…Says stakeholders plan to procure training vessel for maritime students, cadets
A former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Mr. Temisan Omatseye has advised the Nigerian maritime students to begin the process of getting certification while pursuing their Degree or Higher National Diploma, HND so as to be better equipped and prepared to take up opportunities that may come with it and put them ahead of their counterparts elsewhere.
Omatseye who gave this advice in his goodwill message at the Annual Maritime Students and Youth, AMSAY Conference with the theme, “Solving the Challenges of Nigerian Maritime Students/Cadets” put together by the Platforms Communications in Lagos yesterday said that he came to realize rather late the importance of certification especially in the maritime industry even as he reminded them that there were different specific areas of the industry that they were going into that need them to be certified as a specialist.
His words, “Basically, going forward, even as you are now, your degree is one thing, it’s just a paper. What I have learnt and I believe I learnt it it a very bit late is the issue of Certification. And where you are now, you can begin a process of getting certification.
“Let me tell you why. There are different specific areas of the industry you are going into that need you to be certified as a specialist. Your degree covers everything globally. There are many of you here who want to be marine surveyors, nothing stops you from going over to the International Marine Surveyors certification processes and begin to get your certification because at the end of the day, they will not ask you what do you get from the University of Ife or elsewhere. It’s what certification do you have? And it’s inexhaustible the amount of certification you can get.”
He contended that Nigeria would not be able to grow to become world economic power it wanted to be without getting the maritime sector right say, “Let me tell you, right now, we have not even tapped into the ability to even carry our crude oil and gas.”
He continued, “We are unable right now to provide vessels to do that and we might not even started that but the wealth of Nigeria lies in our mineral resources and these mineral resources lie in the hinterlands of Nigeria and the only means of evacuating these mineral resources is by water. We can’t do it by road, it is not practicable.
“A truck can only take 30 tons but a self propelled barge properly built with well draft description travelling on River Benue and River Niger can carry 1,000, 2,000 and even 3,000 tons. Secondly, Nigeria cannot compete on the global stage when it comes to cost of goods, even if we buy the goods at a cheaper price than any international mining country like Australia or wherever they mine in Canada, but the moment our cost of transportation is too high, it will become expensive and nobody will buy our goods and the only people that can save Nigeria from that are the shipping and maritime sector.
“Why do I tell you that? You will learn this as you go along. Right now, we have a railway line running from Itakpe to Alaja but still, we have a situation where we have the Escravos Bar which limits the vessel that can come in. So, right now, a vessel that can come to Warri can only load may be 30,000 tons or may be less but the freight rate of that on a bulk carrier might be in the range of $45 to $50.
“Now, if you go to Australia, Australia will bring in a vessel that can load 200,000 tons and the freight rate on that alone is $5 to $10 per ton, already because of the inability to get our shipping and logistics right, our goods are already expensive at $35 to $40 per tons, which means we cannot sell … nobody or no government wants to subsidize cost of transportation.
“Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this that the market is going to grow because really and truly, Nigeria has to move in that direction. So, do not abandon your course of action, I know it feels frustrating, I know you feel abandoned, I know you feel … because especially I am even right now trying to get the Maritime Academy Rector. We are trying to see whether we can get a training ship for you people so that we don’t have to go begging people to get you guys to get your certificates.
“I wish he picks my calls because I have already discussed with NCDMB on how we can find the training ship for Nigerian Seafarers and cadets so that we can begin to train you guys so that you can get your COC rather than you roaming around the streets and looking for somebody to get your sea time and begging people and paying them.
“But do not lose hope, in the event you cannot get it, there are other shore jobs to do; you can be port engineer, you can work in the offices, there are lots of things in the maritime sector, not everybody has to do this, other people can stay in the shore.
“So, I speak to you as a father, as somebody who has little knowledge of the maritime industry that the future is bright, we will get it right one day but remember also that Nigeria belongs to you, you own this country, do what you think allow you, we are moving on but you are the ones coming up. Grab this country by its neck and take control of it because this country is truly blessed.”
Photo: Mr. Temisan Omatseye, former Director General of NIMASA.
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