Lagos- A former Inspector of Ships, Mr Olu Akinsoji, on Friday said the the maritime industry required more universities for sustainable progress.
Akinsoji told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that people would be needed to properly trained in their chosen careers for enhanced proficiency in a particular profession.
“You need to plan to know how many people you will need in the industry.
“The industry that has specified kind of disciplines in various areas.
“You need ship builders; seafarers of different kinds. You also need the insurance people, ship brokers; clearing and forwarding; you need so many experts in various areas.
“You need policy makers; the administrators; you need good lawyers. So, you need to sit and analyse and know how many of these you have in the system.
“How many you need for sustainable growth and where you have the infrastructure to put these training.
“ Because it is not every university or every college that has the basic infrastructure for these different kinds of training.”
He stressed the need for a body to monitor the activities of the professional bodies in the maritime industry.
Akinsoji said all the policy issues should be interpreted to lead to appreciable growth.
He said that professionals in the maritime industry should assist in sustaining maritime policies.
“Nigeria has tremendous maritime transport activities and we are not making the best of them. Not only at the university level.
“Even in primary schools, they should start to think of some kind of marine- oriented training or education that can even fit into primary schools, secondary schools, universities in some programmes.
“Law of flotation, for instance, is nature. There is nothing wrong in a primary school child knowing that something will float in water; something will not float.
“If you give a primary school pupil the knowledge of that, it is not a wasted knowledge.
“Now, if you get to secondary school, there is no reason why you cannot say why a ship is floating because a secondary school child goes to the beach, he will see a boat on water.
“There is nothing wrong in teaching that child at secondary school why a boat is floating; and why it can carry cargo, carry human beings and it would not sink.”
