Regulators should enforce safety standards
Considering that inhabitants of most communities in the creeks and coastlines areas have no alternative means of transportation, boat accidents may be inevitable. But the frequency of such accidents in Nigeria has over the years become alarming. In the latest of what is now a festival of deaths on the nation’s waterways, the National Inland Waterways (NIWA) last weekend confirmed that no fewer than 41 persons died and 11 others were rescued in a boat mishap at Gorau community on the Goronyo River in Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State. The NIWA Area Manager in Sokoto, Mr Abdulkadir Yusuf, said the boat was carrying about 82 persons when it recorded the accident that claimed many lives, including the community leader in transit to a rice farm for harvest.
Even before any official investigation, Yusuf has attributed the latest tragedy to negligence, overloading and violation of safety rules. We doubt if anyone would fault him. It is a notorious fact that there is hardly any ferry, canoe or the so-called “flying boat” that keeps to the exact passenger number specification. In some instances, boats that were constructed to carry not more than 20 persons could be loaded with 50 or more passengers, especially at peak periods when people are in a hurry to get back to their places of abode. Consequently, when the canoes encounter stormy conditions along the water, the sheer weight of the human cargo and other luggage would make them easily susceptible to capsize.
