Soft waves thudded against the side of his boat sailing towards the jetty at measured speed. Ashore, a teenager stood near the harbour ready to anchor the fibre ferry for Jacob Averesi and his six passengers to disembark. It was about 10am on the last Wednesday in July and his second trip between the CMS Jetty on Lagos Island and Liverpool in Apapa – the state’s maritime hub.
At 24, Averesi is already counting seven years since he has been navigating through Lagos waterways ferrying passengers.
Born and bred in Badagry, a coastal community in Lagos, the stout young man had learnt the skill informally from his brother. And that was all the ‘licence’ he needed to go into public water transport controlled by the National Inland Waterways Authority and the Lagos State Waterways Authority.
“Even if the captains claim they inherited the skill from their families, we still subject them to some formal training to certify them,” NIWA General Manager, Dauda Jubril, told our correspondent.
But for two years that Averesi has been shuttling CMS-Liverpool and other neighbouring routes, he has no issue with NIWA over his operations even though he was not certified.
“I didn’t attend any formal training and I don’t have a licence but I am good at boating,” Averesi boasted. “Licence has never been an issue. So far so good, I have not experienced any boat mishap,” he added quickly, trying to dismiss any doubt over his professionalism.
Interestingly, Averesi is not alone in the league of uncertified commercial boat captains plying waterways in Lagos and generally across the country. From Makoko on Lagos Mainland to Ebute Ero on the island, down the jetties in Majidun, Ijede and Ipakodo in Ikorodu, a number of boatmen rely largely on skills handed down to them by their families to transport thousands of commuters on a daily basis.
“Mistakes happen while driving a boat but it depends on how a captain handles it
“I don’t overload my boat neither do I speed. Even when I am speeding, passengers always caution me and I listen to them. I shuttle Liverpool and take charters to Mile 2.
“I have been driving boats since I was 17 years old without any issue. I started at Ikate Jetty. I used to be on board with my brother. I studied him and he taught me some skills. After some time, I started sailing too.”
Averesi might have staved off dangers over the years as he claimed, but many drivers within and outside the state have been involved in fatal boat accidents.
The crashes result from mechanical faults, non-use of lifejackets, overloading, stumbling of boats on logs of wood lurked in water and excessive speeding.
Like Averesi, Alex cruises the waterways with his 12-passenger wooden boat; thanks to the hands-on training his brother took him through. He has, since early last year, become a regular captain at the CMS Jetty under NIWA’s watch despite not holding a licence. The only thing that stands in his way is the travel capacity of his boat and not the agency’s regulations.
He said, “There is a limit to which I can travel in a wooden boat. I go to Ogogoro (community) and Liverpool. I cannot travel long distances like Badagry. This is the only work I do and I learnt it from my brother. Many of us here learnt it through family members.
“I don’t have any licence, likewise many of us here; yet I have never had boat accidents. There are some hiccups such as waves and logs of wood on waterways but I drive sensibly to handle those situations.”
