Hundreds of communities across Nigeria are cut off from economic opportunities, healthcare and education due to lack of access roads and leaving unsafe waterways as the only means of transporting the elderly, the sick and even farm produce.
While there are no official or reliable statistics on the number of deaths recorded on the waterways, LEADESRHIP Weekend investigations show that hundreds of lives have been lost in the last one year alone due to poor regulation and a lack of investment in water transportation as a viable business enterprise.
Adding to the isolation of the communities is the absence of governance making the possibility of developing infrastructure like bridges to connect communities a pipedream.
And according to some stakeholders, part of the problem is that inexperienced citizens who were previously unemployed simply wake up and start transporting people and goods across water channels and it is the innocent that pay the price.
President of Marine Craft Builders Association (MCBA), Clem Ifezue, said boat mishaps keep occurring in the country’s waterways because the regulatory body, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) is not doing enough to ensure safety along the waterways in the country.
Ifezue said, “We all heard that the late Nollywood actor refused to wear a life jacket and you allowed him to enter the boat and move with the boat. No! That is where the enforcers come in. That is why they perished.
“Many more will happen; maybe, today or maybe tomorrow, if we are not following the rules the way they are laid down. A meeting of the regulators, the operators and manufacturers of these boats is very important at this point in time.”
He said, “So many things can cause boat mishap and one of them is recklessness of the drivers. We have recommended that alcohol and any substance that makes someone high should not be sold around any jetty. Because these drivers will take it, get high and start driving anyhow because they are under influence and they kill people.”
In Imo state for example, water transportation is strictly private as locals use it to move from the Amaraocha point in Oguta to their farms and other places to save time.
APC publicity secretary for Oguta, Hon Adigwe Ossai, explained that several farmlands in Oguta are located well over 15 kilometres from the villages hence locals access it via water transportation.
According to him, many people ferry their cars via the pontoon which can transport over ten cars simultaneously including heavy duty trucks.
Ossai disclosed that several tourist seekers on Sundays embark on rides via speed boats cladded in life jackets.
Yet he said, He stated there was a drowning incident about three years ago when the weight of a cement-laden truck sunk the barge.
The casualty figure is much higher in Rivers State. A total of 14 persons, including five children lost their lives in two boat mishaps that occurred in the past one year.
On January 9, 2024, 11 passengers, which included five children from the same family were killed in a boat mishap that occurred along the Andoni-Bonny waterways in Andoni local government area of the state.
The accident occurred when a fishing boat, which was conveying over 100 people from Ngo Town, headquarters of Andoni LGA, to Bonny, collided with a passenger boat that was coming in the opposite direction.
On April 8, 2024, three other passengers, all females, drowned when the passenger boat they were travelling in capsized along the Bonny River in Bonny local government area of the state.
It was gathered that the accident occurred at about 08:30am in the morning, close to the Yellow Platform axis of the Bonny River.
It was further gathered all 11 passengers on board the boat were rescued but three of them, all females, were pronounced dead at a medical facility in Bonny Island.
Speaking on his experience, a boat mishap survivor, Pastor Promise Festus, said he lost four of his children and a grandchild in the boat accident that occurred on January 9, 2024, along the Andoni-Bonny waterways.
Festus, who is the owner and driver of the ill-fated fishing boat, disclosed that the incident happened around LNG Jetty on the sea while they were travelling from Ngo Town to Bonny Island after the Christmas and new year celebrations.
He further disclosed that he had only carried the number of people on the trip because they had no fund to pay for their travel back to Bonny.
The survivor said: “I went to celebrate Christmas with my people. So, on the way coming back, January 8, I loaded people who had no money to pay the transport with my family. Accidentally, our boat capsized in front of the LNG, where there was no rescue. So, about eleven people died and out of that eleven people, five were my sons and daughters.
In Benue State, the spokesperson of the Police Command Catherine Anene, said from 2023 to date, only one boat mishap happened with one death recorded.
However, one of the canoe paddlers from Wadata area of River Benue said from 2023 to date, no canoe paddler has died in the course of his job.
The canoe paddler who does not want his name in print appealed to the government to provide life jacket to help save the lives of passengers in case of any accident.
He explained that some of the canoe accidents happened as a result of the inexperience of some paddlers who just come into the job as a result of unemployment.
“I want to also appeal to the government of the day, to train some of the canoe paddlers on safety measures while in the waters to reduce some of the avoidable accidents.”
Similarly, in June last year, about six persons died in Ughoton River, near Jeddo Community, in Okpe local government area of Delta state, when a speed boat carrying nine passengers capsized, after hitting a hard object in the river.
The passengers were coming from a funeral ceremony in a neighbouring community.
According to community sources, the incident happened at night, which made it difficult for local divers to be of help. They noted that three persons survived.
According to a survivor, Bright Oshuko, “it was God’s intervention that l was able to swim. We were nine but three of us were able to swim to safety that night.
“The experience was bad because it was at night. I managed to swim to a nearby tree where l hanged myself till the next morning. It was dark and very difficult to see where you are heading to. Mind you, you are also exposed to wild fishes, reptiles and animals. So, the best thing was to hang somewhere.
He said, “we were coming from a ceremony in a nearby community at night when the incident happened. Because of the time, local divers could not really be of help but with the little experience l have in swimming, God did it for me.”
Meanwhile, Delta State government has prohibited journeys on its water bodies without putting on life jackets and ensuring other safety measures.
State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Nnamdi Ijeh, while reacting to boat mishaps in the state especially those who lost their lives in the ill-fated boat mishap on the River Niger weeks ago.
While stating the importance of safety measures, he revealed, “At the time the news got to us, we arrived at the scene and discovered that the few ones who were saved from the boat mishap were wearing life jackets”.
Again, he said the state government will henceforth regulate the activities on waterways while the state government will continue to build more bridges to connect riverine communities through land transportation.
On the causes of boat mishaps, a sand dredger and boat operator, Simon Ekpa said water transporters have no particular park and it is therefore difficult to monitor them and instil safety measures.
He said the federal government should allow state and local governments to manage waterways, whether local rivers or sea so that issue of safety measures could be well monitored.
“Even fishermen engage in water transport. Those who say they own the waterways are not even on ground to know what is going on there. There are lots of obstructions on the water that need to be managed, not only the natural wave. Do you know some use boats in the night without light?
One of the clear cases of overloading and over speeding was the tragic incident that happened on Thursday, April 6, 2023 when a local boat – MV Tari, with double decks conveying about 95 passengers onboard and goods from Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital to Okpoama in Brass local government area, capsized near Iwokiri in Okoroma.
The boat which set sail at exactly 8:45 am stopped at Okodi Obia, Dogioma, Akakimama and Olokiama communities and offloaded some passengers before the unfortunate incident happened at about 2:35 pm en route to Brass, killing about eight passengers including children.
According to eyewitness account, the captain who got to a point where the water was dry and shallow, wanted to turn the boat while on speed. The boat hit the ground on one size which caused the boat to bend. Drums of fuel and other goods loaded inside the boat fell off from that side of the boat into the water including all the passengers, which made the boat to capsize.
Also, on Wednesday October 25, 2023, a broadcast journalist and director Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress Campaign Council in Bayelsa State, Mr Perry Tukuwei Jr, was declared missing and later confirmed dead after a boat mishap occurred while he and other journalists were travelling from Nembe Town to Okoroba Community in Nembe local government area of the state for the party’s governorship campaign.
A survivor of that boat mishap, a former head of reportorial AIT, Yenagoa bureau, Mr. Avwarosuv Jonathan Juri, said that the unfortunate incident was occasioned by the carelessness and over speeding of the driver.
“We heard a gun boat that was just a hundred meters behind us. So, immediately the gun boat was approaching us, the waves wer very high and at that point, we expected that the boat driver should have immediately slowed down so that the force of the waves would only make the boat unstable for some seconds. In our own case, it was unfortunate that the boat driver was speeding. He could not control the boat because of the pressure that came with the waves and the boat capsized”, Juri said.
He advised that people should always wear life jackets anytime they want to embark on any maritime journey, whether they know how to swim or not, adding that the human factors which basically has to do with the inexperience of the drivers, not being familiar with the routes on the water and the intensity of the waves are the major factors that causes boat mishap.
He said, “We were about nine on the boat including the driver; Solomon of Rhythm FM and I were wearing life vests.”
Now, when it happened, it just happened in like a second, the next thing you see is that you are already inside the water. In our own case, the boat capsized in a dangerous manner that the boat covered everybody. At that point, first, fear will come in and secondly, how do you manage the situation if you don’t know how to swim?
“Because personally I was wearing a life jacket. I didn’t go deep inside the river, like few meters and I came out because of my life vest. I was calm at that point because I knew I was already floating. When the waves pushed me up, I just waved my hand so that someone would see me struggling.
“The experience is not an experience you can wish for your worst enemy because it is traumatic. it is heart breaking; and dangerous. It was just God that saved us.”