The Nation Newspaper

Tag: maritime varsity

  • Maritime varsity coming

    The Maritime Organisation for West and Central Africa (MOWCA) has opened talks with its francophone-member countries to upgrade its Abidjan-based Regional Maritime Academy (RMA) for Sciences and Technologies of the Sea to a Maritime University.

    This decision was reached at the just-concluded 12th Board of Governors’meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

    The Academy in Abidjan is MOWCA ‘s ‘specialised organ’ for training of seafarers and land- based staff of shipping line for the 15francophone-member states of MOWCA.

    Read also: Stakeholders identify threats to maritme security

    If the upgrade is implemented, it will bring the Academy to the same level as the sister training institution for anglophone countries, RMA, based in Accra, Ghana

    Sources at the meeting said the  sea training of cadets, which has been problematic for a long time, and the huge amount of arrears of contributions from member countries,  which amount to 1.2 billion cfa, were discussed as areas to start the upgrading.

    The process of transforming RMA into a university, according to the source, requires more input from other ministers as only two out of eight expected were present at the meeting.

    It was agreed that a consultant would be appointed by the management of RMA to conduct a broad study on sea training of cadets on board vessels sailing in the Gulf of Guinea.

     

  • Maritime varsity to halt capital flight

    The Vice-Chancellor, Nigeria Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State, Prof. (Mrs.) Maureen Ongoebi Etebu, yesterday said the university will halt capital flight in the country.

    She  commended the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for providing impressive teaching facilities and infrastructure for the take-off of the institution to meet international standard.

    The university, she said, will save the country the huge financial burden of offshore training of the needed skilled maritime professionals.

    Speaking during a tour of the institution’s facilities, the university don said the nation would benefit immensely from the institution as it would create more jobs for Nigerian professionals in the maritime industry, and also save the nation a huge foreign exchange.

    She attributed the progress of work in the university to Buhari’s commitment to the region.

    Highlighting the benefits the nation is poised to gain from having the institution, Etebu said the institution would save the nation a great deal of foreign exchange it hitherto spent on  training Nigerians in maritime sector in other countries.

    She affirmed that the standard of training in the institution was at par with international best standards, negating the need to  further send students abroad to obtain such trainings.

    She stated the university had registered with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a body that upholds the highest standard of maritime practise and training in the world.

  • 196 resume at Maritime varsity

    The Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State, has started lectures for the 2017/2018 academic year.

    A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, said lectures began last Thursday.

    According to Akande, 196 students have been admitted into the university.

    The Maritime University was granted approval in January by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to start degree programmes from the 2017/2018 academic session.

    The statement explained that academic activities would only take off in three faculties approved by the NUC.

    The statement listed the faculties to include Transport, Engineering and Environmental Management, with 13 departments and specialisa-tion in Marine Engineering, Marine Economics to Climate Change, Fisheries and Aquaculture.

    President Muhammadu Buhari had approved an increase in the take-off grant allocated to the university from N2 billion to N5 billion.

    The amount was included in the 2018 budget presented to the National Assembly last November.

    Similarly, an additional N1 billion was approved to support essential infrastructure and staff recruitment last November.

    Following the take-off, the university invited applications from academic staff through advertisements in some  newspapers.

    The Delta State government donated two 500KVA generators to the university.

    Following Buhari’s meeting with leaders of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) in November 2016,Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) was later delegated to undertake a tour of the oil producing communities.

    The take-off of the university was one of the requests tabled during the visit.

    Meanwhile, the  Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) has signed a Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) with the World Maritime University, Malmo, Sweden to develop human capacity.

    After the signing of the MoU, NIMASA’s Director-General Dr. Dakuku Peterside, who led a delegation to Malmo, expressed optimism that the deal would help the agency to reposition the sector for greater efficiency, adding that it was in line with the reforms being championed by Buhari and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

    “This MoU is an important element of the strategic reforms and repositioning of NIMASA to be the leading maritime administration in Africa. This is also part of ongoing reforms of the maritime sector in Nigeria which the President of Nigeria and Minister of Transportation are championing. The partnership with WMU is in line with the four pillar of NIMASA’s medium term growth plan which addresses capacity building and particularly raising a new generation of forward looking Maritime policy makers and regulators,” Dr. Peterside said.

    The MoU covers academic, collaborative and reciprocal activities in training and research to be provided by WMU geared towards building capacity to grow the maritime industry.

    Arrangements on fellowship funding for WMU’s M.Sc programme are included as well as M.Phil program-me offered in cooperation with the IMO International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI) in Malta.

    Further, the MoU provides for NIMASA officers to take advantage of WMU’s distance learning portfolio as well as Executive Professional Development Courses to boost worker’ capacity.

    Peterside, who expressed gratitude to the President and WMU mana-gement for their assistance, also  assured that NIMASA would imple-ment the provisions of the MoU.

     

  • Itsekiri students call for speedy takeoff of maritime varsity

    Itsekiri students call for speedy takeoff of maritime varsity

    Students of Itsekiri extraction in Delta state have appealed to the Federal Government to urgently address issues delaying the takeoff of the Nigerian Maritime University in Okerenkoko, Warri Southwest local government area of the state.

    The students, under the auspices of National Association of Itsekiri Students, described as unnecessary the controversy generated by the naming of the university’s site.

    NAIS, in a statement signed by Esimaje Richard Ejueyitsi and Iwerebor Oritsegbami Jeffrey, President and PRO respectively, urged the “Federal Government and the National Assembly to do with utmost urgency, what is necessary for the institution to kick-off.

    “We also join forces with advocacy groups and all stakeholders that have remain unrepentant in a bid to ensure the correct name of the institution should be Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenghigho, and not Okerenkoko, that is unknown to law.

    “It would be erroneous, in a lawful nation, as the case of our dear country Nigeria, to name an institution after legal tenants of a locality, instead of its legal owners that is the Itsekiri people of Omadino (Okerenghigho),” the statement added.

    They commended the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), for his memo to the National Assembly, which drew attention to the misnomer and sought the correction.

  • Group seeks Malami’s sack over memo on Maritime varsity

    Group seeks Malami’s sack over memo on Maritime varsity

    A pressure group, the Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC), has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), for allegedly authoring a memo causing ethnic tension in Delta state.

    On October 17, last year, Malami issued a memo to the Clerk of the National Assembly, seeking to alter the name of the location of the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU) at Okerenkoko to Okerenghigho.

    He cited a Supreme Court judgment for his action.

    The Ijaw and the Itsekiri have been threatening war against each other since the memo was leaked.

    In a petition to President Buhari, by its President, Nelly Emma; Secretary, John Sailor and Public Relations Officer, Stanley Mukoro, NDIMRC warned the AGF against any attempt to mislead the National Assembly, knowing that the university is at Okerenkoko, an Ijaw community.

    The petition reads: “Mr. President, our attention has been drawn to a purported memo emanating from AGF Malami on the location of the Nigerian Maritime University at Okerenkoko in Delta State and wish to let you know that the memo is capable of rocking the peace that your administration has restored in the Niger Delta region.

    “Mr President, the Nigerian Maritime University is located at Okerenkoko, an Ijaw community, and not Okerenghigho, as being claimed by the AGF. We want to make it abundantly clear that Okerenghigho is a non-existing name. Okerenkoko, where the Nigerian Maritime University is located, is an Ijaw land. Any attempt to cause another crisis between the Ijaw and the Itsekiri in Delta State must be avoided at all costs.

    “Let it be known that the site or community where the Nigerian Maritime University is situated has never been known, addressed or called Okerenghigho at any time. The actual, historical and legally recognised name of the host community to the Nigerian Maritime University is Okerenkoko. The name Okerenkoko is reflected in all historical and political documents and institutions, including the Okerenkoko Primary School, Okerenkoko Secondary School, Okerenkoko electoral ward, in all electoral documents, as well as Okerenkoko General Hospital.

    “There is no community known as Okerenghigho within and around the area where the Nigerian Maritime University is situated. Therefore, the purported Supreme Court case of James Uluba and Others v. Chief E. E. Sillo has nothing to do with the land where the Nigerian Maritime University is situated.

    “The contents of the AGF memo to the National Assembly to rename the location of the Nigerian Maritime University from Okerenkoko, to Okerenghigho, are misleading, provocative and mischievous. His action is inflammatory, capable of causing a fresh crisis between the Ijaw and their Itsekiri neighbours. This is why we are urging Mr President to throw him out of his cabinet now.”

  • Agency to create maritime varsity

    Members of the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC) Board have pledged to pursue the establishment of an international maritime university at Ossemotor in Oguta Local Government Area of the state.

    The spoke at the ISOPADEC Secretariat in Owerri, the state capital during a reception for them by the commission’s management.

    The Board Chairman Alex Ogwazuo, said they were committed to the task of building the university, saying it would enhance the development of the oil-producing communities.

    He said the board would pursue policies and programmes that would improve the lives of the people of Ohaj, Egbema and Oguta Local Government councils, stressing that his team was committed to ensuring speedy development of the host communities.

    In his address, the Managing Director of ISOPADEC, Dr Henry Okafor, commended members for their appointment and pledged the support and co-operation of the management of the commission to the board.

    Dr Okafor expressed joy that when the maritime institution project is completed, it would provide university admission and employment opportunities to the people of the oil-producing communities.

    He said ISOPADEC has provided water bore-holes to 25 communities and would ensure that the water project get to all the oil-producing communities in due course, stressing that ISOPADEC has established oil and gas units to compel oil companies operating in the areas to control gas flaring which had negative impact on the communities.

    Dr Okafor said, ISOPADEC got its statutory 13 percent monthly allocation, saying it had helped the commission to execute its capital projects.

    He stated that the outgoing board had off-set the unpaid electricity bill of the oil-producing communities, which stood at N60 million, disbursed N6.5 million subvention to Ohaji-Egbema youths and paid bursary to students from the ISOPADEC communities.