…says Nigerian cadets hardly get jobs
The President, Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association, Engr. Matthew Alalade has called on the government to expedite action towards bringing back the national carrier as the benefits inherent in having a carrier to any nation cannot be overemphasized.
Speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in his office in Lagos, Alalade stated that the call was more urgent now that the Seafarers being churned out by various training institutions in the country were having difficulties in getting jobs after their trainings.
He observed that Nigeria could not be said to be truly a Maritime nation since it could not boast of any national carrier arguing that any nation without a national shipping line could not be said to be truly a Maritime nation.
He further pointed out that if the country had a national carrier, it would afford the teeming seafarers on training at the various training institutions a platform for them to train and get a sea time experience adding that without a training vessel, the nation’s dream of becoming the hub of the West and central Africa may well elude her.
He contended that it would be easier for Nigeria to approach other national carriers to help her absorb some of her cadets on the ground that her own national carrier could not absorb all her cadets than it would be when she had none to boast of as a maritime nation.
He said,” we must not shy away from the truth that our cadets hardly get jobs on vessels. That is why we are clamouring for our own national carrier so that they can have a base for them to train. If they train them, they may further their education. You see, now there is a gap, we don’t have training up to the officers’ level, only at the seafarers’ levels”.
“Let us have a training vessel first, a nation without a training vessel cannot be said to be a maritime nation and we are clamouring to be the hub of maritime in West Africa but we don’t have a training vessel. It is very disheartening and improper for us not to have vessel”.
Alalade noted that apart from training our cadets, there were other advantages inherent in having a national carrier which according to him included evacuating Nigerian citizens from any country in the event of any emergency since it could accommodate more people than any other means of transportation.
“Apart from economic advantage, it can take cargo from European nations back to Nigeria. So, it has a lot of advantages, not only in helping to bring our cargo in and even in exporting cargoes because we have some export cargoes. If we have our national carrier, we can train our cadets who are coming out from the academies, they too, they can grow from there to become chief engineers and all that, I mean from level to level as you have it in the civil service”, Alalade said.
On claims in some quarters that what Nigeria need now was not training of seafarers but ship engineers who would build the vessel where seafarers could subsequently be trained to man, the Merchant Navy Officers boss had this to say,” I don’t agree with that, if you are training the marine engineers and the nautical students, if you finish training them and they build boats and vessels, who are going to man them? It is just like you have your vehicles, you have the mechanics but you don’t have who will drive them”.
“So, there must be nautical students, there must also be cadets. They should be trained side by side because we are short of the both in Nigeria”.
