Barely a week after the Nigerian Navy launched an operation against criminals at sea, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency or NIMASA is cashing in on the new drive to partner the Navy and the Nigerian Army in securing the country’s water ways.
The challenge for NIMASA is the lack of the capability to ensure safety, that’s according to its Director General, Dakuku Peterside.
For the first time in a long while, the Nigerian Maritime Administration
and Safety Agency, NIMASA, is on the same page with the Nigerian military.
Previously the frosty relationship between both bodies was largely borne out of a conflict of interests.
NIMASA is meant to regulate maritime activities while the Navy is responsible for protecting the territorial waters.
Now, all the parties are apparently breaking away from the past.
At the Naval Headquarters in Abuja, NIMASA and the Naval authorities agreed to renew a moribund MoU.
A similar understanding was reached with the Nigerian Army.
But that was after the Army Chief Tukur Buratai highlighted an incident which caused a strain in relations between troops of the Nigerian Army in the Niger Delta and NIMASA officials.
The move by NIMASA is coming months after the federal government threatened to repeal the act establishing the agency if it failed to justify the resources at its disposal.
