The Gracker Jack

Nneka Ogochukwu Obianyor is the Acting Registrar of Ships, Nigerian Ship Registration Office under the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety (NIMASA). She was appointed into this position in August 2018 to help drive the reformation agenda of the Executive Management Team of NIMASA to reposition the Ship Registry for greater efficiency and optimal performance.

Prior to that, Nneka was redeployed from the Legal Services Department where she performed numerous roles including heading the Litigation and Case Management Unit to the Reform Coordination and Strategic Management Unit of the Agency in 2017and has been part of coordinating a number of on-going reforms in the Agency.

A graduate of law, Nneka was called to the Nigerian Bar 26 years ago. She had a stint in private practice before joining NIMASA, then known as National Maritime Authority in 1999. To be on top of her game, she acquired a Masters in International Maritime Law from the IMO- International Maritime Law Institute in Malta in 2001. Her insightful and intellectual perspectives in her Post Graduate desertion “Analysis of Piracy Control in a Modern Maritime Context” led to her been co-opted into an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Piracy on her return in 2001. Her work was used extensively by the Committee in arriving at its recommendations which included proposal for adoption of the Piracy Model Law approved by the Committee Maritime International (CMI) in 2001 as a model in drafting Nigeria’s legislation on piracy.

Her exposure to International Maritime Law brought opportunities as she also joined the International Ministerial Committee that reviewed the 1962 Merchant Shipping Act; she also made contributions to the works of subsequent Committees that led to the passage of the Merchant Shipping Act 2007 and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency Act in 2007.

She still serves in a number of Committee. Also in 2001 she was nominated to work with the team that reviewed the Agency’s case files and suggested Institutionalizing the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms such as Mediation and Conciliation in addition to Arbitration which was already popular as modes of resolving Maritime Disputes away from Litigation which had become cumbersome.

The Agency’s drive and position at that time opened up a lot of discussions among major stakeholders and today Maritime Arbitration and ADR have been placed in the front burner.