BOAT MISHAP ON RIVER NIGER

First, may I express my heartfelt condolence to the families of the souls that were lost last weekend on Nigeria's River Niger.

May I  in the same manner blame the National Inland Waterways Authourity (NIWA) for the mishap.

The National Inland Waterways Authority was established by Decree No. 13 of 1997 with a clear mandate to manage ( and by implication, ensure safety on) Nigeria's vast inland waterway resources.

The Decree vests in NIWA the power of exclusive management, direction and control on the Nigerian inland waterways. This power is exercised on the nation's navigable waterways from the Nigeria/Niger and Nigeria/Cameroon borders to the Atlantic Ocean.

The inland waterways of Nigeria comprise of the main river system (Rivers Niger and Benue which form a confluence at Lokoja), creeks, lagoons, lakes and intra-coastal waters. Early merchants, missionaries and educationist took advantage of the Nigerian river system to embark on expeditions on the River Niger. 

Nigeria has 8,600 km of inland waterways. The longest are Rivers Niger and Benue, even though the most patronised (mostly by boats) are the water ways that cuts across the Niger Delta and the Lagos Lagoon to Cross River.

It was on the River Niger that about 42 souls perished last Friday. 

 The Public Relations Officer of Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Malam Ibrahim Hussaini was quoted as saying thatthe 42 were passengers on board the ill-fated. They drowned, while 100 others have been declared missing!

 The PRO also added , rather sadly that : “We believe that the boat was overloaded because the boat’s capacity was put at 60 passengers, but over 150 passengers were said to be on board during the incident.“The debris in the swollen river may also have been responsible for the incident,’’

 So far, no word has come from NIWA.

I think that by virtue of its enabling laws, safe navigation on River Niger ought to be within the mandate of NIWA. Perhaps I am wrong.

But its enabling Act says that, NIWA has the "power of exclusive management, direction and control on the Nigerian inland waterways".

It is the statutory responsibility of NIWA to clean up the River Niger ( and other inland water channels) for safe navigation. It is also the responsibility of NIWA to ensure that safety standards are followed.

Drawing inference from the statement of the PRO of Niger State Emergency Management Agency, it can then be assumed that if the debris on River Niger were cleared by NIWA and if  NIWA had ensured that the boat was not over loaded, may be the accident would have been avoided.

I think the managing director of NIWA should either resign or cause heads to roll in that agency for the avoidable mishap of last Friday.

The River Niger accident was just one of such. Accidents on Nigeria's inland waters is a common occurrence

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