Mr David Adekunle, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Shipping is presently the Rector Emdee Shipping and Maritime College. In this chat with Roland Ekama, he talked about the preparedness of the new maritime school for take-off and other sundry issues.
Why did you choose to work for Emdee Shipping and Maritime College?
Mr David Adekunle, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Shipping is presently the Rector Emdee Shipping and Maritime College. In this chat with Roland Ekama, he talked about the preparedness of the new maritime school for take-off and other sundry issues.
Why did you choose to work for Emdee Shipping and Maritime College?
It is better to pitch your tent with an organization you are familiar with because as a pioneer graduate of shipping and as a retired Customs officer, definitely an institution where knowledge is impacted in the maritime industry should be the right place for me to work after retiring from Customs and that is exactly where I am here, because we are impacting knowledge.
In 2011 Emdee group of schools signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Nigerian Institute of Shipping (NIS) what actually led to the break-up?
It is a very big question which the management of Emdee schools and the Nigerian Institute of Shipping can correctly answer because I am not to speak for either management; I am a neutral person as far as that MOU is concerned.
As the Rector of the school can you please tell us more about the institute?
Emdee School is into training of shipping and maritime students. We observed that capacity building in the industry requires resuscitation and you will observe that majority of the people who are controlling the maritime industry are foreigners, whereas we have our own youths whom we can train to take over that area and that is the reason for us to say we should put up a school like this to train our youths to take over the industry and also to enjoy God’s gift of nature that we have around us.
Maritime institutes require practical knowledge for students, how equipped is this school to render practical training for its students?
Yes, shipping and maritime education require practical as well as theoretical training; when students are coming in, we make them to face the theoretical aspect and at a stage when they will need practical experience we will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with shipping companies; at least to give our students the practical training they deserve. Shipping companies such as CMA CGM and many others are listed for the proposal and again the Nigerian Ports Authority too have practical that the students can learn from and that is the reason why we have written to maritime organizations that we are training our students and that by the time they will come for practical training, we will send them there. Again in anticipation of the admission, we have started to negotiate with some shipping companies and as you can see, we are surrounded by shipping companies, so as we speak we have written to so many of them confirming to them that we will kick-off in September. Thus at the middle of the course definitely we will be able to send our students to the companies for industrial training. In the actual fact, when you have students then you think of where to train them that is why we are still waiting because there is the need for us to admit first and when the shipping companies are coming because we are going to invite them to come see what we have in place and you we can see we are bring our students over for practical and industrial training. As it is, we are yet to present anybody to them because we have not kicked-off officially and that is why I said that we are at the centre of the shipping companies and the shipping companies as well need us in return. However some of the students will go for the industrial attachment in these companies and if they are very good they can be absorbed, therefore the practical aspect of the training is paramount. We have designated four standard classrooms for the incoming students and we are going to train students for diploma courses, so also we will train students for certificate coupled with executive classes for managers and stakeholders in the sector which will be on weekend basis.
What is the nature of the certificate?
The certificate is called National Innovation Diploma which is duly-recognized by the Federal Government, through National Board for Technical Education [NBTE]. Thus once an institution has been approved by NBTE, and then the school can issue National Diploma which is equivalent to OND obtained from Polytechnics
How long has the maritime institute been in existence?
In the actual fact, the institute is a very young one which came up late last year and has been approved by the National Board for Technical Education {NBTE] and the Federal Ministry of Education and before now they have sent delegates to inspect what we have in place to justify the fact that we are into shipping and maritime training. At the end they feel satisfied which resulted to the school’s approval. Presently our first intake will be in the month of September this year, we have not actually started training students though JAMB, they have already conducted their examination, so we are expecting our intakes from JAMB and from there we will start. Again for the first time they are going to give us 200 students then apart from JAMB, people who want to read any course relating to maritime and shipping are also welcome.
As a Rector of a maritime institution what do you think can be done to ensure that MAN Oron gets world recognition?
What we would have suggested is that Maritime Academy of Nigeria Oron by now is supposed to have been upgraded into a university, but different government, different policies. I am very sure that it is the policies of the government that is affecting MAN Oron. In all of this, the industry needs somebody who is actually interested in maritime education and if you have people, who are interested in maritime education, but when you don’t have somebody with that zeal and passion definitely maritime institution will just remain the way it is and MAN Oron is not an exception. So as time goes on, when somebody from the sector will emerge, maybe in the National Assembly to speak about the maritime education at least to bring back the standards, I think MAN Oron will take a new dimension.
Ho w would you describe privately owned maritime institutions in the country?
I would not want to personalize this question because it is the observation of members of the public that made private maritime institutions to spring up. We really observed that there is shortage of experts in the maritime sector and Nigeria is an import-dependent country of, we have a lot to do with the maritime industry so we need to build capacity and it was as a result of this that people are cooking up ideas of establishing maritime schools. As at now, the number of maritime schools on ground are not even enough compared to the population of Nigeria, thus we need more maritime academies to spring up, which is the best alternative for capacity building in the industry. Since the country is import- oriented I think capacity building needs to be taken seriously by the government to make the industry to move ahead, and to make the economy buoyant.
What do you think are the challenges facing both private and government owned maritime institutions in the country?
Privately owned maritime institutions are yet to receive full acceptance from the government and that is why they are facing the issue of funding from the government, it is when you are recognized that you can be funded. The board that approved Polytechnics is the same board that approved these schools, but again it is not all the maritime schools that are approved, but ours is approved by both NBTE and the Federal Ministry of Education, hence as time goes on they will be thinking of how to recognize us through funding.
The Chartered Institute Of Shipping Of Nigeria Bill is still pending before the National Assembly, what do you think should be done to ensure its passage?
I think we need more work to be done in that regard by the two sponsors of the bill that is, the Nigerian Institute of Shipping [NIS] and Certified Institute of shipping [CIS] because it appears that they have not done enough and that is the reason for the bill pending before the National Assembly. We observe that the bill went through first and second reading about two years ago, but up till now, nothing has been done, that is to say that the charter committee on ground is not viable, thus they have to put more effort and when I see the president of NIS that is Patrick Egesi ,I think it will be part of our discussion, for him to tell the committee to put more effort .I will not say that members of the National Assembly are expectant on the bill but they should go deeper because of the important persons who are fellows of NIS. We have Alhaji Bamaga Tukur as a fellow who holds a prominent position in the Nigerian government and many others which I cannot mention now and if they meet with such prominent personalities who are fellows to the institute, tell them the institute needs the chatter, because if we are chartered today, is to the glory of God and those involved.
How will the CISN aid human capacity development in the sector if the Bill is eventually passed into law?
It will be a very great umbrella for the shipping and maritime industry just as we have the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria that regulates freight forwarding practitioners, we will have Chartered Institute Of Shipping Of Nigeria to regulate the shipping industry and it is good for us because we can speak with one voice, we will be able to speak and the government will listen to us, but at the moment we are like sheep without a shepherd. But when we have a platform like an umbrella under which we take shelter, we would be able to speak and the government will listen, which is very good for shipping.
Discussion about this post