Nigeria: Shipwreck - FG Needs N4.3 Billion to Remove Wreckage

George Okojie

11 September 2011


The high rate of abandoned shipwrecks all over the country's coastal waters has become a major source of headache to both the government and Nigerians, LEADERSHIP SUNDAY investigation, has shown.

Findings by LEADERSHIP SUNDAY in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Warri showed that the country was gradually becoming a dumping ground for old ships and abandoned marine vessels.

Presently , over 100 shipwrecks and derelicts litter the nation's coastlines and inner water body, causing navigational hazards to other vessels entering the ports, just as it might trigger flooding of the nation's shorelines.

The development alarmed President Goodluck Jonathan recently when he visited the Mayegun and Alpha beaches in Eti-Osa Local Government axis of Lagos state to inspect the various wrecked ships posing environmental challenges in the area.

Although the president affirmed that he recently signed contracts to ensure the removal of the shipwreck and derelicts, he noted that it was a bad development for shipwrecks to litter the country's water body.

Jonathan who was not pleased with the development and danger it posed to the coastal waters urged the relevant stakeholders to expedite action on plans to remove the vessels.

He added that there was no cause for alarm since the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) were on top of the situation.

The president noted that there was need to carry out investigation on the owners of the vessels, saying that some of the wreckages on the various shorelines could be old ships deliberately brought into Nigeria coast and abandoned.

Captain Moses Dosunmu , an officer of the Merchant Navy told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY there was some element of conspiracy in the way the old ships were abandoned in the country, saying some Nigerians may have connived with the owners of the ships to dump it country's water body.

He also blamed indigenous ship owners for purchasing bad and old vessels which he said often break down at regular intervals leading to eventual abandonment of the vessel.

According to him, over 60 of the derelicts that littered the nation's sea are owned by indigenous shipping companies , saying the government can effectively tackle the problem by coming up with a scrap policy that made it compulsory for the owner of the ship foot the bill of removing the scrap.

He said the government could also invoke the provisions of the Nairobi Convention which put the cost of removing shipwrecks on the ship owner.

In Lagos alone LEADERSHIP SUNDAY survey discovered 32 wrecks. Eight of the wrecks were said to be within the jurisdiction of NIMASA, while 24 were within the areas controlled by the NPA.

A close company source also revealed that the Lagos Channel Management (LCM) had before now made efforts to remove 16 of the 24 that are within the NPA jurisdiction.

Amid the biting economic downturn in the country, the Federal Government of Nigeria may be constrained to pump a whopping N4.3 billion for the removal of shipwrecks from the nation's coastal waters.

LEADERSHIP SUNDAY learnt from experts that it takes an average of N70 Million to dismantle a single vessel from inner waters.

Although NIMASA management still keep the cost of removing the vessel it had evacuated so far to their chest , close company source said the agency had expended over N270 Million on removal of some shipwrecks .

This informed why so many countries of the world police their coastal waters to avert incurring such costs.

The immediate past Minister of Transport, Alhaji Yusuf Sulaiman, confirmed the figure in Lagos during one of his visits to the Apapa Dockyard, Lagos.

Before his removal he promised that the effort made by the Federal Government would help to reduce danger in terms of insecurity the wrecks pose on the nation's water, adding that the Federal Government is determined to ensure safety and security of the ports to make it business-friendly for the West and Central African sub-regions.

According to him, "The removal of wrecks and derelicts from our channel will not only improve the safety of navigation in our waters, but also significantly contribute to increased cargo volume based on the economies of scale in shipping and thus promote the growth of trade in our nation ".

He noted that the presence of abandoned vessels and wrecks along the coastal areas poses serious danger to the safety of navigation, protection, marine environment and shipping development.

If the ministry embraces policy of continuity the removal is expected to start with Lagos Harbour and later, the Eastern harbour of the wrecks he said had overstayed their period of welcome.

Speaking on the issue frontline conservationist and the President of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Chief Philip Asiodu, said that the problem shipwreck is timed bomb waiting to explode, saying appropriate measure must be taken to avert the impending national disaster.

He said, "On the latest abandoned shipwrecks in Lagos, I am planning to meet with the state governor and we will go as a combined delegation to meet with the Presidency on it. If we do not act now, and we allow the sea to break into the lagoon, it is going to be a national disaster because Lagos accounts for a larger percent of the Nigerian economy.

"It would be an act of monumental irresponsibility for us to close our eyes to this issue. We at the NCF are ready to be the catalyst and get people together, but the funding should come from the Federal Government which has the ecological fund."

Also the Director of Technical Programmes, NCF, Alade Adeleke, said the increasing rate of shipwrecks on the sea by faceless people was a reflection of the neglect of marine and coastal environment over the years.

According to him, "It our role as an environmental organisation, to inform people about the implication of living wrecks on our coast. We restate our usual call to both NIMASA and the Lagos State Ministry of Waterfront to sit together and remove the abandoned wrecks immediately.

"The implication of these shipwrecks is that erosion occurs as a result of the wrecks, the erosion will go to the housing estates and it will destroy properties. If the wrecks are left for a long time, it will sink, get corroded and add more metal to the ocean. And more importantly, if the sea breaks into the ocean as this is gradually coming, it will be a monumental disaster because it will involve lives."

On the Lekki beach alone the latest shipwreck makes the fourth ship that has run aground in the beach in the past one year.

To this end , the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye said the state government had seen the negative impact the menace could wreak on the environment .

He said the state government would henceforth go after the perpetrators of the wrecks (ship owners) and make them to account for their actions.

The Attorney General said both the State and the Federal Ministries of Justice would give NPA AND NIMASA the desired legal cover for the wrecks removal activities.

The Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure, Mr. Adesegun Oniru, confirmed to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the shipwrecks and derelicts pose grave danger if nothing is done urgently to save the situation.

Blaming the coastal erosion in the state on the shipwrecks , he said," You can't fight nature, you can only appease it. You can work with nature to stop what is happening. You need to put in place protections that will break the energy of the ocean surge.

"If nothing is done urgently, in another two to six months everything you see behind you won't be there anymore. In two weeks we lost about twenty meters of coastal line, where we are standing today. So we need to do something immediately", the commissioner added.

He said the state government has awarded contract for the removal of the wrecked ships on the Lekki beach, adding that the Federal Government need to refund the money spent by the Lagos state government.

Oniru described the act of abandoning faulty and old ships on Lagos coastlines by unknown ship owners who usually go back to their countries as criminal.

The commissioner decried absence of adequate and responsive regulatory mechanisms from the appropriate Federal agencies responsible for the daily influx of wrecked ships into the country's internal water.

Oniru urged federal agencies, especially the Nigeria Maritime and Safety Authority (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to work in partnership with Lagos State Government in order to urgently salvage communities being ravaged by shipwrecks in Lagos.

He noted that though the encroachment of land by strong ocean waves would not alter the country's map but it would alter the people's natural source of living which might lead to various degrees of unemployment.

As the country gradually becomes a dumping ground for old and derelict ships , many Nigerians have called on relevant agencies to live above board in the discharge of their duties to nip the problem in the bud.

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