of NIWA.”
The former CNS also disclosed that the members of the National Assembly were ready to make laws to make the activities of NIWA much easier, but urged officials of the agency to keep the water channels clean, stressing that in the days of Mungo Park and other explorers, the waterways were not as dirty as currently obtainable in Nigeria.
Ibrahim described crude oil as temporal, but water being permanent and it should be properly harnessed, while calling for end to the criminal activities on the waterways, by partnering with security agencies, in order to boost NIWA’s revenue and ensure economic survival of Nigeria.
With crude oil being a temporary asset, efforts should be made by the Federal Government of Nigeria and its officials to harness the goldmine that the waterways are, thereby ending the almost total reliance on petroleum resources.
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