A maritime administrator and Provost of Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology; Captain Sule Abiodun has urged the Federal Government to upgrade its maritime institutions, instead of establishing more.
Captain Sule gave the advice during a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, even as he posited that there is need for government to put key maritime professionals at the helms of affairs at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
A maritime administrator and Provost of Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology; Captain Sule Abiodun has urged the Federal Government to upgrade its maritime institutions, instead of establishing more.
Captain Sule gave the advice during a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, even as he posited that there is need for government to put key maritime professionals at the helms of affairs at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
According to him, government need not establish more maritime institutions in the country, because there is even no job for those who have graduated from schools in the country at the moment.
He called on the government to consider a more serious implementation of the Nigerian content policy critically, noting that foreigners have hijacked jobs that are meant for indigenous profesionals.
"What we need at the moment is to upgrade the colleges we have, we don't need to establish more maritime universities and colleges"
"Let us upgrade what we have and I would have been happy if MAN Oron is upgraded to a University today instead of establishing another university”, he told our correspondent.
The frontline master mariner also kicked against the implementation of the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) of the NIMASA, even as he added that there is need for government to invest, upgrade and promote Nigerian maritime institutions, instead of committing funds on capacity building for Nigerians overseas.
The Provost advocated for Nigerian youths to patronise private and public maritime institutions in Nigeria, instead of the foreign academies saying that, "no mariner would send his children to Philippines and Thailand to study nautical science or marine engineering for capacity building"
Sighting instances, Dr. Sule disclosed that Ghana has upgraded its Nautical College, and that is why a lot of people go there. He argued that there is need for the Nigerian government to consider investing in and upgrading her specialised institutions.
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