Following the concerns raised about the future of the stranded Nigerian cadets undergoing training at the Centurion University, India under the National Seafarers Development Programme, NSDP, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA has dispelled the rumours making the rounds that the students are billed to return back home.
The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola who disclosed this in an interactive session with the maritime media in Lagos yesterday said that NIMASA had not at any time said those students would be coming back home adding that the agency was rather reviewing the processes for which the institution was engaged in other to ensure that the outcome was in the overall interest of the students.
Noting that the quality of the students churn out by the University at the end of their training was part of the considerations for the agency, the NIMASA DG maintained that Nigeria cannot afford to labour with its resources and efforts to send students abroad only for them to come back half-baked and unemployable by the industry.
“So, it is all of these issues that are at our table right now and there’s no single day that we do not look at it and I can assure you that by the time we come out with the best approach to deal with it, you will know that we are doing it, firstly, in the interest of those cadets and not for ourselves, because those cadets who are young, vibrant and intelligent students are supposed to come back to help us develop this nation. And that is what we want from them and in order to get that, the platform for them must be right and that is what we want to do.
“We will need your help at some point when we decide which way to go and I am sure by the time we come up with our plan, you will pat us on the back that what we are doing is in the interest of the nation and the students”, he said.
On the Certificate of Competency for Nigerian cadets, Mobereola who hinted that there were many options available to the agency, however, stated that it was too early for the management to put those options out in the public domain without engaging fully and having a watertight agreement with the people who were going to train those cadets. He, however, assured that very soon, “these young, trained, energized and willing to work, would be given opportunities and beyond that, we know the benefits.”
He continued, “I have read about the benefits of the seafarers in Philippines, in India where we know that the seafarers repatriate $26 billion annually back to the country and are their seafarers better than our own Nigerians cadets? The answer is no! Our cadets speak good English, they are hard working, they are intelligent. Once they get the right training, right certification and the good thing is the international shipping industry is even looking for very good seafarers.
“So, it’s an opportunity for us but we don’t want to send out half-baked people and we are working hard on it. We will do it very soon. Please bear with us.”
Speaking on bilateral agreement with other maritime nations, the NIMASA helmsman who disclosed this unwillingness to castigate his predecessors in office, however, pointed out that his vision would be to do better than and improve upon what they had done.
He revealed that on assumption of office, he met some agreements for which some of the processes were done with while some other processes were not signed and solidified, adding that there were more opportunities that the management was considering even as he called for understanding on the part of the stakeholders as he had only spent four months on the job along with two of his management team members who he said had only put in six months on the job.
“So, the best way to do this is to understand what the problems are first and that takes me back to what I said earlier, we need to plan first, we need to engage all of these maritime nations so that we can, first of all, itemize what we want. We don’t want to sign an MoU that is not going to be beneficial to us.
“It is important that we sign an MoU that is going to be beneficial to our climate. So, we are putting together what we need and after that, we will be able to approach all these other maritime nations and put on a table and say to them, this is what we want to achieve, can you partner with us? And I am sure a lot of them will because of the benefits we are bringing to the table. As I said earlier, we have the numbers, we have intelligent cadets, we have the resources and we will be able to achieve this in a very limited time.
“So, again, my pleading here is just watch us and be at our back to say, ‘this thing, you said you are going to do it, when are you going to do it? How far have you gone? We are aware of all these problems.’ Let’s find a solution that the whole stakeholders both local, national and international will find as a very good solution and that will be implementable. It will help us and take us a long way”, Mobereola said.
Photo: Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola (middle) flanked by Executive Director Finance and Administration, Chudi Offodile (right) Executive Director Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services, Jubril Abba during the interactive session with maritime media in Lagos yesterday.
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