By Uzor Odigbo, Senior Correspondent
The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Admnistration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has said that lack of information was main reason why Nigeria failed to clinch a seat in the recent International Maritime Organisation (IMO) election.
According to him, other countries did not get accurate information of how Nigeria had failed in tackling the issue of piracy, hence lack of support from other them.
“The issue of piracy, I cannot deny that it may have some impact on the election, our colleagues didn’t have information about what we were doing to tackle piracy and there was a general impression that Nigeria wasn’t doing enough to tackle the issue of piracy.”
The DG added that NIMASA had three-man delegation to the IMO seat spending about N100 million in the process.
He told journalists at the sideline of the conference of G7++ Friends of the Gulf of Guinea that Nigeria’s late preparation for the election also cost the country the category C seat at the IMO.
Peterside who said the country was considering the fact that Nigeria was just coming out of recession added that the country did not move from country to country to canvas for votes as it used to be in previous elections.
He said: “I don’t think I am here to reel out reasons why we lost the election but I think three reasons suffice; one is that we started late in our quest to be elected in IMO council
“Two, aside from the fact that we started fairly late, in our quest to get reelected to the council, Nigeria didn’t spend as much as other countries, we are hosting IMO event virtually every other month and for some reasons, we didn’t take that route.”
He explained that misconception about Nigeria’s fight against piracy formed part of the factors that led to Nigeria’s failure at the election.
When asked about the number of Nigerian delegation to the convention, Peterside deliberately narrowed his answer to NIMASA delegation saying there were only three persons in the delegation.
He added that the Agency spent slightly below N100 million in the process.
Earlier, the DG had reiterated efforts by the agency to nip piracy in the bud saying an anti-piracy bill is being sponsored by the agency through the help of international agencies
He maintained that when the bill is passed into law, Nigeria would be the first country in Africa to have such dedicated law against piracy in the continent.
He further stressed that a contract of 1.5 million dollars has been signed with an Israeli firm for acquisition of military hardware to fight piracy as well as provide training for NIMASA and military personnel.