Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has said that no nation can attain sustainable growth and development relying on herself and/or single source of revenue as world economies are now consciously or unconsciously competing among themselves in terms of advancement and development indices.
The Director General of the Agency Dr. Dakuku Peterside made this assertion in Lagos recently when a delegation of Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, a leading educational institution of the German armed forces, Hamburg, Germany paid a working visit to the Agency.
He stated that no nation can ever be self-sufficient and that needs would always arise for countries to meet through trade. While noting that no two nations can engage in trade without recourse to maritime, he stated that easy trade facilitation between nations can only be guaranteed if the maritime domains of the associated nations are safe and secure- with human asset, technology, ideas and intellectuality as key drivers.
According to the DG, “Technology and globalisation will continue to amaze us, just as Ideas, knowledge and intellectuality are complementary drivers of advancement in our today’s world. No individual or nation has a monopoly of knowledge. So cross-fertilization of knowledge in critical sub-sectors of nations’ economies, particularly in areas of comparative advantage is sacrosanct for growth and development, towards the overall objective of advancing world peace”.
Speaking further, Dr. Peterside took the delegation through the mandates, core functions as well as the human capacity needs of the Nigeria’s Maritime industry. While assuring the delegation of the safety of the Nigeria’s maritime environment, he noted the various initiatives put in place by the Agency to address the projected growth of the industry particularly, in the areas of human capacity, safety and security requirements.
In his words, “human capacity, maritime safety and security related crimes were the biggest challenges we had. They have been addressed and we would continue to address it in totality. We have the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), which is an initiative designed to train Nigerian youths in various maritime professionalism. Currently, they are being trained in various countries around the globe. While some of them have graduated as full-fledge professionals, some are still undergoing the necessary trainings. We are partnering with maritime giants around the world to develop our Seafarers. For safety and security, we are collaborating with the Nigerian Military and the Police to ensure that”.
For his part, the leader of the delegation, Dr. Thortsen Schutz, informed NIMASA that they were at the Agency on a working visit, with the objectives: to ascertain facts that would aid trade facilitation between Nigeria and Germany; as well as learn new ideas from NIMASA, as regards Africa’s experience, because of the peculiarities of the continent. He noted that NIMASA is strategic in the shipping scheme between Nigeria and Germany, and that it was necessary for the Commercial and Defence Attachés in Germany Embassy in Nigeria to understand the shipping as well as the maritime ideals and dynamics within the context of the Agency’s operations, for ease of trade engagements.
“We are here to understand NIMASA. We know your importance. And we are encouraged by your disposition towards ensuring a safe and secure maritime environment for shipping. You are strategic when it comes to trading in Africa. Be assured that we would encourage our people to come to Nigeria because we know that Nigeria has a lot of maritime potentials. We are ready to collaborate and also partner with NIMASA in the areas of technology, idea and knowledge sharing because the world is fast drifting to knowledge and idea base”, he said.
The Bundeswehr Command and Staff College was established in 1957 as the successor of the Prussian Military Academy founded in 1810. Since 1958 it is located in Hamburg. Being the leading educational institution of the German armed forces, the academy is internationally renowned for its excellence. The academy educates the future elite of not only the German armed forces but also of other member states of the European Union and NATO.