Marine Engineer Urges Govt To Review Seafarers’ Programme
By Chiadi Nelson
Lagos – Mr Olu Akinsoji, former Sole Administrator of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom, has urged Federal Government to review the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP).
Akinsoji, former Nigeria’s Alternate Permanent Representative at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Saturday.
He said that the NSDP scheme being coordinated by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) should be reviewed to pave way for Maritime Academy of Nigeria to be strengthened in line with its basic function of training seafarers.
The marine engineer, presently the acting Chairman, Society of Nigerian Mariners (SNM) asked: “why do we take cadets abroad when we have Maritime Academy of Nigeria?
“We should develop our institutional base to do what we are supposed to do as a sovereign state.”
The engineer, who said he was among experts who brought about the concept of the NSDP initially, added that “things went wrong because the experts were not allowed to assist in the implementation of the scheme.”
Also a former Government Inspector of Ships (GIS), Akinsoji said that the concept of the NSDP was to use it to develop maritime infrastructure, create institutional basis for capacity building of the nation.
“We are working at cross purposes in different directions, most probably because we have different interests.
“We should all have a common interest to move the country forward.
“Why send seafarers to foreign countries when we have our institutions to train them.
“There is no reason why we cannot issue certificates for 1st and 2nd class officers and make our own officers in charge of Watchkeeping on board ships with the minimum qualification of work on board as officers.”
He further said there were ratings to support officers on board ships.
He added that the IMO had standards on international convention, noting that
the code, the guidelines and designed model courses were yardsticks to achieving
certification.
the code, the guidelines and designed model courses were yardsticks to achieving
certification.
Akinsoji said that the Maritime Academy of Nigeria was supposed to do the training in accordance with IMO Code and guidelines, as well as the model courses.
“The monitoring of training to assess the products (cadets), issuance of certificates and ensuring quality training is in accordance the provisions of the training convention (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers 1978) is supposed to be done by NIMASA.
The Director-General of NIMASA, Dr Dakuku Peterside, had said that the management was committed to capacity building initiatives as it remained the only means the Nigerian maritime industry could survive and compete favourably with its counterparts globally.
He also said that “NIMASA had entered into partnership with various maritime institutions abroad to provide sea time training opportunities for NSDP cadets as
part of commitment by the Agency’s executive management to ensure that NSDP programme was optimised.
part of commitment by the Agency’s executive management to ensure that NSDP programme was optimised.
“So far, no fewer than 2,000 Nigerian youths benefitted from the NIMASA NSDP scheme in maritime training institutions in UK, Egypt, Romania and Philipines,’’ Peterside said.
