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Cabotage Law: FG Cracks Down on Violators
•Sets up Navy-led joint patrol By Francis Ugwoke, 11.29.2004
The Nigerian Navy and the National Maritime Authority (NMA) have been mandated to arrest any ship whose activities on the nation's waters contradicts the provisions of the Cabotage Shipping regime. The decision by the Federal Government was based on complaints by indigenous shipping operators about the presence of foreign ships operating illegally in the country. Under the cabotage law, indigenous shipping firms are given exclusive rights to coastal shipping except in a situation where they fall short of capacity. However, for foreign firms to operate, they are required to get a waiver from the Ministry of Transport. Indigenous shipping operators have since the cabotage law was passedclaimed that there were many foreign ships operating in the nation's waters without clear evidence of having been granted waivers. It was in an attempt to address this problem that the Minister of Transport, Dr. Abiye Sekibo approved that the Navy leads a team consisting of officials of the NMA and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in policing the nation's waters to stop any vessel operating illegally. Director-General of the NMA, Arc. Ferdinand Agu told THISDAY that although the Minister is yet to make a public pronouncement on the matter, he has since mandated establishment of the joint patrol to check the problem of vessels operating illegally on the nation's territorial waters. Agu however explained that the idea of policing the waters is not just because of the cabotage shipping, but for the purpose of enforcing international regulations. "I know that the Honourable Minister of Transport has instructed that NPA and NMA should embark on joint patrols around our waters. I think with time, there will be proper announcement by the Minister. He wants NPA and NMA collaboration in monitoring vessels. He wants us also to work closely with the Navy along that direction.", he said. He added that, "this ties in with our cabotage law requirement, ties in with NPA need of checking vessel traffic, it ties in with ISPS code commitment and obligations in terms of security." "The Minister of Transport wants our entire coastal waters to be clsoely monitored - because there is need to have integrity of vessel movement in and out of ports. It is also part of the responsibility under ISPS Code. It is also part of the responsibility under the cabtoage law - so it has multi-dimension - it is not just about cabotage. It is more than that." The NMA DG complained that the indigenous shipping firms did not respond to the registration requirement of vessels operating under the cabotage law. He said it was only through this that the status of vessels operating on the nation's waters can be established. "It seems to me a bit unfair that if people have not registered, they have not officially indicated their cabotage status that they should air an opinion on implementation. Because if we don't know which companies are foreign, if we don't know which companies are joint venture, and which ones are fully indigenous owned, we cannot even begin to talk about cabotage law enforcement. "It is only when we know the status of the various operators that we can enforce what the law has guaranteed them. We have to know the exact status of these operators... because you may be working on the assumption that somebody is a foreigner - when in fact he is a Nigerian. You may be working on the assumption that a company is a fully Nigerian company, but it is only managing assets of others," he said.
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