By Mark Lenu
Some residents of coastal communities in Rivers State have rejected moves by the federal government to ban the use of wooden boats on the nation’s waterways. The FG had through the National Inland Waterways Authority said it is moving towards phasing out wooden boats on inland waterways.
The Managing Director of NIWA, Bola Oyebamiji, who made this known said wooden boats accounted for the majority of accidents on the waterways nationwide. He said this was largely because wooden boat operators have no regard for operational rules, which include: Not traveling at night, overloading, and failure to use life jackets by both operators and passengers.
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“Most of them have no light at all. Overloading is also an issue. And the boats are piloted by people of the lowest education in Nigeria,” Oyebamiji said. But speaking with our correspondent, a coastal merchant from the Kalabari region of Rivers State, Kariboye Lawson popularly called Music Chief objected to the notion of banning wooden boats, saying that wooden boat is not the only cause of accident.
He said, “the people of Nembe and Southern Ijaw communities in Bayelsa State among others don’t have accesss road and only wooden boats they can use to convey their goods in and out of their communities. Lawson noted that accident does happen to other means of transportation too thereby making wooden boats not the only means of transportation that can be affected by accident.
He further said wooden boats had for years remained the most affordable means of conveying passengers and goods within the government neglected coastal communities in the riverine region of the country and any attempt to ban the use of wooden boats will be met with resistance.
