Merchant Seafarers Tackle NIMASA, Say Piracy Reduced 40% Politically, not Drastically

…Warns 70% Jobless Seafarers May go Back to Piracy

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Merchant seafarers under the aegis of Merchant Seafarers Association of Nigeria (MESAN) has said that pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea and on Nigerian waterways has only reduced politically by 40 percent and not drastically.

The association warned that it is not yet uhuru, even as it urged the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to generate employment for the over 70percent of Nigerian seafarers that are still jobless, in order for them not to go back to piracy and sea robbery.

Speaking exclusively with DAILY TREND, Secretary General of MESAN, Capt Alfred Oluwasegun Oniye said there has been a drop in the level of attacks on the waterways because of the approach deployed by the current Chief of Naval Staff, AZ Gambo.

He commended Gambo for being one of the best CNS Nigeria has ever produced because he employed political solution to the problem of attacks on the waterways.

“However, when it comes to welfare, seafarers are not happy at all, more of them are losing their jobs.
I don’t see why NIMASA cannot come up with a good policy that would make the foreigners leave our jobs, they have dominated our waterways and taken jobs belonging to Nigerians.

“About 70% of Nigerian seafarers are still jobless, this doesn’t speak well, and those that have the job are not even well paid, they are being given peanuts and they are still owed salaries, NIMASA is not doing anything about this.

“How do you think the seafarers would be happy? They are not happy at all.

“We have cases in our office, we wrote NIMASA severally, at a point we had to take it upon ourselves and we went to court. We have such cases in court, we cannot fold our hands and watch these guys go through hell.

“How can you keep a family man at sea for five months and you won’t pay him salary? Not only that, their pensions are being deducted and it is not being remitted to the appropriate authorities, where are these monies going into? We have evidences like that, but we are trying to get justice before bringing it to the media

“We are not collecting money from these seafarers, we are just protecting their rights under the law, we took it up on ourselves as a responsibility.

“Piracy has reduced for now, the challenges we are grappling with is welfare and unemployed seafarers, and if this area is not tackled, the Piracy would come back” he warned

Capt Oniye stated that unemployment of professionals and seafarers is the baseline for the insecurities on the waterways.

He said the perpetrators are only seizing fire for now, based on political grounds, but that they are bouncing back again anytime soon.

According to him, the seize fire is political, it is not that appropriate measures have been put in place by the government.

Speaking further, he said “Piracy has reduced by 40% politically and not drastically.
We must commend the current Chief of Naval Staff, he is one of the best that the Navy has ever had.

“It is not that there was an attack before as such, it was a political thing, there is no crime carried out in this industry that is not organized, so the crime on Nigerian waterways is an organized crime.

“You cannot steal crude oil for example,without carrying the security officials along, even those hijacking vessels cannot succeed, so it is an organized crime.

“When the CNS came on board, he warned that any officer that gets himself involved in any criminal activities, he would deal with them seriously.

“He was able to do this because he is one of the CNS that have not soiled his hands, I can say it emphatically, he has a clean record and he knows that the problem is an organized crime.

“You cannot commit any crime on that waterways without the involvement of the security agencies, he has warned them to withdraw completely and we can now see the results.

“Government has not done anything new, they have not put any measure in place that is new to what we know before .

“Forget the international collaboration with foreign navies, they cannot know our waterways like we do.

“I commend the present CNS because sometimes, using combat measures to stop crime might not be the best action, sometimes, you have to make peaceful moves.

“This is what the CNS has done, he knows those involved, and he knows how to call them to order, he has applied a good military strategy, making peace is better than combat.

“If the boys have decided to seize fire, and yet you don’t give them jobs to replace the criminal work, they would go back to the piracy job” he warned