President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the Nigeria Maritime University should resume before the end of the year.
In a statement signed by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity Office of the Vice President on Friday, the decision to reopen the controversial University is in line with the demands championed by major stakeholders in the region.
According to the statement, the implementation would be coordinated by a five-man inter-agency committee headed by the Minister of Education; Mallam Adamu Adamu.
Other members of the Committee will be drawn from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency ( NIMASA) and Office of the Deputy Governor of Delta State.
The Committee, which is to collaborate with the current principal officers and the governing council of the institution, will finalize processes towards the opening of the university in the 2017/2018 academic session.
The re-opening of the university was one of the 16-point-agenda presented before President Muhammadu Buhari by leaders from Niger Delta as one of the requirements for peace in the region.
When Vice President Yemi Osibanjo visited the region on a fact finding mission early in the year, he promised that the university would be opened soon.
However, the imminent reopening of the University will adversely affect several foreign academic institutions which have been benefitting from the NIMASA scholarship scheme for Nigerian students. The windfall accruing to top foreign maritime colleges may stop any time soon as federal government reopens Nigeria Maritime University before the end of the year.
One of the foreign academic institutions is the Constanta Maritime University in Romania which currently makes about €1.5 million (over N500 million at current rate )per year from Nigeria through scholarship granted by NIMASA to over 300 Nigerian students a few years ago
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