Group scoffs at NIMASA MOU with WMU

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has been told to focus on developing the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom State instead of wasting resources on signing agreements with other maritime academies all over the world.

The condemnation is coming on the heels of recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by NIMASA with the World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmo, Sweden.

The President, Nigeria Association of Master Mariners (NAMM), Captain Tajudeen Alao told our correspondent on the side line of the swearing-in of the new president of the Association of Nigerian Customs Licensed Agents (ANLCA) in Lagos.

Alao said that MAN Oron had what it takes to compete favourably with other notable schools in the globe but added that, failure on the part of the regulatory agency has made it to suffer setbacks since its establishment in the late 1970s.

The Captain recalled that the Federal government in the mid 1980’s sent Nigerians to the same school yet those set of individuals were not given ample opportunity to build capacity for the younger generation.

“Nigeria as a government, signed a pact with WMU Malmo, between 1983 and 1985. After over 30years of the training in Malmo and Cardiff, we are supposed to have enough capacity for the industry

“This is not the time to start sending people overseas under the name of capacity building because it’s a fellowship programme.

“The idea behind it is that, they will give Nigeria as a country some slots on the number of persons to be part of the programme but I will like to say here that, this is a mere misinformation on the part of NIMASA,” he stated.

Speaking on the state of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron in Akwa Ibom State, the Mariner expressed dissatisfaction on NIMASA lukewarm attitude by not giving maximum support to the academy.

Captain Alao said NIMASA under Peterside Dakuku should channel both financial and human resources in boosting MAN’s growth adding that the apex maritime regulatory agency had derailed in assisting the indigenous nautical school.

It would be recalled that both NIMASA and World Maritime University recently signed an MOU on capacity building.

Speaking shortly after the signing of the MoU, the Director General of the Agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside who led a delegation from Nigeria to Malmo, expressed optimism that the MoU would help the agency realize its strategic plans to reposition the Nigerian maritime sector for greater efficiency