Look at this photo. None of the passengers put on life jackets. The boat is even overloaded. It is against the law to go onboard a boat ride without life jackets. But people in that part of the country hardly adhere to these regulations. These issues have been tackled in Lagos and there is almost 90 per cent compliance level there,” a maritime analyst told Saturday Tribune on Thursday.
He was speaking on a front page photograph used by an Abuja-based newspaper showing some residents of Mawogi community in Abuja Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory crossing River Gurara in a canoe on their way to Abuja market on Tuesday.
Overcrowding, night sailing, drunk driving and poor maintenance of wooden boats on waterways are responsible for most boat accidents on Nigerian waterways.
Last month, over 100 people were killed after a boat carrying mostly women and children returning from a religious festival in Niger state capsized. The wooden boat ferrying nearly 300 passengers sank at night on the River Niger around the Gbajibo community, Jibril Abdullahi Muregi, chairman of the Mokwa local government area told Reuters.
“The boat was returning to Gbajibo from Mundi after the annual Maulud celebration when disaster struck,” Muregi said in a statement a day after the accident.
At a recent media event in Lagos, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, spoke on issues bordering on the efforts to ensure the safety of Nigerian waterways and how so much was being achieved.
Oyebamiji revealed that efforts were in the pipeline to achieve a zero level of insecurity on the waterways. One of such steps, he said, is the phasing out of wooden boats on the inland waterways as he announced at the meeting with newsmen.
“The wooden boats which constitute over 90 per cent of boats on the waterways account for majority of the accidents across the country,” he said. He explained that to a reasonable extent, operators of these boats were often guilty of violating operational rules which include travelling at night, overloading and failure of both operators and passengers to use life jackets.
Phasing out the wooden boats, Oyebamiji said, would ensure the effect of other measures put in place, especially in the area of safety of the waterways.
Upon resumption of office a few months back, he said he had found very crucial the need to put in place the Nigerian Waterways Code believing it was a fundamental step to take if the desired goal of ensuring safety and boosting investments in the water transportation sector must be achieved.
Specifically, the code defines the supervisory role of NIWA regulating the activities of boat operators and the conduct of passenger among others.
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, had during a working visit to NIWA commended the management there for ensuring that the Water Transportation Code came alive after several years of being in the pipeline.
“With the code, I am convinced that we can now standardize water transportation, thereby reducing accidents on our waters to the barest minimum.
“The code will guide the operations of boat operators on the inland waterways, regulate the conduct of passengers using the waterways and provide a framework for potential investors in water transportation. This will no doubt help to eliminate incessant accidents on our waterways,” Oyebamiji said.
Checks by the Saturday Tribune revealed that the Transportation Code covers a wide range of violations with significant fines aimed at curbing reckless practices. For example, under-manning vessels comes with a fine of N5,000 per person for vessels under 15 tons Gross Register Tonnage (GRT); N15,000 per person for vessels between 15 and 50 GRT; and N50,000 for vessels over 50 GRT.
Violations concerning life-saving appliances (LSA) attract N10,000 fine; overloading vessels up to 50 GRT carries a penalty of N20,000 with a higher fine of N50,000 for vessels exceeding 50 GRT.
Other offences, such as allowing underage individuals to serve as boat masters result in a N10,000 fine, with repeat offences leading to the revocation of the vessel’s operational permit. Additionally, carrying dangerous objects that endanger passengers, vessels, or the environment incurs a steep fine of N50,000. Environmental violations, such as dumping refuse or solid waste into waterways, attract fines of N20,000 for individuals and N200,000 for corporate bodies or vessels.
Other penalties include N50,000 for failing to notify the authorities after a maritime accident; N50,000 for breaches in navigational vigilance; and N20,000 for obstructing navigable routes. Unauthorized usage of the waterways is also subject to a N30,000 fine, underscoring the strict regulatory framework now in place.
NIWA has also announced a three-month deadline for boat operators to obtain licence.
The authority recently launched 80 Water Marshals to monitor critical loading and offloading points across different locations. The number of the marshals has grown to 350.
“This initiative is to reduce rate of accident on the waterways by enforcing the Transportation Code at all times.
“Similarly, NIWA has made safety campaigns a priority across the country. In a new wave of media campaign, NIWA commenced aggressive safety campaigns across all loading points through its area offices using the local languages. This is in addition to the ongoing safety campaigns in national dailies, television and radio stations in the country,” the NIWA Lagos Area Manager, Sarat Braimah, told Saturday Tribune.
Influencers reject life jacket, drown in Brazil
Two Brazilian TikTok influencers died during the week after refusing to wear life jackets on a speedboat that sank off the Brazilian coast – because they didn’t want the safety gear to ruin their tan in photos, according to Brazilian police.
Aline Tamara Moreira de Amorim, 37, and Beatriz Tavares da Silva Faria, 27, ignored pleas to wear their life preservers when an overcrowded boat taking them back to shore from a yacht party capsized in the rough waters of Devil’s Throat along the Iguazu River, according to local reports.
“Some didn’t want to put them on because they were taking selfies,” Sao Vincente Police Commissioner Marcos Alexandra Alfino said, based on testimony by the boat’s captain.
Nigeria goes tough on non-use of life jacket
Authorities in Nigeria have gone tough on non-use of life jacket by boat operators and passengers. The new code stipulates tough penalties for defiants.
The government said that the recent tragic boat mishap at Gbajibo could have been prevented if the boat owner had adhered to the waterways code which banned overloading and travelling at night, among others.
“Henceforth, travelling without a life jacket is an offence,” the NIWA MD declared last month while announcing a donation of life jackets and other safety kits to boat operators.
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