We don’t need NIMASA’s accreditation to operate as academic institution-Okwuashi

The Rector , Certified Institute of Shipping (CIS), Rev. Dr. Alex Okwuashi has said that the institution as an academic institution accredited by the relevant bodies in the Federal Ministry of  Education did not require any accreditation from the Nigerian maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to run its programme.

The statement came on the heels of the Marine Notice issued on Monday by NIMASA where it said that it  would not recognize certificates issued by any of the private maritime academies it did not accredit.

NIMASA in the notice went on to list the names of the Maritime training institutions it accredited and recognized to include; Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, College of Fisheries, Victoria Island, Lagos, Chalkins Maritime Safety Centre, Elkins Marine, Joe marine, Coastal Marine, TolmannAllied Services, Mantral Maritime Centre, Izizco Obosco Institute and Falck Prime Atlantic.

According to the document, “ In pursuant of the international Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping  (STCW ’95) 1978 as amended and the Merchant Shipping Act 2007 which aimed to promote Safety of lives and property at sea and protection of training, certification and watch keeping for seafarers , NIMASA is committed to the maintenance of the highest seafarer training, examination and certification standards and will therefore take action necessary to ensure that this commitment is met”

“As part of the measures towards the maintenance of standards in training, examination and certification, the agency recently concluded the reappraisal of approved training institutions and centres in Nigeria”.

The agency warned that only maritime institutions stated above were recognized and accredited by it to offer maritime education and training in line with the provisions of the NIMASA Act 2007 and the STCW Convention.

Speaking to Primetime Reporters on why the name of the Certified Institute of Shipping (CIS) was missing from the list, Rev. Okwuashi stated that it was so because NIMASA has no control over the activities of CIS which he said was not a training centre but an Academic institution duly accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as well as the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) for its affiliate and postgraduate programmes.

He said, “ the list of the institutions you saw are not academic institutions, so they have no control over academic institutions but centre that are doing one or two trainings for their people. They can say, okay let us go and pay the a resource visit to reappraise their facilities”.

“CIS is a complex, UNILAG is a complex, YABATECH is a complex, all these institutions are running shipping programmes, LAUTECH is running shipping programme, so would they be the ones to approve NUC approved institutions?”

Dr. Okwuashi went ahead to clarify that whatever certificate gotten from the training institutions and centres accredited by NIMASA which in most cases was obtained within one week or less can only serve maritime purposes as it cannot qualify one for admission into any University or Polytechnic.

“It is an internal arrangement just like proficiency training that if you are in maritime, you need to have it so that we assess your competence. Competency certificate is not academic certificate”, he said.

The CIS boss further contended that now that the agency is floating the Nigeria Maritime, that it would not be the in the domain of the agency to accredit the courses to be run by the University when it fully come on stream rather the NUC which was empowered by the law to do so.

While calling for understanding on the part of the public, he stated that the situation was more worrisome because most time, NIMASA would not sit down to bring these things down to the understanding of the ordinary Nigerian who had no legal background adding that most of the NIMASA staff most times issue out these notices out of sheer ignorance.

 Also argued that there was no provision in the Act establishing NIMASA that gave it power to accredit academic institutions rather to accredit training centres and institutes within the Maritime administration.

“If they doubt it, let them confront me for a television interview, if we want to contest, we will look at the Act establishing NIMASA, there is no portion of that Act where they have powers to accredit any institution. So, it is just internal to Maritime Administration”, he said.