The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has said it has no plan to shut any terminal or port facility that fails to comply with the regulations of the International Maritime Organisation on the International Ships and Ports Facility Security (ISPS) code convention.
The United States Government had about six weeks ago sent a diplomatic note to the Nigerian Government through the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Nigeria to improve its ports security system within 90 days or face trade isolation, which will entail banning all shipping lines that do business with the US from calling at the nation's seaports.
The essence of this trade blockade is to stop shipping services to Nigeria and also mobilise all US trading partners to do same as part of measures to compel Nigeria to comply with the enforcement of the ISPS Code, which might have dire consequences as Nigeria relies solely on revenue from crude oil export even as it depends on imported goods comprising both industrial and domestic ones.
President Goodluck Jonathan had sequel to this threat given the Nigerian Ports Authority and NIMASA marching orders to do everything possible to see that Nigeria complied fully with the ultimatum to forestall the economic danger it portends.
Executive Director of NIMASA in charge of Maritime Safety and Shipping Development, Captain Bala Agaba, who spoke on the modalities to be adopted in the enforcement of the security, noted that the agency might not need to resort to the closure of terminals that fail to comply with the security code.
He had insisted that the NIMASA Act 2007, which is its enabling legislation does not empower it to close any terminal.
According to him, as government's designated agency to enforce the security code, NIMASA will adopt international best practice, which will include training and installation of Close Circuit Television sets in strategic port facilities, while ruling out the possibility of closing erring terminals.
The agency had following its selection as the new designated agency following the dissolution of Presidential Implementation Committee on Maritime Safety and Security, which was originally created to handle the issues relating to the ISPS in 2004 appointed a lead Registered Security Organisation and other RSOs as part of the implementation strategies.
The executive director had while ruling out the possibility of closing terminals said: "NIMASA does not have the statutory powers to close any terminal, PICCOMSS, which was made up mostly of military offi cers did not close any terminal while enforcing the code, so we will not shut any terminal".
He had however noted that port terminal and other facility owners should be prepared to make some fi nancial commitments in the area of installing some security equipment at their facilities as well as payment for training and certification.
It was gathered that in as much as NIMASA is not planning to close any erring terminal, it might decide to hoist Nigerian fl ag as well as that of the IMO on compliant terminals, which is a subtle way of telling the maritime community that such a terminal is not complaint, which might make it incur the wrath of the Federal Government, which desires that Nigerian must comply.
Investigations also showed that the agency may have commenced beaming its searchlights on some depots owned by some International Oil Companies as well as some private jetty operators, which are believed to constitute major security threats, as some of the jetties now receive and discharge ocean going vessels.
President Jonathan had while speaking through his Senior Special Adviser on Maritime Services, Mr. Leke Oyewole at a stakeholders' conference on reviving the ISPS Code organised by NIMASA, warned that Nigeria cannot afford any international sanction at this time of her political and economic history.
According to him, following the dissolution of PICOMMSS set up in 2004 to enable Nigeria comply with the Code, which is a security framework put in place in reaction of the World Trade Centre, New York bombing in September 2001, NIMASA has been designated to enforce the provisions of the code.
He disclosed that the decision of the government to dissolve the committee and redesignate NIMASA to takeover the job was because the government needed an agency that has good knowledge about ships and ports operations.
The President, who also frowned at the infl ux of all manner of people, most of who do not have any business at the ports, insisted that the Nigerian Ports Authority must enforce strict access control at the major seaports in the country.
"I have not seen any reason why NPA should put security personnel at the major entry points to the seaports, who look at faces before they determine who goes in or not. Time has come for NPA to install electronic card system at the ports to control access to un-authorised persons", he said further.
