Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora on Wednesday assumed duty as the new Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), at the agency’s headquarters in Lokoja, Kogi State.
President Muhammadu Buhari recently approved the appointment of the former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
A letter signed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transportation, Sabiu Zakari, and dated 24th September, 2018, said the appointment is with immediate effect.
Dr. Mamora, who represented Lagos East district in the Senate from 2003 to 2011, was Deputy Director General of the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation during the 2015 election.
Mamora, in his address after taking over from the outgone acting MD, Bar. Danladi Ibrahim, described NIWA as “a goldmine” which has remained largely untapped by the government.
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 pledged to look into ways of addressing some of challenges hampering the smooth operations of the agency and called on staff of NIWA to join hands with him as team in actualising the vision and mission of the organization.
Earlier, Danladi 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 listed successes recorded 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 the Lake Chad, procurement of patrol boats and water bus ambulances.
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