A former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Raymond Temisan Omatseye has called on the Nigerian maritime students not to be deterred by their inability to proceed for their sea time training on graduation almost immediately to enable them obtain their Certificate of Competency (CoC) urging them to see the delay as a temporary setback which they will surmount in the near future.
Omatseye who was speaking at a programme in Lagos recently advised the students to remain focus on their studies adding that the fact that they did not get sea time training today don’t mean that they would not get it tomorrow.
In his words,” So, what am I saying to you now? Don’t lose hope because no matter what, except Nigeria decides tomorrow to stop importing or exporting any good, then the maritime industry is going to be dead or the oil in Nigeria dries up totally tomorrow, then you will not get jobs but I can tell you that we have so many of our officers who are now aging out and therefore, there is the need for us to begin to replace those officers.
“So you are the young men and women, stay in there, remain focus on your studies. That you might not get your sea time today does not mean you might not get it tomorrow. Stay in there because the strongest part of any country is the merchant Navy. The merchant Navy is a very strong part because even at a time of war, it is the Merchant Navy that supports the military Navy. So, continue to hang in there and continue in what you are doing, that you have decided to attend some maritime academy means that you have some passion for the maritime industry, therefore you stay and continue to do what needs to be done”.
He recalled that his successor in office muted the idea of the National Seafarers’ Development Programme (NSDP) which he said he believed to be a laudable programme at the inception of his administration which prompted him to send the very first set of cadets to Egypt and other parts of the world to acquire knowledge.
He however regretted that most of the students were back in the country at the end of their studies roaming the streets because they could not get the required sea time experience even as he blamed the development to lack of Nigerian owned vessels where they could go onboard to get the required sea time training.
“But we are working hard because I am happy that NIMASA paid for sea time, it is good because we must not allow these young men and women to be roaming the streets but the cure to all of these is the required ownership of vessels”, he stated.
He informed that the shipping sector was like a cluster with a trickle-down effect on every aspect of shipping industry saying that with cadets, officers and captains onboard, there were still people on the shore who were handling the logistics, the branding, the bunkers, the ship chandelling, the tendering even as he disclosed that all these businesses had been taken over by foreigners who now come in and set up their own foreign companies thereby depriving Nigerians of jobs.
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