The Federal Government has said it will restructure the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA) in order to enable it perform optimally and bring about meaningful changes in the maritime sector.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, stated this when he received the Ministerial Committee on Restructuring of NIMASA led by its Director-General, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

The minister noted that “One of the reasons why I set up the committee was my visit to NIMASA. I asked a question, what does NIMASA do? They had what they call ‘Search and Rescue Centre,’ they also had what they call ‘Search and Rescue Clinic.’

“We are in the process of appointing an auditor to audit NIMASA and the Nigerian Ports Authority. Maybe when the auditor goes round and comes back, the responsibility of the matter will be clearer”, he said.

He allayed fears that the audit to be embarked upon is not a witch-hunt exercise but efforts to reposition the organization for better performance.

“It is not a witch-hunt. We should ask ourselves the question, has NIMASA at any point in time discharged its responsibility beyond the collection of revenue? And all those revenues that NIMASA has collected where are they? What did they do with the revenues?”

“There has to be a change in NIMASA. The change shouldn’t be only in the Ministry of Transportation, it should also be in NIMASA”, he said.

Earlier, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside who led the committee told the Minister that the committee did the work painstakingly by consulting relevant stakeholders and experts in the field of maritime administration to arrive at the report, noting that the report of the committee will go a long way in correcting errors and mistakes of the past.