By Godwin Oritse
Master Mariners  Association  of Nigeria has decried the  dearth of Master Mariners in the country, a development it says will  hamper the growth of the Nigerian Maritime industry if urgent steps are not taken to correct the anomaly.

Speaking at the  group’s annual dinner held at the Civic Center in Lagos, MMAN’s President Captain Adejimi Adu said that the non availability of master mariners has been a problem the group has been contending with for a long time.

Adu stated that since the demise of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), there has been no meaningful training programme to replenish the pool of master mariners in Nigeria adding that the current ones are aging.

He explained that over the years, the Association has been making representation to successive governments  and they (government) has refused to see the importance of power development.

He was of the opinion that the Nigerian Maritime Academy (NMA)  in  Oron, Akwa-Ibom  State has lost focus adding that certificates issued by the institution are not recognised by employers of seafarers.

He further stated that the importance of labour in the maritime sector cannot be over emphasised adding that it will be of no use if we have all the vessels and there are no people to man them.

He said, “The dearth of qualified maritime labour has become a very serious problem in the industry, it is one of the issues we have contending with for some time.

“As you know, since the demise of the Nigerian National Shipping Line, there has been no meaningful man power development programme , if you take a look at our members in this hall,  none of them is less than 50 years and we have been shouting, screaming at the government on the need to tackle this problem.

“The unfortunate thing is that the government does not seem to understand the importance of the maritime sector to the economy.

“Of all the factors of production, labour  which is manpower is key to the development of the sector, if you have all the machines and you do not have people to drive these machines then the machines will become useless.

“And when we talk of manpower, we are talking about qualified and competent men and women that can man the ships “.

Adu, however, disclosed that since the government has refused to see reason with the group over the inadequate manpower in the maritime sector, the group has decided to partner with some private organisations to train qualified and competent marine personnel.

He also explained that employment in the Nigeria can be tackled if the government makes conscious effort to right the wrongs in the Maritime sector.