Dakuku Peterside will not be returning for a second term as Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) as President Muhammadu Buhari refused to renew his appointment after the statutory four year stint.

Instead the President has approved the appointment of Bashir Jamoh, the current Executive Director, Finance and Administration (EDFA) as replacement for Dakuku Peterside, who was appointed in 2016 to head the maritime agency.

Peterside was the erstwhile candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 gubernatorial election in Rivers State, which the APC lost to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Nyesom Wike.

Buhari also appointed Dakuku Peterside’s erstwhile running mate, Asita Asita, a former Commissioner in Rivers State and former lawmaker representing Abua/Odual-Ahoada-West federal constituency in the House of Representatives, as the new Chairman of the Board of NIMASA.

Peterside’s tenure as NIMASA DG ends on March 10, 2020.

Jamoh, who hails from Kaduna, is also the current President of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIoTA).

The 56-year-old holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) from the University of Port Harcourt, specializing in Logistics and Transport Management.

He also holds a Master’s degree in Management from the Korea Maritime and Ocean University, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management Sciences from Bayero University, Kano and a Diploma in Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.

The new helmsman reportedly has 32 years of professional experience in the transportation and maritime sector. He is also the author of the book, Harnessing Nigeria’s Maritime Assets: Past, Present and Future.

Jamoh joined NIMASA in 2003 as an Assistant Chief Commercial Officer, Eastern and Central zones.

He served with the Kaduna State Government before transferring his services to the then National Maritime Authority (NMA) in 1994.

Meanwhile, there have been nostalgia about his sojourn at NIMASA. While his fans praise him for bringing sanity, professionalism and administrative integrity to NIMASA in his four year sojourn, his traducers are of the opinion that if he had performed creditably well, the President would have renewed his tenure.

Dakuku Peterside, a former Commissioner for Works in Rivers State, who also represented Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro federal constituency in the House of Representatives, is generally seen as the brain behind the infrastructural revolution witnessed during the then Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s administration in Rivers State.

Upon assumption of office at NIMASA, he set about fixing the loopholes and lacunas in the system, thus streamlining activities there with instant results seen in the revenue upsurge of the agency which heavily impacted the Federal Government’s coffers and global accolades which saw Peterside emerging President of the Association of African Maritime Administrations in 2017.