Ovai tackles NIMASA, NAMM

…Says NIMASA lacks accrediting powers
Following allegations leveled against private maritime schools in Nigeria; foremost private maritime school, Stars Maritime Academy (SMA) has said that the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is not an academic accrediting body in Nigeria educational system saying that  the agency it  has no right to accredits private maritime schools.

The foremost private maritime also said that master marine has no right to say that apart from MAN Oron private schools are illegitimate even as it threatened to sue organizations and individuals about its existence.

Rector of the academic Dr. Reuben Ovai in a chat with journalists in Ogun State , yesterday noted that the statement credited to private maritime schools in the country are unequivocally misinforming to the Nigeria public adding that some maritime schools are legally registered with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and the Ministry of Education.

Ovai disclosed that for the Nigeria Association of Master Mariner’s President Captain Ade Olopoeniyan to say that private maritime schools in Nigeria are illegal sends a wrong signal to the international maritime communities adding that such remarks are blank statements, that can misguide the general public.

He also disclosed that Olopoeniyan’s nephew who is currently studying and working in Qatar graduated from Stars Maritime Academy in Ogun state.

He further reiterated that NIMASA has to right to accredits maritime institutions in the country adding that it the ministry of education and that of NBTE that have the statutory rights to accredits schools all over the country.

The Rector added that NIMASA is saddled with the responsibility to promote existing institute be it public or private school and that the International Maritime Organization(IMO) is a baby of the United Nation’s.

Ovai lamented that “these statement are unequivocally misinforming to the Nigeria public. Nigerians has right to know the truth because even though some private institutions are not duly registered  with NBTE, but there are genuinely registered and approved private maritime schools like Stars Maritime Academy and others”

“Stars Maritime Academy is duly registered with NBTE and Federal Ministry of Education and it is the first maritime academy to be registered and approved just like NBTE approved MAN Oron.

“The NIMASA is not an academic accrediting body in Nigeria education system, but a regulator in the practicing of maritime profession”,he stated.

He further stated that” I wonder why some persons will go to the media and declare some schools illegal when they fail to carry out thorough investigations “, he added.

Meanwhile Ovai further said that “the maritime Academy of Nigeria in Oron came into being , when the Nigerian population was less than a hundred million, but today the population is over one hundred and eighty million and MAN Oron alone cannot satisfy the demand for maritime education”

” It is unfortunate that the pull them down syndrome is very common in Nigeria and people come on air to make statements with facts and figures which are not properly verify upon”.