EDITORIAL: Thousands of deaths in boat mishaps as authorities slumber

Nigeria’s inland waterways, like many of its roads, have become death traps. This is a tragic phenomenon that claims the lives of the poor who commute in boats the most. The frequency of these disasters seemingly suggests the slumbering or incompetence of public officials saddled with the responsibility of ensuring safety on these routes.

Boat mishaps in at least 10 states reveal benumbing numbers of avoidable fatalities across the country. The government’s attention should shift from the irrelevant official statements of the president or a governor commiserating with families of the victims, each time it occurs, to entrenching proactive measures against these disasters.

The latest of the tragedies was the collision of two boats in Lagos last Monday. About 21 persons are feared dead from the incident. Each of the boats was reportedly carrying 16 passengers when they capsized in the middle of the lagoon in the Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area of the state, in the night.

The ill-fated journey ought not to have taken place, if the appropriate federal and state agencies were alive to their responsibilities. It is illegal for any boat to operate outside the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. time-frame, according to the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) regulation, which is gazetted by the Federal Ministry of Justice.

Before the Lagos mishap, an avalanche of parallel tragedies had occurred. On 3 October, a boat carrying 300 passengers sank with women and children, who were returning from a festival in Mudi, Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State. Only 160 persons were rescued, while 60 are reported to have died, and 108 others were declared missing. In Zamfara State, 40 persons died in a similar circumstance in September, in the Bakin Kasuwa River, in Gumm local government. In August, a boat exploded in Bayelsa State and left 20 passengers dead in Ezetu 1 in southern Ijaw.

Niger boat mishap

But for providence, the 250 passengers in a boat accident in Buguma waterways in Asari-Toru LGA in Rivers State, conveying goods to the market in April, would have perished. The Nigerian Navy NNS Pathfinder intervened timely to rescue them. The boat was a locally made three-deck vessel, which the Navy said in a statement was overborne, with no safety equipment on board, and none of its passengers wore lifejackets. We wager that these boats involved in serial accidents were not subjected to any inspection or approvals to operate.

The NIWA has regulations for boats and jetties operations in the country to ensure the safety of passengers and cargoes. But they are not adhered to. These rules include: 6 a.m. to 6.p.m. hours of operations; zero tolerance for overloading and use of rickety boats; mandatory use of lifejackets by passengers; dissemination of safety tips to passengers before sailing; and the use of handle paddles in the case of engine failure. These set of guidelines are not for boat operators alone, but also for owners of jetties.

As the rules are observed in the breach, harvests of deaths become inevitable. In 2022, NIWA said it would begin to enforce the rules in the gazette of the Justice ministry, for which any violator would be liable to a seven-year jail term. Regulations, which are not enforced, are as hollow as being non-existent.

Besides overloading, many boats have capsized as a result of hitting rocks and wreckages along navigational routes, as our water channels are not properly dredged or dredged at all. The country’s over 10,000 kilometres of inland waterways, comprising rivers, lagoons, creeks and intra-coastal waters, therefore, require meticulous official oversight.

Consequently, NIWA authorities should be held responsible for these losses of lives, as well as ministries of transportation in states, since they are supposed to form synergies to guarantee the safety of lives of people who use this mode of transportation.

An investigation of boat accidents in April, by Premium Times, in partnership with Pluboard, beginning from 2019 to 2023, revealed a chilling tally of at least 1072 deaths from 71 accidents. A total of 106 persons died in Kwara State in June 2023; Taraba recorded 100 deaths in October of that year too; while Kebbi State had 98 similar deaths in 2021. Anambra, Kano, Sokoto, Cross Rivers and Niger states are other locations where safety concerns in waterways transportation are common.

During the 2024 safety sensitisation campaign for Nigeria waterways operators, the Managing Director of NIWA, Bola Oyebamiji, identified ignorance, negligence and non-adherence to due processes as reasons for these mishaps. This is true, but does not exonerate his agency from laxity in oversight, which culminates in these disasters. Now is the time to enforce the regulations. Rules should not be made and left to a bunch of operators, already known to be ignorant and with no regard for public safety, to implement.

Official negligence and dereliction of duty on matters that concern the safety of lives, in our view, is criminal. It should not be condoned any more. In the United Kingdom, for instance, a Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) certificate is obtained before an operator can register or secure a licence to use inland waterways like rivers and canals. And all boats with BSS certificates are tested every four years. The maximum speed on narrow canals is four miles per hour.

READ ALSO: INVESTIGATION: Death In The Water: Systemic failures fuel boat mishaps in Nigeria

At all times, those in authority should be conscious of the sanctity of life. As a result, it should not be avoidably wasted in the manner that boat accidents are killing Nigerians. We cannot reinvent the wheel in any form or shape in the government’s role in protecting lives and property. Other transportation regulators, like those in charge of roads and aviation, are always on ground to enforce compliance with rules. This is why the Nigeria Road Safety Corps marshals and Vehicle Inspection Officers are always on our roads.

In this context, NIWA, state governments and local council officials, should establish their physical presence at jetties where the boats take off to enforce the observance of safety protocols. We advocate a government maintained register at jetties in each area, where these canoes set sail, for government officials to keep tabs on voyages that were embarked on, in tandem with the laid down rules. This will help to checkmate flagrant abuses, for which many families have grieved.

Many victims of these boat accidents are farmers and traders, who bring their food cargoes and wares to urban markets. This are critical economic activities as the country boils amid increasing food scarcity and food inflation. The national economy is the ultimate loser if this tragic trend is not bucked.

As the lives of the rich who fly in the sky in planes are protected through the strict regulations in the aviation sector, even though little attention is paid to the roads, which they routinely use too, the lives of those in the riverine communities deserve the same level of protection. NIWA and sub-national authorities in charge of the safety of transportation, therefore, should justify their existence by bringing sanity to the movement of people and cargoes along our inland waterways.