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The former Administrator of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Engr. Olu Akinsoji has bemoan lack of statistical data of the Nigerian seafarers at sea describing it as an impediment to the development of the sector in the country.
Akinsoji who was speaking in a keynote address he presented at the Nigerian Maritime Students Conference with the theme,”The Youth and the future of the Nigerian Maritime Industry”, organized by Platform Communications in Lagos recently regretted that Nigeria which boasted of 897 ocean going officers and 451 cadet officers in the late 90s could no longer keep tabs of her seafarers at sea describing it as shameful.
He observed that while Nigeria was still asleep, countries like the Philippines, Malaysians, Indonesians and many smaller countries including Ghana had established reliable mechanism to capture the sea trade for their youths.
He regretted that the demise of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) had truncated the progressive development of the Nigerian youths to capture the world sea trade.
According to him,”The demise of the Nigerian National Shipping Line truncated the progressive development of the Nigerian youths to capture the world sea trade. Nigeria Transport Handbook and Who’s who (International Second Edition) credited NNSL in late 90s with 897 ocean going officers and 451 cadets officers. Today, we do not know how many Nigerians are at sea whereas the Philippines, Malaysians, Indonesians and many smaller countries including Ghana have established reliable mechanism to capture the sea trade for their youths.
“Down the memory lane, Nigeria has come a long way towards its youths development. We can question our current state of affairs but we cannot query the beginning and the application of resources along the journey. In 1979, Nautical College was established, nineteen new ships were built, seventeen of those ships had facilities for four cadets and two of them had for thirty cadets each, at any one time, Nigeria was capable of providing sea-borne training for 128 cadets.
“Along the journey, the Nautical College was in 1988 re-institutionalized and strengthened to become the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron. All along, the journey of the youths development by the Academy were not without the support of the government, cooperation of the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), International Maritime Organization (IMO) and friendly nations.
“In this journey also, MV Trainer was procured purposely for providing sea training for cadets. The ship, MV Trainer was trailed with unpleasant experience, cadets absconded in foreign country, Nigerian training ship was shamefully arrested and the whole exercise was frustrated. The cumulative effect of those anomalies against the youth development resulted in the lack of specialized manpower to deliver national policies”.
Akinsoji who was former Permanent Representative to the IMO however recalled that in the wake of the apparent dearth of Maritime professionals of the seafarers background for the implementation of the government policies, several actions were taken by the government which included the establishment of the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), establishment of the NIMASA Science and Technical College (NSTC) at Okoloba in Delta State, establishment of the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU), Kurutie, Warri and the establishment of Institutes of Maritime Studies in six Nigerian Universities adding that those actions were swift responses by NIMASA on behalf of the government to the consequences of the failure of systematic development of the youth.
He enumerated other areas of challenges to include the examination, certification and quality control of the entire process of the development of the students and youths in the maritime domain.
“Search me, there will be no good reason in me for my country not to be in the comfort of issuing first class certificate of competency or its equivalent, Master Mariner to our youths for ships in unlimited voyages of the oceans of the world despite being on the white list of IMO”,he said.
On the way forward, Akinsoji advocated for a planned, structured and guided seafarers training in accordance with the provisions of the International Convention on the Standard of Training and Certification of Seafarers, 1978 as amended and other relevant instruments of IMO.
He further called for the establishment of a National Seafarers’ Training Standing Committee (NSTSC) which he said was crucial to the success of the training system with appropriate terms of reference saying that the committee should be allowed to take a review of seafarers training as its first assignment as according to him, “the review is long overdue”.
The former MAN Oron boss also called on the Nigerian authority to explore the means of engaging ship owners operating in Nigeria and ships /companies on regular trade with Nigeria to cooperate with the nation on placement of our cadets on their ships even if it is at a cost to the cadets or the nation.
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