Marine Engineers and Naval Architecture (MENA) a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has charged the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Lagos Deepsea Offshore Logistics base (LADOL) and Total Nigeria Plc to give jobs to Nigerian engineers who should take over from foreigners on the massive Egina FPSO.
The $3.8 billion Egina Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) which arrived at the LADOL Free Zone in January was designed to hold 2.3m barrels of oil.
Even though the FPSO was meant to provide 1,500 jobs, National President of MENA, Engineer Charles Otuonye has lamented that Nigerian engineers who are his members have not benefitted from the opportunity.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily last week, Otuonye noted that MENA consists of members with the best brains that Nigeria could boast of, but that they are not being employed. He said that marine engineers as professionals are supposed to be onboard the Egina FPSO to encourage knowledge transfer.
“I know there is marine fabrication and all these engineering jobs going on Egina FPSO for oil companies, but from what they are doing, marine engineers are supposed to be there, in terms of constructions, fabrications, as far as engineering is concerned, we are supposed to get jobs there, remember there is the local content law whereby we as indigenes supposed to benefit, and also there should be a time frame for the foreigners to stay onboard after which they will transfer the knowledge to Nigerians”
“But with the way things are going now, I don’t think the Nigerian Content Law is operational, ordinarily, marine engineers are supposed to be there, we are the professionals, we also understand that LADOL is a profit making organization and not a government organization, so we can partner with them in the area of jobs”
“MENA as of today, we have an array of seasoned and experienced men that work onboard ships, those working in shipyards both in Nigeria and outside, those that work with the Navy, we have men with experience, but what we need is encouragement and a policy trust that would involve us and give us a challenge. Some of them are getting jobs overseas and not here because here the condition is not suitable for them, our people are not benefitting locally”
Engr. Otuonye advocated for a government policy that would encourage Nigerian professionals to contribute their quota to nation building.
According to him, due to lack of jobs in Nigeria, many of the trained Nigerian engineers are being hijacked abroad and given jobs.
He reiterated that “Some of the members are trained at the best shipyards overseas, but if they come here (Nigeria) they are left out, there should be a policy that would encourage them to contribute to national building”
“Nigeria is a maritime nation, we are signatories to IMO, we are blessed, but we are just like a one legged country. Thousands of our seafarers are coming up and they do not have jobs, many of them are coming to us to beg for industrial training onboard ships, but where are the vessels?
And these are the people that would control Nigeria’s maritime sector in the future”, he said.
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