…each drowned person scares 100 passengers off traveling by water
Dr Gani Tarzan Balogun, National President, ATBOWATON
For each drowned person in a boat mishap in the country, one hundred prospective passengers are scared of traveling by water for life, Dr Gani Tarzan Balogun, the National President of the Association of Tourist Boats and Water Transporters Of Nigeria (ATBOWATON) has said.
Tarzan posited that boat mishaps bring ill consequences to the duo of water transportation and tourism sectors adding that its incessant occurrences portend irreparable damages to the economic development of the country.
Speaking in the office of the Permanent Secretary of the Ogun State Ministry of Transportation, Mrs. Tokunbo Peters during a courtesy call on the ministry to enquire when and how the life jackets given to the state by the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy will be distributed, Tarzan insisted that boat accident is an ugly monster that must be combated on all fronts.
He praised the Federal Government’s initiative to halt the increasing death rate on the nation’s waterways and assured that his association, ATBOWATON would give government all the needed cooperation to ensure the expected results.
In her response, Mrs Peters confirmed that the life jackets allotted to the state had arrived and would be distributed accordingly immediately after the National Sports Festival ongoing in the state.
She assured Tarzan of Ogun State Government’s preparedness to work with ATBOWATON in ensuring total safety on the state’s waterways.
The National President of ATBOWATON whose entourage on the courtesy call included the Acting Chairman of the Ogun State chapter of the association, Mr. Kazeem Arogundade, the Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter, Hon. Lawal, a tourism investor, Mr. Ranti Fashina and the Assistant PRO, Ogun State Chapter, Mr. Foluso Adelaja also visited the office of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).
The Area Manager of NIWA for Abeokuta Area Office, Engr. Ipinmoroti Adeleye Segun said his agency is interested in monitoring how the life jackets are distributed nationwide so as to ensure that the jackets get to the right quarters.
Ipinmoroti insisted that the jackets should be given to only relevant people like boat owners adding that boat unions should be on ground during the distribution by the state government.
He urged boat owners to register with NIWA in the state so that they could go on enjoying the largesse of the Federal Government.
It would be recalled that the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, led by Adegboyega Oyetola, distributed 42,000 life jackets to waterway users across 12 riverine states in Nigeria.
This distribution is part of a larger initiative to improve safety on inland waterways and reduce boat accidents in the country.
Each of the 12 selected states, Ogun State inclusive, received 3,500 life jackets in the first phase of the distribution.
