NIWA will not fund water hyacinth removal – Oyebamiji

The Managing Director/CEO of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, says NIWA, under his leadership, will not invest any fund in hyacinth harvesting but outsource it to private investors.

Bola Oyebamiji maintained that it is unwise investing scarce public funds in purchase of hyacinth harvester, a machine that works in season when hyacinth appears, and keep it till another season. He noted that such machine is not produced to be kept.

The NIWA Managing Director, who averred that hyacinth harvesting would be better managed by private investors, made this position known while interacting with the media on the activities of the agency on Friday, October 25, 2024 in Lagos.

“I will not encourage purchase of hyacinth harvesters as there is no reason for NIWA to be involved in hyacinth removal. It can be handled by private sector investors. Such money can be used for other things,” said Oyebamiji while responding to the General Manager of Marine who posited that NIWA needed to buy more harvesters for removal of hyacinth.

Oyebamiji said the issue of safety and insecurity (boat mishap) has overshadowed other huge investments such as Water Transportation Code, Water Marshals, 15 boats which his administration has committed to the development of water transportation in the country.

According to Oyebamiji, “within one year, NIWA, through the supervisory effort of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy under the leadership of His Excellency, Dr Gboyega Oyetola, CON, has a new Water Transportation Code, 2023. Within the same period, we have deployed several operational assets including 15 boats of varying capacities and uses to promote efficiency and service delivery. Similarly, we have provided greater incentives to our workers through the official commissioning of several capital projects to promote a better working environment. Not only this, we have continued to treat the welfare of our workers as a priority always.

“There is a sore point that has always put NIWA in a bad light. The twin issues of safety and insecurity on the inland waterways always overshadow every gain recorded by NIWA whenever it happens. To confront this headlong, we have reconsidered our safety campaign approach to focus more on the grassroots using community resources.

“Within one year, NIWA has carried out more grassroots safety campaign than at any other time within the same period. Also, we have deployed water marshals across different loading and offloading points in the country. It may interest you to know that within three months of its launch, we have increased the number of our water marshals from 80 to 350 personnel. Recently, these officers were directed to commence 24-hour surveillance within selected locations to arrest the ugly incident of night travel and overloading.”

Oyebamiji said boat mishap is avoidable but it still occurs because boat drivers and passengers are not complying with the Transportation Code, vowing that NIWA would now be stricter with the enforcement of the Code.

He said the agency works with all transportation commissioners in all the 36 states and Abuja in the policy formulation towards enhancement of safety and development of water transportation in the country. He called for further partnerships from opinion makers on water transportation.

Oyebamiji said “Just yesterday (Thursday) in Abuja, we gathered the critical stakeholders in a meeting for several hours to evaluate the current challenges on inland waterways transportation and find possible solutions. The meeting which had in attendance the Honourable Commissioners of Transportation from more than 24 states, among other groups, highlighted several important measures that must be taken to arrest the twin issues of safety and insecurity on the inland waterways. Of note, is the need to increase the level of awareness and campaign within the sector. Hence this meeting. We urge you, as opinion shapers, to partner with NIWA, in its mission to promote safer waterways through media advocacy. This is important to us because, of all the causes of accidents on our waterways, human error takes the lead. A further evaluation reveals that poor attitude and blatant disregard for safety protocol account for the greatest cause of boat mishaps. We therefore call on you to join us in educating our people on the need to be safety conscious always.”

The Managing Director informed that the Federal Government is considering use of ICT in monitoring our waterways. “We are talking to the Spanish government and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in this area,” said Oyebamiji.