Chairman, Governing Council and Chancellor of the Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State, Chief Timipre Sylva, says the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has pumped in over N1billion on the controversial university.
This was contained in a statement made available, Chief Sylva said that between March and December 2018, NIMASA donated N500,000,000 twice as support for the university.
This according to him is a total departure from claims by the Ijaw Youth Council that the university has been abandoned without any meaningful project in sight.
The Chancellor, who was a Governor of Bayelsa State, however said, “When I came in, we had received about N500 million support from NIMASA and just about a few weeks ago, we received another N500 million from NIMASA.
He stated, “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 Sylva, “the university was hurriedly established by the last administration of Goodluck Jonathan through the embattled former Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi.
Sylva disclosed that he met vestiges of confusion on ground when he assumed at the university in April, last year.
Speaking on the confusion he had met on ground, the chairman of the governoring council 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”.
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