Plan for NYSC is a compromise to the seatime - Former MAN Administrator

A former administrator of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Engr. Olu Akinsoji in this media chat with nigeriamaritime360.com Tayo Oladipupo, spoke on the offer of NYSC to marine cadets and other germane issues as they affect the maritime sector is a compromise to seatime training saying it would only afford them opportunity to work ashore and not onshore.

Q: What is your view about recent protests by cadets of NSDP Programme due to lack of seatime training three years after graduation?

A: Seafarers training is supposed to be a well-organized affair where you know the end of the training from the beginning. People who take decisions about the training should know the beginning from the end.

So it’s fallout of poor planning by those who initiated the programme without planning seatime as part of the whole exercise. You don’t leave your sponsored cadets to be on their own midway because without seatime, the scholarship is incomplete.

I see the plan for NYSC as a compromise to the seatime issue because it only makes them to work ashore in the maritime sector but not onboard any ship. I am not against them doing NYSC but the seatime is what their profession needs either as nautical scientists or marine engineers.

In planning you must know why you are sending your youths for training. It’s important to understand if it is to fill local needs or to serve the international market. You should know if you have enough marine manpower to work in your country or you are planning to supply the international market.

I don’t think these factors were put into consideration before the training proper. The maritime market is competitive and there are people looking at it keenly across the globe. They look at the kind of training you give to your cadets and asses them by it.

Q: As a maritime nation, how far do you think we have succeeded in seafaring?

A: As a maritime country, if we must succeed, we need to humble ourselves, sit back and adjust. Many years after we enacted the cabotage law, we have not been able to fill the gap. As a country, Nigeria is losing over $1b annually for not participating in seafaring. As a country we should see seafarer training beyond benefits to the individual because the maritime country like Nigeria stands to benefit a lot from it.

Our non-participation in seafaring is bad because we have enormous opportunities we are not utilizing. Cabotage requires that we should encourage local vessel ownership, crew the vessels and have our citizens as first choice maritime professionals operating on our waters. But sadly, this is deluding our policy makers.

Q: Do you think our maritime training over the years have met industry needs?

A: Not really. At some point, Maritime Academy of Nigeria was training blindly without bothering to check the manpower needs of the maritime industry. The industry has international standards that govern it and every country has its own peculiar maritime needs at any point in time. You must put all these into consideration and ensure that standards are adhered to at all times.

Q: In your opinion, does the NSDP training meet required industry standards?

A: I am not privy to the course contents and agreements leading to the training, so I can’t really talk on that. But sincerely, I do not believe we should send our young people abroad for that level of training that can be done locally. I think God has given us the grace to do all that here.

We have the competent manpower to do that training for which they travelled abroad under NSDP and linking Nigerian institutions with foreign schools is no big deal. It is good to know the objective of the training in the first place and not deviate from it for any reason.

The objective is to get many Nigerians employed as seafarers and adding to the nation’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). It is not having a plan in place that results to seatime issues which we talked about earlier. Government’s involvement in seafarer training is also a national investment.

I am familiar with the United Kingdom maritime training matters. For instance, in 2015 the UK Government subsidized maritime training with 15million Pounds. They discovered that for every one Pound spent on maritime training subsidy, the government gains 4.8 Pounds. The country gains from it and the citizens enjoy the opportunities it provides for them in employment.

Nigeria will gain far more than that because more than 3000 ships enter our waters yearly with high volume of trade but our people are not working onboard the ships. Just like we have a very good Cabotage law on paper, the NSDP is a good concept which requires that you plan the end from the beginning.

The reality is this; any seafarer without seatime experience is not completely trained and will be unemployable. The seatime experience is the end stage of the training, without it the training is meaningless.