NOSDRA kick-starts batch engagements with stakeholders in NOSCP implementation

Oritsegbubemi Omatseyin

Lagos — In a calculated effort to increase the tempo of cross-sectoral collaboration in preparation for an intervention in major oil spill incidence in Nigeria, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, has flagged off the first stage of engagement with critical stakeholders cutting across security, law enforcement and related agencies concerning sharpening the understanding of their various roles and responsibilities in the implementation of National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, NOSCP.

In his opening remarks at the maiden edition of the NOSCP stakeholders’ meeting held on Tuesday in Abuja, the Director General/Chief Executive Officer of NOSDRA, Idris O. Musa, stated that the main objective of the meeting was to keep all the relevant stakeholders abreast of their roles and responsibilities in the implementation of NOSCP under the current arrangement.

The DG/CEO pin-pointed the other objectives of the meeting to include assessing the emergency preparedness of all major stakeholders in oil spill management, assessing the effectiveness of the agency’s Incident Management Structure, IMS, ensuring the effectiveness of the IMS, enhancing the effectiveness of inter-agency collaboration as a necessary ingredient in responding to oil spill incidents and assuring clarity and understanding of roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders.

Musa expressed gratitude to the stakeholders for responding to the invitation to the meeting on implementing NOSCP, stressing that cooperation with NOSDRA would go a long way in strengthening the country’s national capacity for oil spill management.

The stakeholders that sent representatives in the first batch of the stakeholders’ engagement meeting with NOSDRA included the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force, NAF, Nigerian Police Force, NPF, Department of State Services, DSS, Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, and Federal Fire Service, FFS.

Other agencies represented at the meeting were the National Emergency Management Authority, NEMA, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMET.

In his remarks, the Director, Asset Safety and Mitigation, ASM, in NOSDRA, Mr. Daniel Okoromu thanked the invited stakeholders for honouring the invitation to the meeting, stressing that the idea shared therein would help in strengthening the collaborative efforts in the implementation of the all-important NOSCP. While giving the vote of thanks at the conclusion of the stakeholders’ meeting, the Director, Oil Field Assessment, OFA, in the agency, Dr. Yusuf Rigasa, commended the stakeholder agencies for their unflagging commitment towards sustaining the collaboration with NOSDRA in the implementation of the national blueprint for sustainable environment in the nation’s petroleum industry.