ABUJA – It was an all-out conflict of in­terests at the public hearing of an establishment bill, as both civil and military authorities disagreed on where the leader­ship of the proposed Nation Hydrographic Agency should domicile.

The hearing which was put together to aggregate views and suggestions from stakeholders in the nation’s maritime sector was at the in­stance of the House of Repre­sentatives Committee on Navy chaired by Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi.

The lawmaker had while declaring the hearing open assured stakeholders of fair and equal opportunity to be heard, saying that all views submitted would be given fair treatment and consideration by the committee.

However, when the presen­tation proper commenced, the Ministry of Transportation and other government para­statals that made submissions agreed to establishment of the agency, except one, the Nation­al Inland Waterways Authori­ty (NIWA). They said it would be a duplication of functions.

Among the MDAs, each made cases for recognition and the need to be included on the board of the agency, whilst being unanimous in the belief that it should be headed by a seasoned civilian hydrogra­pher as obtains elsewhere in other coastal nations.

The Surveyor General of the Federation, Samuel Tai­wo, told the gathering that he should be the one to chair the board by virtue of his position as Surveyor General.

"The proposed National Hydrographic Agency is a welcome development, as the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation will superin­tend this agency as the board of the agency will be chaired by the Surveyor General of the Federation,” he said.

He also proposed that the agency should be headed by a Managing Director, who must be a qualified hydrographer by training with not less than 18 years of cognate professional experience.

He called for the agency to be headed by a civilian as that would facilitate both military and civil relationship in man­aging hydrographic activities in Nigeria, just as other coast­al nations such as UK, Canada and Singapore.

Speaking for the Surveyors Council on Nigeria, the Pres­ident, Kayode Oluwawotemi, also toed the same line of ar­gument.

However, the Ministry of Transportation, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Magdalene Ajani, noted sev­eral observations that she con­sidered anomalous to the man­date of the ministry which she said has agencies with major roles in ocean mapping and generation of navigational charts which should not be left for the military to handle.

According to her, “There seems to be a militarisation of the proposed bill, situating the subject as a matter of primary interest only to the Navy.

“The focus of the bill there­fore is positioning this agency as a wing of the Nigerian Navy”.


She, therefore, called for an open institution with collab­oration between the military and civil authorities with a view to appointing individu­als to occupy its offices irre­spective of their background.

“Clauses in sections 3, 4 and parts of section 2, all impinge on the operational responsibilities of the NPA,” she added.

NIWA on the other hand, considered the proposed agen­cy as a duplication of its exist­ing functions.

The Deputy General Man­ager, Legal Services, Naziru Biyankari, said the functions highlighted in the bill for the proposed agency were already being handled by NIWA, and only requires collaboration from sister agencies and the Nigeria Navy to harmonise interests and operational re­sponsibilities.

However, speaking for the Navy was Rear Admiral Chukwuemeka Ebenezer Okafor who situated the role of the proposed agency in the premise of critical national security concern.

Specifically, the Navy said the bill would help their oper­ational capabilities by facili­tating the maximisation of vessels which would in turn enable the country reap the benefit of its huge investment.

He said, “There’s lower than normal maritime ac­tivities on Nigerian waters. Inability of ship owners to utilise their ships to convey heavy duty raw materials to industrial zones due to poor navigational charts is a mi­nus for us as a country.”

He said the Navy would bridge that gap should the bill be passed and signed into law as currently proposed.

He argued further saying, “The UK generates £160 bil­lion from the sale of nautical charts and ocean mapping which they extend to Afri­ca.”

He said the bill would enhance Nigerian ability to utilise its coastal facilities to produce globally acceptable charts and generate revenue.

In terms of leadership for the agency, he stressed that “it will be a huge national security mistake to leave the agency in the hands of a civil authority.”

His reason was that “when a sensor is deployed into the waters, every data regarding the body of the water is ag­gregated and separated, with the ones relevant for civil ac­tivities released to the relevant civil agencies, while the ones having national security im­plications are kept as classified information.”

The committee pledged to do justice to all positions pre­sented by stakeholders.

Lisaint:
I thought Navy already has a department called Oceanographic studies



BTW
I'm a graduate of Geography and planning sciences

Penguin2:


A study department has no similarity with a an executive parastatal.

Does it?