Former Rector of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom Sate, Engr Olu Akinsoji has said that in order for the country to fully realise its economic potentials, there is need for government to improve on the training of seafarers and development of the seafarers’ pool.
Engr Akinsoji who spoke with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week pointed out that apart from training of seafarers, maritime education in general must be focused on by the government.
Former Rector of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom Sate, Engr Olu Akinsoji has said that in order for the country to fully realise its economic potentials, there is need for government to improve on the training of seafarers and development of the seafarers’ pool.
Engr Akinsoji who spoke with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week pointed out that apart from training of seafarers, maritime education in general must be focused on by the government.
He however lamented that Nigerians do not seem to appreciate maritime education as the pipeline of economic development.
“There are two types of training that we must be considering here, the seafarers training and the other which is the normal educational training for the development of the economy. The seafarers’ training aspect is a national issue that has to meet the international standard"
"International standard has given room to three components to bring the success of seafarers training, one is education, the other is practical experience on the job and the third is government involvement” he said.
He stressed further that until Nigerians start making maritime education a priority, the country will not develop.
While commenting on the present state of MAN, Oron, Engr Akinsoji pointed out that the academy has developed better than the way he had left it. He said that the academy now has more manpower resources.
“I cannot say whether I am satisfied with what is going on there, but I know it has developed a little bit more than I left it, because they have more resources and lecturers, so probably they need to develop a little more in terms of qualities”.
He urged the Federal Government to be more involved by providing ships that can give sea time experiences to the cadets of the academy so that they can transfer their experiences to better the country.
“There is no point in you training people, yet they don’t have jobs to do, this involves a strategic national plan for seafarers training for it to go from the beginning to the end and the products to be useful either to the nation or to the world”, he advised.
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