FG MOVES TO STRENGTHEN WATERWAY SAFETY, DEMANDS FASTER REPORTING OF MARINE ACCIDENTS

The Federal Government is taking steps to strengthen Nigeria’s maritime safety system by improving coordination among agencies responsible for regulating waterways, investigating accidents and enforcing safety standards.

The move follows concerns that unclear institutional responsibilities and delays in reporting marine accidents could undermine investigations and make it more difficult to prevent avoidable deaths on Nigeria’s waterways. The Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau are therefore working towards a clearer framework for cooperation between relevant agencies.

A major proposal under consideration is the introduction of a formal marine casualty notification protocol that would require relevant authorities and operators to notify investigators of accidents within one hour of their occurrence. The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau said faster notification would enable investigators to reach accident scenes while important evidence remains intact.

The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Fatima Mahmood, stressed the need for government agencies to operate within clearly defined areas of responsibility. She made the remarks in Abuja when she received a delegation from the NSIB led by its Director-General, Captain Alex Badeh Jr.

Mahmood said the ministry was conducting a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s marine and blue economy ecosystem to ensure that government institutions were properly positioned to perform their statutory responsibilities. She maintained that agencies must work towards shared national objectives instead of operating in ways that could create overlapping responsibilities or institutional conflicts.

According to her, the effectiveness of the country’s waterway safety architecture should not be measured simply by the number of agencies involved. Rather, there must be clear distinctions between the responsibilities of institutions involved in maritime regulation, enforcement, safety oversight and accident investigation.

She further emphasised that cooperation between government agencies should be guided by existing laws and statutory mandates. In her view, unclear responsibilities could create difficulties in determining accountability whenever a serious accident occurs.

The NSIB, however, raised concerns about weaknesses in the current system for reporting marine accidents. Badeh explained that investigators are sometimes notified too late, by which time crucial evidence at the scene may have been disturbed, removed, destroyed by weather conditions or washed away by water currents.

He argued that the introduction of a mandatory notification timeline would significantly improve the quality of accident investigations. Under the proposed arrangement, relevant government agencies and operators would have clear obligations to report marine casualties promptly, allowing NSIB investigators to begin their work without unnecessary delays.

The bureau believes early access to accident scenes is essential because physical evidence can help investigators establish what happened, identify contributing factors and make safety recommendations designed to prevent similar incidents.

The proposed framework is also expected to improve accountability across Nigeria’s maritime sector. By establishing clearer reporting obligations, authorities would be better positioned to determine whether operators and agencies complied with required safety procedures before and during an accident.

The latest initiative comes against the background of recurring concerns over safety on Nigeria’s waterways, where boat accidents and other marine incidents have resulted in fatalities in different parts of the country. The NSIB has previously conducted investigations into major boat mishaps, including accidents in which several passengers lost their lives.

The government’s proposed reforms are therefore aimed not only at investigating accidents after they occur but also at strengthening the systems used to identify safety failures and prevent future incidents.

With the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and the NSIB working towards a formalised cooperation framework, the authorities are expected to continue discussions on how the proposed one-hour notification requirement can be implemented and how the responsibilities of agencies involved in maritime safety can be better coordinated.

The initiative ultimately seeks to create a more responsive maritime safety system in which accidents are reported quickly, evidence is preserved, investigations are conducted effectively and lessons from previous incidents are used to improve the safety of Nigeria’s waterways.