Maritime stakeholders decry reconstituted boards of parastatals

Maritime stakeholders and players have decried alleged gender imbalance in the reconstituted boards of parastatals in the transport and maritime industry.

Participants at a virtual conference/seminar organized by the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria, CIOTA, to commemorate the first International Maritime Organization, IMO, International Day For Women In Maritime, also lamented what they perceived as gender inequality against women across all segments of the transport sector.

They identified factors that have continued to create gender disparity in workplaces to include caregiver bias, where women are seen as the ones to provide care for children and age family members, motherhood, which has to do with the period of pregnancy and weaning of the baby, amongst others; and advocated urgent stoppage to the identified stereotype and prejudices.

A guest speaker, and former Director of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Hajia Lami Tumaka, stated that women work extra hard and make so many sacrifices to attain the peak of their career rank as director, and expressed dismay that the former minister of transportation, Rotimi Amechi, did not sufficiently carry the women along in the distribution of appointments such as board members.

According to her, while only three women made the 14 member Governing Council Board of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology, NITT, only one woman made the 23 board members of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC.

It is believed that women’s participation in the boards is limited to three per board, which participants think is far below the equitable scale put at the global recommendation of 30 per cent.