By Zika Bobby
Newly elected Secretary General of Abuja Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for West and Central Africa, Captain Sunday Umoren in his maiden press interview said he plans to emboss the footprint of the MoU in member countries and raise the standard of vessel inspectors through collaboration with training institutions.
What are your plans for the next four years for the Abuja MoU?
Well, like we have said, the previous teams have tried to keep the MoU going and now that we have come onboard, we will be focused on the operational excellence to bring the MoU to the next level.
Currently, we piggyback on some other MoUs for certain activities; we are looking more at improving our footprints in our member states, working with the schools and also in training of our Port State Control Officers (PCSOs) to bring them at par with their colleagues in Asia and Europe.
So it is going to be a time for us to build our reputation and improve our performance. It is going to be a great period. For now we have our plan up to 2022, so we will need to expand on the future to see what we need to do to ensure that Abuja MoU comes up in the top among all other MoUs.
How would you appraise Nigeria’s level of vessel inspection?
You know, we need to be very careful about the MoU system. Yes, we are in Nigeria, but we are not fully responsible over flagged vessels; that is, Nigerian vessels in Nigeria are not really our concern.
Our concerns come up with the foreign vessels visiting Nigeria or a Nigerian vessel when it leaves Nigeria to a foreign port; for example if it leaves Nigeria for Togo, then it becomes our concern, because it is about inspection of foreign vessels in your port. So that is the distinction.
However, if Nigerian vessels are apprehended outside Nigeria, then we can come in. but in our committee meetings, we try to inculcate and create the mindset that vessels need to meet up with international standards, because you can’t give what you don’t have.
Once the vessel that is flying your flag leaves and enters another country or jurisdiction, it becomes a port state issue. So we will also be looking at that aspect, that is, all the flagged states should work to improve their flag registration.
How many countries are supposed to be in the Abuja MoU and how many are active presently?
We have 22 countries in the region of which 18 are full members and we are still trying to get the other four to sign up fully. In terms of being active, I can say that 14 are very active and we are looking at engaging everybody so that the level of participation will be above average.
What has this meeting achieved for the Abuja MoU?
We haven’t had one since 2019, and remember that the MoU is purely about the harmonisation of port state control activities, so for you to have that harmonized system means you have to relate with each other.
One of our agenda items was about us sharing our experiences with other member states and we learn from each other. We are also having a mentoring scheme whereby those that are doing better can actually mentor the ones that are struggling. So it brings us closer and helps us to relate well as a family.
What is the relationship between Abuja MoU and other MoUs?
It is excellent. They were all invited for this meeting as observers and when they have their own meeting they also invite us as observers. We always share information and experiences, and sometimes they sponsor some of our training. The MoUs are quite friendly towards each other.
How has the Abuja MoU fared in the last 10 years and what milestones have been achieved?
A lot of milestones have been achieved like I mentioned earlier. I can say that at this point we are not doing badly in the league of MoUs. We are not at the bottom in every meeting and committee we always show ourselves.
So Abuja MoU has done pretty well, and with me coming onboard, I am looking at how we can build on the existing achievements so far. So we will do the proper assessment and you will be the judge at the end of the day to see what the new managers have done with the Abuja MoU.
We hope to stand on the shoulders of what has been laid down by the previous managers and build on that foundation. We need to up our game, and from there take it to the next level.
We get support from others once in a while, but we also want to get to that point of being independent; getting to that stage where other MoUs can also come to us in terms of support. So that is our target, which hopefully, with the commitment we have today from member states, we will get there.