There has recently been an up-tick in activities geared towards ensuring safety on our waterways. At the onset of this year’s rainy and flood season, the usually dormant National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, roused itself and collaborated with the Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, to conduct a safety campaign aimed at “promoting best practices” on our waterways.
At that occasion with the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola in attendance, NIWA gave away 3,500 life jackets to waterways users in Lagos. NIWA has continued its sensitisation campaign to increase safety awareness and compliance among waterways operators and users.
We are delighted that our long-standing advocacy for government agencies to get more serious about the safety of our waterways is eliciting action from some organs of the federal and some state governments.
The International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, in a release published on October 21, 2023, reported that between January 2018 and October 2023, boat mishaps claimed average of 17 persons per month. It listed deaths from the top ten most accident-prone states as: Niger – 275; Kebbi – 144; Kwara – 125; Sokoto – 117; Lagos – 92; Anambra – 80; Bauchi – 76; Kano – 45; Bayelsa – 40 and Benue – 34.
Most of these accidents and their attendant fatalities could have been prevented or minimised if Nigeria had the right regulatory environment around maritime transport. The maritime sector is the least governed among the three main modes of transportation – air, road and water in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, is firmly in control of air transport safety, which is why Nigeria air transport system is considered among the safest in the world. The Police, Federal Roads Safety Corps, FRSC, and the myriads of similar agencies at the state level do their bit to implement road safety procedures. The same cannot be said for the waterway regulators, NIWA and similar agencies.
It is as if our governments are not interested in that sector because they are hardly patronised by the elite. The canoes are ramshackle and prone to frequent breakdowns, the operators know little or nothing about standard safety imperatives. Canoes are often overloaded with little regard for the use of life jackets. When accidents happen, that is when government officials surface because of media attention. This must stop.
Our waterways must stop being relegated to the status of ungoverned spaces. There are communities in Nigeria which have no other ways of coming and going except with canoes. Because of government neglect, they are forced to navigate based on outdated and accident-prone traditional systems.
We call on Oyetola, being the pioneer Marine and Blue Economy minister, to go beyond public shows and lead the effort to modernise and secure waterways transportation in Nigeria. Life jackets must be made compulsory, especially for mothers and their babies.
There should be zero tolerance for non-compliance.
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