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By Enyeribe Anyanwu
Nigeria’s Cabotage Act is a good law whose implementation has met with abysmal failure. The law which was enacted in 2003 as the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act was designed to create a captive market for indigenous shipping operators. Realizing that indigenous shipping practitioners lack the capacity to compete in international shipping, government thought it wise to make coastal trading exclusive to them and to protect them from foreign operators who had extended their dominance of shipping services to the nation’s coastal trading. It was widely believed that by making the nation’s cabotage trade exclusive to indigenous operators, they will, in time, grow their business and acquire the capacity to launch into international shipping and fly Nigeria’s flags on international waters.
Unfortunately, despite the good intent and the spirit of the Cabotage Act, its implementation has been a sad story. Apart from the political will to execute the law, its shoddy or non-implementation can be attributed mainly to the waiver provision, an albatross which made the law dead on arrival. Either by act of omission or commission, this provision was inserted to serve the interest of the same foreigners the Act was meant to ward off. The federal government agencies mandated to implement the Act could not do anything about it, but instead exploited the loophole to make money for their coffers and individual pockets.
According to the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act, 2003, all cabotage vessels must be wholly-owned by Nigerians, wholly-crewed by Nigerians, built in Nigeria and registered in Nigeria. In other countries that have the same law, this is what cabotage law is all about, and the idea is to make cabotage trade exclusive to the country. But in Nigeria, a waiver provision was inserted to take care of foreign interests, thereby making the law unworkable. The waiver provision allows a foreign-owned vessel that fails to satisfy the three main pillars of the Act to apply and obtain a ‘restricted licence’ from the Minister of Transport. This license is renewable after its one year lifespan. Thus, when indigenous operators danced and jubilated after the enactment and signing of the Act into law in 2003, little did they know that their jubilation was an exercise in futility.
Considering the huge losses the country has been incurring as a result of foreign domination of its shipping sector, including its coastal and inland shipping, the recent move by NIMASA to stop the waiver provision and to implement fully the provisions of the Cabotage Act should be commended. In a recent statement, the agency said it will no longer encourage the application of waivers in any form, particularly from oil firms operators, “as such does not help the growth of the Nigerian maritime sector and economy at large.”
To give teeth to this resolve, the agency has commenced a clampdown on vessels that do not comply with the provisions of the Cabotage Act Compliance Strategy which it released last year to make for the full implementation of the Act. The first victim of this clampdown is a motor tanker, MT Navigator Capricorn, a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) carrier whose detention order for contravening the Cabotage Act has been approved.
According to NIMASA, “the vessel was first boarded in October 2018 and all infractions of Cabotage non-compliance were noted and communicated accordingly to the charterer/Owners representatives with a 90 days grace period to comply. The 90 days expired on the 31st January 2019.” Apparently believing that it is business as usual, the vessel owners made no efforts to remedy the notable infractions despite signing an undertaking to so.
It is recalled that NIMASA led by its DG had last year met with the Oil Producers Trade Sector (OPTS) in Lagos where he urged the industry players to draw up a five-year strategic plan for the stoppage of application for Cabotage waiver and to pursue the utilization of Nigerian-owned vessels for marine contracts.
The agency in August 2018, also introduced a new Compliance Strategy for Cabotage Implementation in Nigeria to ensure full implementation of the Cabotage Act 2003, and to secure jobs for qualified Nigerians in the maritime sector.
The Agency via a Marine Notice suspended consideration for applications of grant of waivers on manning for prescribed categories of officers in vessels engaged in Cabotage trade. Notably, the Agency stopped consideration of application for grant of waiver on manning requirements for vessels engaged in coastal trade with regards to 2nd officer, 2nd engineer, 2nd mate down to able seamen, ratings and stewards.
Special applications for Captains, Chief Engineers, Chief Officers, First Mate in the absence of qualified Nigerians, it said, were to be considered on merit, but on the condition that such organization make plan to train a Nigerian and put in place a transition plan to ensure that the Nigerian takes over the job within one year. The whole essence of this was to ensure that Nigerians are not deprived of the jobs due them on showing requisite qualifications for the job.
I commend NIMASA for baring its teeth this time in order to implement this nearly 18 years old Act which would have made a lot of difference in the economy. We, however, insist that this new resolve and clampdown should be sustained until foreign ship owners and their indigenous collaborators learn to respect the law of the land. The case against MT Navigator Capricorn should be prosecuted to a logical conclusion to serve as a deterrent to others, and all this should not be a flash in the pan. We also enjoin the agency, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to pursue and ensure the successful review of the Cabotage Act currently with the national assembly.
As the NIMASA DG has said, “Our laws forbid foreign vessels operating in our territorial waters save for compliance with the Cabotage Act. There shall be no sacred cow when we commence clampdown on erring vessels. We want to increase the number of Nigerians who participate in the marine aspect of your business and we are working closely with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to have a joint categorization of vessels operating under the Cabotage Act in order to ensure the full implementation of the Act”. We cannot agree less, but also maintain that this should not be a mere statement. The DG should be reminded that it is on the basis of this statement and his previous ones that his achievement in the maritime sector will be based.
The federal government should also demonstrate the political will by coming out in full support of NIMASA in its present effort at full implementation of the Cabotage Act. In the spirit of its anti-corruption, the federal government should deal with those in government and elsewhere who have been frustrating the implementation of the Act, as well as the foreign ship owners who have been shrewd and skillful in circumventing the restrictions and provisions of the law.