The Secretary-General, Abuja Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control, Captain Sunday Umoren, is a thoroughbred professional and one of the most respected Master Mariners in Nigeria. In this interview – his first since assuming duties as Secretary-General – Umoren explained how his team plans to make the Abuja MoU one of the best in the world.
What are your achievements so far since assuming duties as Secretary-General of the Abuja MoU in January?
We met a very robust organization and our plans have been from the beginning, to build on the existing structure to move the Abuja MoU to the next level. We have really gained much momentum on communication and creating awareness amongst Members States to bring out the best from them. We have not had any meetings since 2019, which we can easily attribute to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. And since we came on board, we had the intercessional management working group meeting. We have also had the just concluded committee meeting that brought in members from all States signatory to the memorandum. And in terms of communication, we now have a form of platform whereby the Port State Control Officers could interact among themselves on a daily basis. We have drawn up some plans, which we would unveil soon. We have interacted with the embassies to also help in facilitating communication with our Member States. Discussions are close to maturity in respect to communication with States that are yet to be full members; I mean the four countries, which are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, and Mauritania. We have established communication with them and we are progressing and hopefully, in no time, all the 22 countries that we have in the region would be full members of the Abuja MoU.
In the work plan you presented to stakeholders at the 11th Port State Control Committee meeting in Lagos in October, you stated that you were focusing on operational excellence that would catapult the MoU to the top quartile of the most performing MoUs in the world. Can you shed more light on this goal?
You know, the thing about life is that complacency should actually be eliminated in your life. Yes, we have achieved a lot, and I’ll not say we are far at the bottom. We have been working to make it better per circumstance. And that is the spirit by which we work to move to that topmost point. We are also looking at what other MoUs are doing to incorporate them into ours. We are focusing on operational excellence to be in that top quartile and that is the spirit we are carrying. We have done the benchmark with other MoUs. We have seen where they have the upper hand or what they are doing a little better than us and we are like, okay, and we are going to hit that mark.
What strategies are you putting in place to obtain ISO certification for the Abuja MoU?
You know in service, quality is quality. Quality service always stands out there. So, our aim is to have that quality service endorsed, seen by all. Yes, in terms of what we’ve done so far, as presented to the house members, we have had meetings with three or four service providers and we selected one that we are going to work with. We do have our road map already on how the ISO certificate can be actualized. ISO has certificated two to three MoUs and we are targeting to be the next one. We have set the motion already. I have been part of ISO certification in other organizations. So I know what it means right from the first day of coming in. We have actually started introducing the quality port management system in our day-to-day activities, so we strongly believe that by the next committee meeting, we would present the ISO certificate to the Member States.
What are you doing to introduce globally acceptable certificated courses for intending Port State Control Officers in the region?
Shipping is a very dynamic aspect of the maritime world, and that is why on a yearly basis, the Maritime Safety Committee deals with different regions, groups coming to the ports. And this shows that because you are qualified today, does not mean you are fully prepared for the changes that are coming. So, the issue of training cannot be overemphasized. Training is clearly highlighted as one of the things that every State should do. In the audit, we want to see the scale of training that your Port State Control Officers are exposed to. Currently, no maritime training institution in our region is offering training on Port State Control. We usually have training courses from International Maritime Organization (IMO) and sometimes, sponsored by other MoUs. We are going to send messages to the maritime training institutions that offer foreign courses for them to collaborate with Abuja MoU to start offering such courses. Within us, we have started developing the syllabus.
How financially committed are Member States to the Abuja MoU?
Yes, we have some challenges with respect to members not paying up their dues but we’ve been very lucky that within the period I came in, some of them have actually made part payment. It is all about engagement. We look at engaging them. They made a commitment during the last committee meeting that henceforth; they would be up to date in their payment. So, that is fine. And we are very grateful to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Federal Ministry of Transportation in Nigeria as the host nation for all the financial support they have been giving to us which has actually kept us going. But like I said, Member States are willing to come on board, trusting and hoping that the story is going to be different by next year.
Some Member States have not domesticated major conventions of the Memorandum. How are you addressing this?
We have 15 major conventions at Abuja MoU as approved to be bidding for the inspection of vessels coming into our countries. The first is the International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), next is the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 related thereto, (MARPOL), among others and the current one that was just added is the wreck removal. So, we have 15 conventions and as it has been clearly highlighted, if you have not domesticated any of those conventions, you don’t have any moral justification to inspect a vessel against such. This is because until it becomes a law in your country, you can’t really enforce it and that is why we are engaging our member states to encourage them to domestic all the 15 conventions so that when your Port State Control Officers visit a vessel, they would go in there to do the full spectrum of Port State Control inspection as expected from our region.
How is the Abuja MoU implementing and enforcing the Port State Control Act, which is an important safety net to eliminate the operation of sub-standard ships.
Remember, the Act stated clearly what Port State Control is meant to achieve. So, who is doing that for you? Port State Control Officers do it. So, first, training; ensuring that you have qualified and skilled Port State Control Officers to enforce that. You see, IMO makes conventions; the enforcement is actually left to the hands of the Flag States. So, by this committee meeting, we actually engage Member States to impress on them the need to push more on enforcement. We know that it is practically impossible unless probably you have very fewer ships coming into your country, probably like 10 ships, then you’ll be able to inspect all of them. But a country like Nigeria that has a lot of offshore activities, a lot of ships coming, that would be difficult. So, we have set a minimum target that every country should aim at inspecting at least 15 percent of vessels that call at their ports.
Source: Ships and Ports News
