His forlorn look was explanatory enough. And as he stood up from the Nigerian Maritime Press Centre, Apapa, where he had gathered with other colleagues to monitor the events of the day, Ismail Aniemu, publisher, journalngonline.com, a maritime industry-focused online publication, could not but give vent to his anger.
“Nigeria is endowed enough to be in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council, even at the Category A level.
We have vast maritime environment, spanning over 800km of coastline with highest volume of maritime trade in Africa. So what could have made us lose election into the council?” he wondered aloud.
More worrying, Aniemu said, is that Liberia, a smaller West African state with lesser maritime potential, had been a Category A council member of IMO for many years before losing it’s membership due to the civil war that ravaged the country.
The IMO is the United Nations specialised agency responsible for ensuring the safety and security of maritime transport and preventing marine pollution from ships.
It comprises 174 member-countries and three associate members with each country having one equal vote.
The election produced a 40-member council with Nigeria losing out for the fifth time. Category A members comprise 10 countries providing international shipping services.
They are China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Category B has 10 states that are mostly involved in international maritime trade. Germany, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Spain, France, India and the Netherlands clinched seats in this category.
Category C is for 20 states which have not been elected under subparagraphs (a) or (b), which have special interests in shipping, or navigation and whose election ensures that major geographical areas of the world are represented on the council.
South Africa, Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey are members under the category.
For those that understand the industry, Nigeria’s loss at the IMO election did not come as a surprise. This is, because, in the last 10 years, the country has failed to clinch a seat in the desired category, notwithstanding that the election holds every two years.
Closed border
Stakeholders in maritime and international politics contend that given the closed land borders by Nigeria, the country incurred the wrath of fellow African countries. The borders, closed since August 18, has brought untold hardship on neighbouring countries. With this, it was always going to be “payback time” for Nigeria.
Shoddy preparation?
Nigeria’s preparations and campaign was outwardly loud but lacked depth. The campaign lacked cohesion and was incapable of swaying votes in her favour as countries chose other options offered them even when they have cause to do maritime trade with us.
Within the West and Central African regions, there are 25 IMO member countries that share convergence under the aegis of Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) with headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
The country failed to utilise this maritime bloc covering the two regions as a launch pad for its campaign. Instead, it concentrated efforts on bigger countries without fully campaigning to or securing the support of neighbouring countries in the West and Central African sub-regions.
Despite being the chair of the Association of African Maritime Administrations (AAMA) with Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Director-General Dr. Dakuku Peterside as head, Nigeria failed to attract the expected goodwill at the IMO council poll.
Stakeholders blame Nigeria’s lukewarmness towards MOWCA activities and failure to motivate some countries, including those indebted to IMO, to secure their voting rights as partly contributing to the loss.
This is because MOWCA was supposed to promote member states’ maritime interests, including working to ensure the bloc is represented at the council of the United Nations specialised agency on maritime.
But with the outcome of the election, it means no West and Central African country will be in the council for the next two years when discussions and decisions on sensitive matters in the world would be discussed and passed to the General Assembly.
Four African countries made it into the C Category. In the North African region, Egypt and Morocco got elected, South Africa was elected from the South African region and Kenya made it in the East African region
The Liberian factor
Nigeria’s efforts at bringing stability to Liberia, especially after her civil war, was not enough reason for the country to step down for Nigeria in the election.
Insiders in the industry blame NIMASA for failing to reach out, get the support of and or persuade the former war-torn country to step down for her.
To achieve this, experts say Nigeria should have capitalised on the MOWCA resolution to the effect that member countries are to approach international maritime matters, like the IMO, with a united front.
Nigeria’s cargo is believed to be more than 60 percent of the whole West Africa. And with Liberia in the race, Nigeria’s support from the regional and African blocs was depleted.
Insecurity
Nigerian waters have been declared a piracy hotspot. Records from the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has not shown the country to be free of piracy attacks.
For instance, this year’s piracy records by the IMB may not have improved upon that of 2018 as ship owners expressed fears of likely attacks while sailing along Nigeria’s coast.
According to IMB “in the last three months of 2018, 41 kidnappings were recorded in waters off Nigeria alone. On October 27, 2018, 11 crew members were kidnapped from a container vessel 70 nautical miles off Bonny Island, Nigeria.
Two days later, pirates in a speedboat hijacked a tanker underway 100 nautical miles off Point Noire, Congo. Eight of the 18 crew were kidnapped.
Two weeks ago, pirates boarded a fully-loaded tanker ship at about 77 nautical miles from Bonny Island, a key loading point for crude. The vessel had only recently collected its cargo.
Nineteen crew members were kidnapped and are still missing. The waters of the Gulf of Guinea have suffered from sporadic incidents of piracy for a few years, but an attack on a supertanker is a rare event.
Nigeria suffered a spate of militancy that crippled its oil industry in 2016, but it rarely strayed into shipping. Of 95 attacks worldwide where hijackers boarded the vessel in the first nine months of 2019, 17 took place on Nigerian waters, according to data from IMB. As a region, the Gulf of Guinea accounts for almost 82 percent of crew kidnappings globally.
Commercialised security?
A private company, Ocean Marine Services Limited (OMSL) in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy presently operates a controversial Secure Anchorage Area for vessels coming to Lagos. Ships using this facility are required to pay $2,500 per day for the first day and $1,500 for subsequent days. This commercialised collaboration involving the country’s navy is viewed as adding to cost of doing business with the country.
Ship owners posit that naval functions that should be provided for free is being paid for under the guise of a private company buying vessel for the navy with the ships painted in naval colour and manned by the naval personnel. This in international maritime circle has contributed in reducing Nigeria’s popularity with other countries.
Eye opener
Peterside, while addressing the media on the sidelines of the just-concluded National Transport Summit organised by the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (CIoTA) Nigeria, clarified that though it would have been great for Nigeria to win, losing the IMO Council elections was not a reflection of poor maritime administration for the country. He said that the Nigerian maritime administration was doing more in terms of maritime activities compared to other African maritime nations who won the elections.
“The election of any country is a function of international politics. It is not a function of IMO or as a result of what the administration of the country does or didn’t do. Liberia has been at the IMO Council for a long time but Liberia doesn’t have a strong maritime administration. Kenya doesn’t have a better maritime administration than Nigeria.
“I’m proud to say that in Africa, Nigeria is the maritime administration that you can reckon with. You may argue that Liberia has the largest tonnage in Africa, but Liberia has an open registry. This means that most of the vessels in their registry aren’t owned by Liberians.
“Nigeria owns the highest tonnage and this is verifiable in the continent of Africa. Nigeria is ahead of South Africa, Egypt and all other African nations. In every area of maritime administration we are ahead of most countries, if not all African countries.”
Nigeria’s recent experience at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Category C Council elections losing by just a vote, has given the nation broader understanding of how politics dictates countries positions in the Council.
