By Omotilewa Quadri
Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora on Wednesday formally resumed duty as the new Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) at the agency’s headquarters in Lokoja, Kogi State, pledging to work as a team player in moving the authority to greater heights.
Mamora, in his address shortly after taking over from the former Acting Managing Director, Danladi Ibrahim, described NIWA as “a goldmine” which has remained largely untapped by the government, adding that the nation has a lot to benefit when the right things are done.
He said an effective inland waterways transportation system would bring about sanity on the highways and help in reducing high death rates occasioned by road accidents.
Mamora, while pledging to look into ways of addressing some of challenges hampering the smooth operations of the agency, however, called on staff of NIWA to join hands with him as a team in actualising the vision and mission of the organization.
Earlier, Danladi in his remark outlined some of the challenges facing the authority to include inadequate funding, poor remuneration, lack of infrastructures in navigable waterways, operational and jurisdictional conflicts with some sister agencies and state governments.
He mentioned some of successes recorded by the agency to include the completion of various river ports and jetties; procurement of cargo equipment for Onitsha river port, maintenance dredging, dredging of major tributaries and water fronts, opening up of navigable channel on Lake Chad, procurement of patrol boats and water bus ambulances, amongst others.
Danladi commended the staff for their support and cooperation and urged them to extend same to the new managing director.
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