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Steve Agbota
As Nigeria prepares to regain its lost glory in the comity of maritime nations at the 2019 International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council election, stakeholdersare backing it re-election into the 20-state IMO Category C, from where it fell about seven years ago.
The election to Category C of the Council of IMO for the period 2020-2021 would hold during the 31st Regular Session of the IMO Assembly, from November 25 to December 5, 2019 in London, United Kingdom.
Nige-ria was last elected into the IMO coun-cil in 2011. But since then, all efforts to get re-elected failed due to poor preparation, the economic situation of the country and the government bureaucracy.
Investigations revealed that other factors why Nigeria lost the IMO election in three consecutive times include, pol-icy som-er-saults, shoddy prepa-ra-tion, in-ex-pe-ri-ence and the incessant piracy attacks on the nation’s waters. There were also allegations that Nigeria’s representatives lack knowledge about the work-ings of IMO and their in-abil-ity to mo-bilise knowl-edge-able peo-ple on board to drive the process is con-found-ing.
Stakeholders who spoke with Daily Sun, said the management of the Nige-rian Maritime Ad-min-is-tra-ti on and Safety Agency (NIMASA) led by its Di-rec-tor General, Dakuku Peter-side, has worked hard to address all these bottlenecks that could hamper Nigeria’s chances of getting re-elected back into Category C of the IMO seat, as returning to Category C of the IMO Council would put Nigeria in the global map of maritime nations, which will boost both local and international participations in the nation’s shipping business.
But, in a bid to brighten the country’s chances, NIMASA inaugurated the implementation monitoring committee for the Nigerian ship register. Meanwhile, the quest by Nigeria to clinch the IMO Council seat got a boost recently when world known classification society; including Lloyd’s Register, DNV GL, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), accepted to join the Nigeria ship registry implementation committee.
