NSIB, Navy Sign MoU On Pact To Enhance Transport Safety

Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) and the Nigeria Navy has signed a pact to enhance cooperation in the prevention and mitigation of accidents and serious incidents in the transport sector.

Director-General (DG) of NSIB, Akin Olateru, said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would enhance mutual efforts in effectively investigating accidents and serious incidents.

Olateru said the pact would benefit the bureau in the area of safety, research, capacity building, diving, search-and-rescue, retrieval of Flight Data Recorders (FDR) in maritime environment, data analysis and for assistance in investigations on naval platforms.

His words: “This MoU is coming at the right time we need the Navy most. We would need to come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on how we can strengthen this relationship. It is not about signing the document; there is a lot of work to be done.”

While appreciating the Navy for making the agreement happen, the DG disclosed that the mandate of the NSIB is to investigate accidents and serious incidents that occur in all modes of transportation.

He said the agreement was in line with the global practice of inter-agency partnership between the civil air accident investigation agencies and the military to promote air safety, adding that it is also a response by the bureau to the Federal Government’s call for synergy among agencies of government for good service delivery.

“All over the world, the military partners the civil to achieve a set objective. This is not peculiar to Nigeria. The benefits of any strategic collaboration of government institutions are for the common good,” Olateru noted.