President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointments of board Chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers for 42 federal organisations and a secretary to the board of the Civil Defence, Immigration, and Prisons Services.
This is contained in a State House release issued on Thursday by the president’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
According to the statement, all the appointments take immediate effect.
“The President has also appointed Musa Sarkin Adar as the Board Chairman, Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA)
“President Tinubu directs the board chairpersons not to interfere with the management of the organisations, emphasising that their positions are non-executive,” the statement read partly.
Musa Sarkin Adar, the new NIWA Board Chairman, was born in May 15, 1965. He attended Government Teachers College, Binji, from 1977 and obtained a Grade 2 Teachers Certificate in 1982. He then proceeded to Uthman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, where he bagged a Bachelors Degree, Political Science in 1988.
He joined Sokoto State Civil Service after youth service in 1989, where he rose to the rank of Director. He thereafter, transferred his services to the Nigerian Port Authority. Musa was appointed Personnel Manager, Apapa Port Complex from 2001 to 2006, where he retired from and went back into politics.
He was elected into the House of Representatives in the 2007 general elections and served for four terms, representing the people of Gada/Goronyo federal constituency of Sokoto State.
Musa, who was at one time Chairman of the Northern Caucus of the lower chamber,
attended the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) New York, United States of America in 2014. He also attended several leadership courses and summits, which includes a leadership course held in Cleveland, Ohio in 2016 which was sponsored by the US Government about parliamentary work.
He was Chairman House Committee on Petroleum Resources Upstream in the 9th Assembly and was previously, Chairman House Committee on Electoral Matters(INEC) in the 6th Assembly, Chairman House Committee on Land Transport in the 7th Assembly and a member of the Marine Transport Committee.
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) is in charge of inland waterways branch of water transport in the Federal Ministry of Transportation. Hitherto Inland Waterways Department (IWD), it metamorphosed into an Authority vide an act of the National Assembly, CAP 47, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), 2004 (Decree No. 13 of 1997).
NIWA was established with the primary responsibility of improving and developing Nigeria’s inland waterways for navigation.
The law establishing NIWA gave it the following statutory roles: Provide regulation for inland water navigation; Ensure development of infrastructural facilities for a national inland waterways connectivity with economic centers using the River Ports and nodal points for inter-nodal exchanges.
Others include ensure the development of indigenous technical and managerial skills to meet the challenges of modern inland waterways transportation; There are several other functions and powers of the authority properly enunciated and documented in laws establishing NIWA.
Other functions and powers of the Authority include but not limited to the following: To undertake capital and maintenance dredging; undertake hydrological and hydrographic surveys: design ferry routes: survey, remove, and receive derelicts, wrecks and other obstructions from in land waterways; operate ferry services within the inland waterways system.
NIWA also undertakes installation and maintenance of lights, buoys and all navigational aids along water channels and banks; issue and control licenses for inland navigation, piers, jellies, dockyards; examine and survey inland water crafts and shipyard operators; grant permit and licenses for sand dredging, pipeline construction, dredging of slots and crossing of waterways by utility lines, water intake, rock blasting and removal; grant licenses to private inland waterway operators; approve designs and construction of inland river crafts.
Inland waterways are made up of navigable rivers, lakes, coastal creeks, lagoons and canals. The movement of goods and services along inland waterways is one of the oldest means of transporting goods and services from point to point.
This is largely due to the fact that inland water transport offers the most economical, energy efficient and environmental friendly means of transporting all types of cargo from place to place. It also offers safer and cheaper rates in areas where water exist naturally.
This facilitates commerce, promotes wealth creation, poverty alleviation, and creates job opportunities for youths within such regions. The ancillary sector of boat building industry also generates employment through active engagement of the youths in welding and fabrication process.