The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has expressed fears over the establishment of the Nigerian Maritime University as well as the creation of maritime courses in some existing universities in country by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), saying that there is no manpower to handle the training.
The group has equally cautioned the Federal Government on the implementation of the NIMASA Shipyard and Dockyard facility in Okerenkoko, Warri, Delta State in order to avoid past mistakes and pit falls.
The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has expressed fears over the establishment of the Nigerian Maritime University as well as the creation of maritime courses in some existing universities in country by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), saying that there is no manpower to handle the training.
The group has equally cautioned the Federal Government on the implementation of the NIMASA Shipyard and Dockyard facility in Okerenkoko, Warri, Delta State in order to avoid past mistakes and pit falls.
Chairman of the Marine and Naval Architecture (MENA) Division of the society; Engr. Dominic Onabajo alleged yesterday, at the 3rd Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting of the group in Lagos that the group is being snubbed by the Director General of NIMASA; Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi on efforts of the group to make its inputs.
In his opening speech at the event, Engr Onabajo said that there may not be enough qualified manpower needed to support the university and dockyard/shipyard initiative of NIMASA.
He said that lack of shipbuilding yards in Nigeria has dealt a devastating blow to the Nigerian economy, adding that out of the 50, 000 ships trading internationally, none of them were built in Nigeria.
The marine engineers equally observed that global ship building orders for 2014 alone runs into billions of dollars, but lamented that Nigeria is missing out due to lack of functional shipbuilding facilities and dockyard.
He said: "It is no longer news that government has already taken steps towards establishing some maritime universities and specialized courses in some of the Nigerian universities, while we commend these lofty ideas, we are worried that there may not be enough qualified manpower to support this initiative"
"While the shipyard and dockyard project is laudable, we must not fail to advise that there should be proper management of the project from the execution stage through the completion and throughout its operational life in order to avoid setbacks"
"We say this reminiscent of the ugly experience with Nigerdock, some good lessons must therefore be learnt in order not to allow the mistakes of the past to rob off on this new project" he advised.
While harping on the theme of the conference, which is "the development of marine structures in the Nigerian economy: challenges and the way forward", the engineers condemned NIMASA for allegedly snubbing marine engineers in Nigeria.
Not particularly happy about the absence of Director General of NIMASA, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi who was scheduled to be guest of honour at the event, another member of the group; Prof. Kelvin Bob-Manuel stated that, “it is very sad that the DG of NIMASA is not here for us to rub minds"
Prof Bob-Manuel also said that most of the universities offering marine engineering in some of the Universities that were being supported by NIMASA for such trainings do not have the required lecturers.
Discussion about this post