NSDP Cadets Barricade NIMASA Office, Demand Seatime Training

BY ZION OLALEKAN

There was palpable tension at the headquarters of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in Apapa yesterday when cadets under the National Seafarers Development Program (NSDP) scheme barricaded entrance to the agency over failure of NIMASA to provide them seatime experience.

The cadets came into Lagos on Sunday from Warri, Delta State to stage the protest.

The cadets alleged that three years after their training in the Philippines under the administration of Patrick Akpobolokemi, the present Director General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside has refused to give them seatime training.

The cadets lamented that out of 1,237 combined cadets waiting for compulsory sea time training, only 150 cadets were able to commence the desired ship board training in Egypt.

They alleged that cadets sent to the Philippines were tagged children of the poor and commonly referred to as “the less privileged” while their colleagues later sent to Romania, Egypt and the UK were given a monthly allowance of 850 pounds with a separate wardrobe allowance, on the other side $50 (NGN 12, 500 naira) is given as monthly allowance to an NSDP scholar in the Philippines with the exclusion of wardrobe allowance.

One of them, Oyankeke Sunny in a write up sent to nigeriamaritime360.com alleged that, “Over 800 scholars of the NSDP scheme were on a mission to study the aforementioned courses in the Philippines, to become certified and competent merchant marine officers. But unfortunately, the scholars of the NSDP-Philippines are neglected and abandoned in Nigeria for over THREE YEARS (36 months).

“The program is divided into two phases, three years of academic and workshop practice in classroom, and a year practical training onboard a seagoing ship of the required capacity. The Batch “A” came 2015, likewise the Batch “B” 2013 also returned home a year after, but all were subjected to a dysfunctional uncompromised need of their demands.

“After completing the first phase of our studies, we the NSDP Cadets (scholars) are unattended to and not provided with the mandatory one-year shipboard training, the 3-1 system makes up the entire four years scholarship program.

“For three years we were robbed of our monthly allowances. A supposed monthly allowance of $1, 000 US dollars (NGN 150, 000 Naira) as at the year 2012 was to be given to each of us as NSDP scholars, but reality we were given $250 US dollars (NGN 37, 500 Naira) between January 2013 and December 2014, and January 2015 and beyond only $50 was given to us as monthly allowance”, he said.

However, in a swift press statement issued yesterday by the Deputy Director public relations of NIMASA, Isichei Osamgbi, NIMASA Director General, Dr. Dakuku Peterside later came down to address the protesting cadets and assured of the Agency’s commitment to ensuring that all beneficiaries of the NSDP conclude their programme by getting the mandatory sea-time training.

He also assured that in addition to the over 600 Cadets who have benefitted so far from the sea time training, the Agency is working so hard to ensure that another batch of not less than 200 Cadets are enrolled between now and the first quarter of 2019.