Politics
You should be ashamed of yourself, Reps tell NIMASA
Dakuku Peterside
Representatives of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA were walked out from a public hearing organised by the joint National Assembly committee investigating activities of foreign vessel owners in the country.
This is even as the panel warned the agency’s Director General, Mr. Dakuku Peterside against his non-appearance at the rescheduled meeting.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Contents, Senator Teslim Folarin (APC Oyo Central) and his colleague in the House of Representatives, Hon. Legor Idagbo, who gave the warning during the investigative hearing at the National Assembly complex.
The joint Committees on Local Content, Petroleum (Downstream), and Legislative Compliance is currently investigating the breach of Nigerian laws by foreign vessel owners in the coastal region of the country.
Folarin, who described the action of the director general as unfortunate, warned him against shinning the panel in future.
The co-chairman did not allow the team leader to introduce himself before he was asked to explain his mission and on what capacity he was appearing before the panel.
He therefore asked the leader and other members of the team to excuse the panel, vowing not to allow representatives for their director general.
“It is very unfortunate that men in position of authority would flagrantly shun the invitation of the senate. I spoke with Peterside about this event. He was supposed to come three weeks ago but he didn’t come.
“We rescheduled this event because of him. I called him and asked him to pick a date and he picked today, only for him to write tge Clerk three days ago that the Senate Committee was coming to see him.
“This is an investigative hearing which supercede any other engagement. We won’t sit here and be wasting our time. We will give him one more chance, just one chance. If he failed to honour the next invitation, we know what to do,” he stressed.
Speaking in the same vein, chairman of the House Committee on Local Content, Hon. Idagbo berated the behaviour of the NIMASA boss.
He said: “I think we should be ashamed of ourselves as Nigerians. A situation where invitations are sent out and all we get are excuses. I’m aware that Senator Folarin had conversation with the DG of NIMASA and he picked this date.
“The DG went through his calendar and picked this date only for him to send representatives to us today. This committee’s invitation got first before that of the House but he chose to ignore us.
“What the DG of NIMASA should have done is to explain to the House Committee that he already had an invitation to an investigative hearing from this joint committee. He could even honour our invitation and still meet up with his appointment with the House committee.
“We cannot continue like this as a country. We sit down at the comfort of our offices and live large. We copy what happens in other countries yet we failed to do what they do there. We fail to respect constituted authority.
“You people (NIMASA) should be ashamed of yourself. How do we move forward as a country if we continue like this? What engagement is more important than this type of investigative hearing. This type of attitude is unacceptable.”
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