L/ R : Alhaji Babatunde lawal, Lagos chapter chairman, Ganiyu Tarzan Balogun National President, and representative of Texas connection ferry Mr Balogun.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transporters of Nigeria ( ATBOWATON), over the weekend in Lagos, took time out to recount the many manifold blessings of God to the growth and development of their business.
At the party for members and stakeholders, the lagos wing of the private sector national boat operators body, says the quest to remain united , resourceful and obedient to extant regulatory expectations on the waterways, contributed to far reaching measures to the association’ s modest achievements.
Mr Gani Tarzan Balogun, National President of the association, commended the lagos chapter chairman, Alhaji lawal Babatunde for the effectively turning around the fortunes of the Lagos body in a short time, noting that the unity of purpose being exhibited by the leadership, is worthy of emulation by other ATBOWATON chapters leadership all over the country.
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Area Manager, in Lagos, Mrs Sarat Lara Braimah, represented by engineer Seye Okaga, praised the efforts of lagos ATBOWATON leadership to ensure that the members discharge their operational expectations to the admiration of all stakeholders, urging the association to continue to improve on services to water transportation users and also be responsive to NIWA guidelines.
Earlier in his address, Alhaji lawal Babatunde, paid glowing tribute to the founding state chairman, High chief Akingbolu whose leadership impacted positively on the lagos chapter, which chief Akingbolu grew from ten to twenty three sub chapters in six years.
His other notable achievements within three years on the saddle are but not limited to the establishment of office at NIWA marina jetty, training and retraining of members in partnership with the regulatory agencies, issuance of identification cards to registered members and a mandatory list of verifiable operators in Lagos.
Praising NIWA lagos Area office for always looking into its various Oliver twist look alike requests, the Lagos chapter chairman, noted that without such support from Engineer Sarat Lara Braimah the Area Manager NIWA lagos, ATBOWATON would have long ran out of the boat transportation business.
” We want to thank Niwa for the support in the past years even before I became chairman. We cannot forget. Also to our national President, Mr Ganiyu Tarzan Balogun, who has carried our burden for over three decades and still doing so today without let” Alhaji lawal Babatunde further stated.
He prayed for accident free 2022 and encouraged all members to be law abiding. The association also released its position on the founding of the national body, read by the lagos secretary, Mr Aworetun Ayo.
Some notable big players in the business like Only God and Texas connection Ferry were in attendance.
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