By Engr. Charles Uwadia
A first-hand experience while seeking to employ a ship Captain has prompted me to share this.
It is so difficult to get Nigerian-certified marine engineers, and masters. Once, I faced a challenge with a Captain who was later found to have had fake certificates.
He had presented a NIMASA certificate. Upon verification, it was found that his name was imposed over someone’s name. This is a racket going on. We need to have discussions with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on how to curb this. You see, when you are looking for a Master, you will see a number of them present certificates from Ghana. Please check very well, because very many of them are not real, yet they are operating in our waters.
Of course I sacked him when I found he had presented a fake certificate. But, guess what? The next time, I found that he was operating in Calabar. Therefore, we need to go back to training and proper certification.
NIMASA needs to work with a good inspection team that would move from vessel to vessel, to improve on this.
We must be intentional about shipbuilding as we consider shipping development.
I will use my experience as an example. I had a shipyard. We built a number of houseboats and refurbished some naval vessels like Makurdi, and Amaria among others. That was what President Olusegun Obasanjo used. We couldn’t continue because as technology improved, we needed to improve by getting a bigger shipyard. But we couldn’t raise the resources that we needed at that time. At the end, we closed down the shipyard. It wasn’t just me, because I know of about three other entrepreneurs who were operating in Port Harcourt and had to close down as well. As the discussions about the CVFF continue under shipping development, adequate attention should also be granted to developing shipyards. This is one area I want us to pay attention to.
Engr. Charles Uwadia is a former President of the Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors
