As part of efforts to reduce youth’s restiveness in the Niger Delta region of the country, the Acting Rector, Global Maritime Academy, Mr. Aikoroje Isaac has advised the Delta state government to invest in maritime education in the state.
In an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily in Ogun State, last week, Aikoroje noted that engaging the youths in the state with maritime training will reduce social vices which are predominant in the region.
As part of efforts to reduce youth’s restiveness in the Niger Delta region of the country, the Acting Rector, Global Maritime Academy, Mr. Aikoroje Isaac has advised the Delta state government to invest in maritime education in the state.
In an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily in Ogun State, last week, Aikoroje noted that engaging the youths in the state with maritime training will reduce social vices which are predominant in the region.
He lamented that maritime institutions are not recognized in state, adding that the encouragement of the state government will create an enabling environment for youths to embrace the maritime industry.
He noted that the Warri port has the capacity of engaging thousands of youths who are yet to be unemployed, but called on the government to invest in the sector.
‘’The maritime industry is not faring well because the government attention is not there, the state government do not know that they can generate a lot of money from the port and apart from that the ferry business is another way of making money from the sector’’.
He further stressed that it is advisable for the Governor of the state to invest in maritime academies in other to build capacity for the youths in the area ,for them to know more about the technicalities of what the maritime sector is all about ‘’.
‘’I cannot understand why the Warri port is left idle because I know that the port can take a lot of vessels because if it is dredged to the desired draught, then ships can come in ,discharge and that will help to curb youth restiveness in the state’’.
‘’If government invests in the maritime sector in the state, I doubt if we will have idle youths in this part of the country and we have explained to the government that one way to reduce youths’ unemployment in Warri is to enable our port to function effectively because if vessels come in, it will attract workers and majority of these people are educated’’.
‘’We have existing ports that we can maintain because the only way to improve on our ports is by constant maintenance to enable vessels to come in and I must say that Lagos ports are overstretched, that is why have congestion problem in Lagos state’’, Aikoroje said.
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