The Director General of Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside since beginning of the month, turned national attention on the conference of the Association of African Maritime Administrations (AAMA), which since became subject of interest, particularly within the maritime industry.

Of equal curiosity is the political dimension given to the event, some of which sounds like vehicle for cheap political publicity, and others, clearly matters of self-adulation and political chest beating. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the conference is purpose driven and that should serve as the critical link.

Media hype which attempted to underscore the relevance of the conference on the basis of the attendance of President Muhammadu Buhari does not portray key business marketing tool because it is only an avenue to honour Mr. President; and which is no more ceremonial. It is therefore fallacious to think and expect that because Mr. President will grace the occasion, bequeath on the event any depth of critical achievement, other than the intended ego and propaganda of relevance by the DG NIMASA and by extension, the Transportation Minister, Rt. Hon. Chubuike Rotimui Amaechi.

Since the president is most likely not going to show personal appearance, it also amount to poor judgment on the part of NIMASA and the Transport Ministry, who merely attempt to gain at the president’s expense, in a tortoise clever manner; because given the health condition of the president who has missed out of Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings and for which reason, subsequent meetings have been shelved, the duo of Amaechi and Peterside should have known that the AAMA conference is not  the proper avenue to shore up the sagging political health of this government, and indeed of Mr. President.

The myopic and self serving idea to drag Mr. President into a transport/economic summit highlights the level of eye service in this government, as it has been in previous administration. The motive was not different when Dr. Abdullahi Dikko, former Customs Comptroller General dragged former President Goodluck Jonathan to Brussels for World Customs Organization Conference in 2012.

Knowing the strong character of President Buhari, there is no guarantee he will be at AAMA in person and there is no way of knowing he is particularly elated about his personal presence other than the success of the conference objective, to move Nigeria a notch farther in her quest to first of all grow the nation’s maritime domain capacities through purposeful engagements such as this AAMA conference; and in the long run, taking our potentials across the frontier.

Perhaps this was the point Peterside sought to make when he said the conference is currently the biggest maritime event in the continent; although in truth, the principal participants are drawn from West and Central Africa. There is no way the North and South African sub-region can benefit wholly from the event via informed inputs, information sharing, network and or exhibitions.

The NIMASA DG captured the essential benefits thus, “ In addition to the maritime administrations that will be attending the event, other critical stakeholders such as shipping agents, freight forwarders and other sundry maritime and shipping services providers would also be in attendance and thus will bring about exchange of ideas and contacts with Nigerian stakeholders.”

Particularly, Peterside explained in his chat with maritime Journalists that the conference will discuss issues about port development and modernization, maritime tourism, ship building and ship repairs amongst others. It does not matter whether the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) have been involved in similar exercise with similar objectives, the Nigerian society remains a largely permissive sort where government often gets away with anything.

If the AAMA conference unlike Maritime Organization for West and Central Africa (MOWCA) under NPA can produce a believable and achievable blueprint to shore up our capacities, no one cares the number of MOWCA conferences that held in Abuja and Lagos without anything to show for it.

Expectedly, the whole objective of this conference is tailored at exploring all visible maritime opportunities within the partnering countries and sub regions, and secondly to attempt to close borders symbolically, as a way of driving continental integrations.

This beginning effort is no doubt commendable, its uniqueness will derive from utilizing participants’ warehouse of ideas and resolutions in moving individual participating nations onward, as part of the whole, in their various comparative maritime advantages.

Happily, every economic interaction also purports to seek mutually benefitting synergy while improving individual competences. This perhaps, is the broad outlook of the AAMA conference, first as a power bloc, and yet essentially the growing of maritime nations capabilities at the national, continental and global levels.

It is instructive that this first major economic submit and exhibition is coming on the heels of the 2012 African Transport and Maritime Charter held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and which gave birth to AAMA. The Abuja Conference theme titled “Sustainable use of Africa’s Oceans and Seas” promises to look into issues of safe shipping, piracy, trans-shipment, ship turn around time etc.