Bayo Akomolafe 
The Abuja Memorandum of Understand (MoU) on Port State Control (PSC) is to begin a train for 22 heads of maritime administrations in the West and Central African countries in Lagos next month. The Abuja MoU, which has the West and African countries as members states, aims to harmonise PSC procedures and practices of all the countries in the region by eliminating the operation of substandard shipping within the region, thereby ensuring maritime safety, protection of the marine environment from pollution and improving the working and living conditions of ship crew and to facilitate regional cooperation and exchange of information among member states. The training, being sponsored by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), will hold from May 9 to 11, 2022 in Lagos.
The Secretary-General, Abuja MoU, Captain Sunday Umoren, explained that the training was to enhance the skills of top management executives of maritime administrations of member states. Umoren added: “Basically, we realised that we could have all the rules and laws but implementation is key and for execution in which port state control regime, which we called enforcement, is to yield the expected returns.
You must have a buy-in of everyone, especially policymakers and buy-in of the top management. “We have had some training for port state control officers. However, we think one of the best ways to get the buy-ins of the top management in all the countries was for us to organise training for directorsgeneral. We know that some of them came from different backgrounds.
“Some got political appointments to be in the office but if IMO partners with us through technical cooperation for us to have a three-day program for all the directors-general, that would create an improved awareness level and also help them to fully understand their roles.They need to know why certain things have to be done in the maritime domain coupled with the consequences of not doing those things.” According to him, the training is for all the 22 member states of the Abuja MoU, noting that they had been advised to come along with one senior person that could be trained by IMO consultants and Abuja MoU. After the training programme, Umoren said that the region would see different levels of commitment which would resolve into the protection of its maritime domain.
