By Henry Umoru

ABUJA—MOVES to give the establishment of Maritime University of Nigeria, Okerenkoko in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, a legal backing yesterday, got a boost as the bill scaled the second reading.

The bill, sponsored by Senator James Manager, PDP, Delta South, was unanimously supported by the senators after his lead debate, making a case for the establishment of the university.

The sailing of the bill into the second reading, came months after the former governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, had announced the scrapping of the project.

It will also be recalled that Amaechi had said it would be scrapped when he addressed the Senate committee on Maritime on January 19.

The groundbreaking of the proposed Maritime University at Okerenkoko in Warri South-West Local Government Area was done by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014.

The bill for the establishment of the university which was first read in the Senate on June 7, 2016, became imperative because there have been no law backing the establishment of the university.

Soon after Senator Manager read the lead debate that the bill be read for the second time, it was seconded by Senator Ogola Foster, PDP, Bayelsa West, who noted that giving legal backing to the school would make Nigeria become a “hub of manpower development in the maritime sector.” He said Nigeria would be the first to have a maritime university in West Africa once the bill received the approval of the National Assembly at the end of the day.

Also yesterday, a bill for the establishment of the Maritime University of Nigeria, Oron, as a degree awarding institution sponsored by Senator Nelson Effiong, PDP, Akwa Ibom South, scaled the second reading.

Senator Effiong, who noted that the bill was read the first time in the Senate on June 23, 2016, said that the bill sought the upgrade of the present Maritime Academy of Nigeria Oron to a degree awarding institution, adding, “In 1977, through Executive Act No 172, the Federal Military Government established the Nautical College of Nigeria Oron, with the primary motive of building the much needed capacity for the growing maritime industry.”

Prior to this time, most of the Nation’s Merchant Navy officers were trained mainly in the United Kingdom, India and Ghana, among other places, at a very high cost to the government. Following the Promulgation of Degree 16 of 1988, the Nautical College Oron, which was officially opened in 1979, had its name changed to Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, with limited assistance from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “