By Stepehen Ubanna
Until he was eased out from office last March after the expiration of his four years in office, marking the end of of his term term, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who incidentally was a for governor of Lagos state, Bashir Jamoh, a former Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, was said to have spent millions of North American country of the United Stated States, US, US dollars, on staff Capacity development both within and outside the country.
Dayo Mobereola, who had succeeded Jamoh, as the new Chief Executive Officer, CEO, appears to have continued from where his predecessor had stopped in the agency Capacity development drive with distractions here and there.
Despite reports making the rounds that at the tail end of the past Management of the Maritime Regulatory Agency, they had stopped the payment of the school fees of the beneficiaries of Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme, NSDP, at the various Institutions abroad, offering specialized courses on Maritime Education, Mobereola and his team may not have been spared by the critics.
The NIMASA helmsman, who is not ready to play to the gallery was said to have restated the agency’s commitment to the NSDP, noting that 296, NSDP, beneficiaries at Centurion University, in the Asian country of India will be given the necessary financial support ‘’to acquire quality training and qualify as Seafarer employable globally.
The NIMASA boss, who could not hide his feelings may have been forced to speak out because of the recent media reports that the agency under his Leadership plans to withdraw all the DSDP Cadets from the Centurion University, India, due to financial constraints.
Describing ‘’the media reports as false’’, the NIMASA, who was said to have made it clear to those that cares to listen appear to have put the records right when he said that the agency is carrying is carrying out due diligence on existing Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, with the foreign Institutions where NSDP beneficiaries are attending ‘’to align the processes in the best interest of the Nigerian students.
The former Lagos state Commissioner of Transportation, during the first term in office of the incumbent governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had reassured that the agency has no plans whatsoever of recalling any NSDP beneficiary from Centurion University or any other foreign University as alleged.
He noted that what the agency under the current Management team are only working to close out all idenfied gaps in the existing, MoU with the foreign Universities and not Centurion University alone, before proceeding to the next stage.
An aggrieved Mobereola, had said that a situation where the agency entered into a contractual agreement with Springdale Academy of Maritime Education and Training , SAMET, with agree Courses and timeline only to be faced with additional Course duration and an alien programme by the agent , SAMET, unilaterally , thus converting the programme without the consent of NIMASA as prescribed in the MoU, may no longer be tolerated , insisting that ‘’it is not in the best of the NSDP beneficiaries, who are students in these foreign Institutions’’.
He was said to have further revealed in his response to the alleged reports of plans to withdraw NSDP beneficiaries from Centurion University, India, that there were issues of non-accreditation of one of the of Institutions patronized by the agency at the time of the execution of the MoU, particular, change of Corse from Marine Engineering to Mechanical Engineering without recourse to the agency, preparing the grounds for additional years of studies and uncertainties for the Nigerian students , raising issues related to funding and the various third parties agreements without duly informing the agency, which reports to Oyetola Adegboyega, a former governor of Osun state and now minister of Marine and Blue Economy.
That The NIMASA, Director General, may have shocked Nigerians when he said that they are aware of a sponsored media campaign of calumny against the current Management Team to distract them from taking the right decision and doing the right thing’’.
Mobereola and his Management Team members may have sent a message to he petitions writers that ‘’there is no going back in reviewing the existing MoU, arrangements with the foreign Institutions used for the Education and Training of the NSDP beneficiaries’’.
Osagie Edward, an Assistant Director and the agency spokesperson, may have spoken the mind of the NIMASA, Director General, when he said that the agency will not give in to blackmails as ‘’the safety and well-being of the students are paramount to the agency’’.
Recall that the NSDP, had been introduced in 2009, during the Administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, to develop capacity in the nation’s maritime sector, currently being dominated by foreign Seafarers, by training young Nigerians as Seafarers to bridge the gap of dearth of seafarers globally.
At present, Nigerian youths at various Universities , both within and outside the country are being trained in specialized Course such as Marine Engineering, Nautical Sciences and Nautical Surveys amongst others., to ensure they qualify as Seafarer and employable globally.
There are indications that about 486 of the NSDP, graduates, have been gainfully employed in different maritime nations and sailing in both coastal and Foreign ocean –going vessels.
Some of them were said to have been employed by the Nigerian Liuefied Natural Gas, NLNG, Bonny, Rives state, described in maritime circles as the Leading employer of the NSDP beneficiaries in in the country, with over 40 on their payroll already.
