A former Government Inspector of Ships, Engr. Olu Akinsoji, on Friday said the establishment of more maritime universities would lead to sustainable progress in the maritime industry.
Akinsoji said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, that there should be a comprehensive planning to determine how many people would be needed 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 need the insurance people; you need ship brokers; clearing and forwarding; you need so many specified deep knowledge experts in various areas.
“You need policy makers; the administrators; you need good lawyers. So, you need to sit-down 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 not every university or every college that has the basic infrastructure for these different kinds of training,” Akinsoji said.
He said that there was the need for a body at the national level to monitor the activities of the professional bodies in the maritime industry.
Akinsoji said all the policy issues should be interpreted into appreciable guidelines that would 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 it. We’ve not only at the university level.
“I think even 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 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, 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 would 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 being and it would not sink,“ Akinsoji said.
He urged students to imbibe what they learnt
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