A foremost Master Mariner, Capt. Tajudeen Alao has called on the Federal Government to set up the Merchant Navy Training Board to coordinate and streamline the courses and training of the nation’s seafarers.
Alao who made this call in a chat with Primetime Reporters in Lagos stated that the board when set would work in conjunction with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as well as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in drawing up the basic courses to be handled by maritime training institutions vis-à-vis what was on ground.
He insisted that there should be an umbrella body to determine the standard of training for seafarers in Nigeria adding that if the Committee set up by the Honourable Minister of Transportation to review the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron could metamorphose to the said board, it would be an attempt in the right direction.
“Government must set up Merchant Navy Training Board and then if this committee is the Merchant Navy Training Board, if that is their job, well and good, they are in the right direction. The Merchant Navy Training Board in conjunction with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) together with IMO which issues STCW’95 model courses and they will come up with the basic courses that a maritime training institution should have vis-à-vis what is on the ground. Why has this not been on ground after so many years? Why is it that STCW ’78, STCW ‘95 amended is taken up with all what we are doing yet we are only on paper and not in practice?
“So, that is the way they should have put it. Which is the best maritime institution in the world? Where is it? What do they have vis-à-vis what we have? We have been on the ground for over 35 years, what do we have on the ground? Why do we not have all these things? This way, we move forward. But if there is no sincerity, it is still going to be the same thing. This committee should metamorphose into Merchant Navy Training Board and then there will be legal backing for their activities because the board is provided for in our law but I don’t know why it is not in place. Oron is working as a parastatal of government, doing what it likes, 200 students to one class, there is no control, no facility on the ground and yet there you see some people deceiving people in the name of maritime institution and more people are going in yet there is nothing to show for it”, he said.
Capt. Alao however argued that the fact finding Committee on MAN Oron should not be restricted to the institution alone rather its job should be expanded to cover other maritime training institutions in the country like the Elkins Marine, Chalkins Academy and lots of other institutions in that order saying that there were courses these other institutions were offering that MAN Oron was not offering and so should be catered for.
According to him,” I said it should not be MAN Oron alone, you know why? For so many years, MAN Oron could not perform Mandatory and our people were going to Ghana. Maritime Oon could not do GMDSS and they are doing it in Elkins here and I don’t think Maritime Oron is doing GMDSS today and it is training people. There are so many causes, is MAN Oron for oil and Gas offshore? Or is it for international shipping proper? They are separate, both CI2, CI3, they are for oil and gas, this things that are going on in Chalkins and some other people are doing at Iperu and Ota. Maritime Oron is not even doing these courses here for the locals. I am suggesting the setting up of this Board to take care of all these institutions and harmonize their activities so that where one institution is weak; it could be strengthened by the Board.
“Technically speaking, the Minister has the power to approve other institutions, but MAN Oron is saying that all those institutions must come under them and not under NIMASA, because it is training. There should be an umbrella body for training and NIMASA should relinquish certain things. And NIMASA cannot regulate Oron because it is a separate entity. I mean NIMASA examines and issues certificate of competency, not Oron. Oron trains, NIMASA sets the exams”.
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