NIMASA Splashes N1Billion on Nigerian Maritime University

By ZION Olalekan

Fresh indications have emerged that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has pumped not less than N1billion on the controversial Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko in Delta State.

Chairman of the governing council and Chancellor of the university, Timipre Sylva told journalists recently that between March 2018 and December, NIMASA has donated N500,000,000 twice as support for the university.

This is however a total departure from claims by the Ijaw Youth Council that the university has been abandoned without any meaningful project in sight.

Sylva who was former Governor of Bayelsa State however said “When I came in, we had received about ₦500 million support from NIMASA and just about a few weeks ago, we received another ₦500 million from NIMASA.

“The law that is yet to be passed required funding from NIMASA for the Maritime University. There is no way a maritime university will not work together with the maritime agencies. NIMASA is the major umbrella for the Maritime University and they have been very helpful”.

According to the former Governor, the university was hurriedly established by the last administration of Goodluck Jonathan through the embattled former Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi.

Sylva revealed that when he took over in April 2018, he had met vestiges of confusion on ground at the university.

Speaking on the confusion he had met on ground, he said “Who caused the confusion? When you hurriedly set up a university, but I believe that the maritime university took long in coming as far as the Niger Delta is concerned, and the delay in establishing that university was what caused a little bit of the confusion because it appeared as if everything was rushed at the tail end of the last administration.

“You know, when things are rushed like that, it gives room for confusion and I think that is the only thing that affected the quick take-off of the university. But that has been resolved because the federal government discussed with the Niger Delta leaders and agreed that the maritime university was necessary and decided to carry on with it.

“And that was how I got appointed as the pioneer chairman of the Governing Council and the first Pro Chancellor of the Maritime University.

“The law for the university has not been passed up till now but we have to first change the law and then of cause made sure that the university is also properly funded. Even today, I’ve had a meeting with the Minister of Education on the funding of the university because our hope and one of our goals as a council is to be one of the best maritime universities in the World. Because we know that maritime business is not a local business, it’s an international business and unless we have a Maritime university that meets with international standards”.