Capt. Niyi Labinjo (Secretary, Nigerian Shipowners Association)
Capt. Niyi Labinjo (Secretary, Nigerian Shipowners Association)
I was very fortunate as a seafarer, I had the best training, that is why you can see my interventions, when you give someone a training and you don't follow it up with onboard training, that person is not likely to develop, over time they will become frustrated because they will remain unemployed, when they remain unemployed and the issue of piracy now comes, they will join them because they already have some training, this is exactly how piracy grows. We are training seafarers who don't have jobs with Nigerian vessels because Nigerian vessels are dying, so the seafarers overtime will remain frustrated and become pirates and this will be very sad. It would have been cheaper for Nigeria to support Nigerian ship owners to own vessels where these boys can work and they will not create a menace to the society. The Cabotage Act is 11 years old, and yet NIMASA has not bought one ship from the entire money they have been collecting.
Dr. Alex Okwuashi (Rector, CISN)
In the Merchant Shipping Act which Nigeria has domesticated over the years, we have always looked up to the maritime administration of this country to ensure that the values and stipulations of the Merchant Shipping Act as it concerns seafarers are well implemented. One among them is the issue of training; today we have seen that though we have domesticated the STCW ‘95 Convention, training has started in earnest. But, the seafarers after the training are not connected to jobs; this may not be unconnected with the absence of training vessels. So what I think government should do is to enter an agreement with ship owners to allow seafarers who have been properly trained from these institutions undertake SIWES or industrial attachment on these vessels, if this is done, employers of labour will know that the cadets have got the required sea experience, so it will no longer be a problem allowing them to work on board. The other area is that of welfare, there should be human face to the job.
Chief Chris Keme (Maritime expert)
I believe there is hope for Nigerian seafarers, there is a certification required for every seafarer to attain before they can be engaged. If you engage a half-baked seafarer, they are not going fishing within the Nigerian waters, as far as they are going to international waters, they must acquire this certification before they are allowed to board the vessel, this is standardization and Nigeria cannot be left out. One thing that is sure with Nigerian seafarers is that, at a point, they will become handicapped on finishing certain aspect of their career. I have encountered a lot of them like that and I personally helped them to that level. The bottom line is that we have to visit the Cabotage Act and encourage NIMASA to open up the horizons for qualified investors to have Cabotage vessels, so that consideration will be given to Nigerian seafarers to man these vessels, if the Cabotage Act works very well, then Nigerian seafarers will flourish very well.
Capt. Adewale Ishola (Master Mariner)
I think they have a great hope because maritime can never die in this country, so long as we still have our waters and we still have our oil, maritime can never die. So there is great hope for the seafarers, I believe things will change, if today government is saying that they have allocated the lifting of our crude oil to indigenous ship owners, that means we are going to have ships because we need ships to carry the crude and there will be room for the seafarers, so there is greater hope. You have to be aware that quite a lot of students are coming out of MAN Oron as well as the Federal College of Fisheries, why they don't mention fishery is because it belongs to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
Julius Efokpor ( Merchant Navy)
Certification is one major problem that is hindering our seafarers because we have some of them that are practically good, but they don't have certificate while we have some that have certificate, but the school which issued the certificate is not recognised. The Cabotage regime was supposed to help the seafarers to get jobs, the issue of waivers came up, but we don't know why the seafarers have not been benefiting all these years.
Engr. Deborah Akinware (ITF Official)
The situation we are faced with is said but there is in Christ Jesus because he is the first seafarer. We need a listening government that can hear the cry of our seafarers, because the government we have in place has a nonchalant attitude to seafarers. It is only God we need to intervene, but above all, government should assist by providing vessels that are supposedly meant for Nigeria by Nigerians.
Samson Ibrahim (Lecture SMA)
The Cabotage Act was supposed to assist the seafarers to be gainfully employed, but the case has changed because even the ship owners have not gained from that Local Content Act. A white man operating in this country said that there is no hope for Nigerian seafarers because the ship owners even the indigenous ones believe more on the ability of the foreign seafarers. MAN Oron as a government school doesn’t have a training vessel for its cadets, then how can they hope when we know they turn out graduates on yearly basis in their hundreds. The only hope they have is for the government to provide sea going vessels for them.
Chima Sampson (Registrar NIS)
The future of the seafarers is in shadow because after the numerous training by NIMASA in respect of NSDP and as today no officer has been produced from that project. Secondly, we keep training, yet we don't have vessels; it goes beyond training when no vessel is on ground to assist the seafarers against sea time experience. As it is now, unless there is a shift in the pattern of the system, it will be very difficult for things to work out fine for them. The seafarers are not engaged because we don't have indigenous ship owners; the foreign owners are not ready to engage the service of Nigerian seafarers.
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