Rivers: Stakeholders Want Maritime Institute’s Take Off

L-R: General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Authority, Dr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, Chief Press Secretary to Lagos Governor, Mr Habib Haruna and General Manager, Lagos State Waterways Authority, Mr Yinka Marinho, at a news conference on Wednesday’s boat mishap in Lagos recently.

Tongues are wagging
over the take-off of the proposed N2 billion Maritime Training Institute in Obuama, Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The institution approved by the former President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as part of his transformation agenda was aimed at ending the guest of training ex-militants and other Nigerians from travelling to overseas to acquire maritime training.
But since after the approval, and defence of the project before the National Assembly during deliberations on the 2014 appropriation budget, nothing visible seems to be happening.
A cross section of stakeholders who spoke with our correspondent in a chat in Port Harcourt said since after the announcement, nothing had been heard about the project and called on the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure its take-off, considering its importance to the citizenry.
Mr Benibo Hanson, a speed boat operator said the institution when operational would enable the youths acquire maritime knowledge and improve the lives and activities of those already in the business.
“Many youths are roaming the streets because of lack  of job, but with the maritime school, most of them will have something to do after attending the school and acquiring for them to attend as it is in the state”, Hanson maintained, and appealed to the Federal Government to facilitate its take-off.
Comrade Dan Egbe was of the  view that although he was not aware of such announcement but that it eventually established, it would be a great help to the teeming unemployed public to go and acquire skill on maritime industry and be engaged meaningfully.
Egbe said Rivers State truly deserved such institution because of its terrain, pointing out that it is a welcomed development.
Okonko Solomon noted that the Maritime Institute in the state would help bring development to the Obuama Community as well as qualified personnel that could man sea-going vessels, stressing that maritime sector is currently a hub of economic sub-sector in the country, and also enjoined the Federal Government not to hesitate over its take-off.
In his own comment, Ezekiel Halliday was of the opinion that the issue of the Maritime  Training Institute should not be politicised as its potentials and benefits to the generality of the public is unquantifiable.
Halliday said Rivers State, with its geographical location is due for such an institution and called for its immediate take-off.
It would be recalled that the former Presidential Adviser on the Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku disclosed the approval and establishment of the Maritime Training Institution in Rivers State as part of the presidential amnesty package for the people of Niger Delta.
Kuku said the institute when established would admit about 500 students at a time, with hostels to accommodate the students, staff quarters and that the institute could metamorphose to become a university or tertiary institution in time to come, adding that the Federal Government had approved N2 billion for the take-off of the institution.

Collins Barasimeye