Move To Scrap Maritime Varsity Antithetical to Buhari’s Manifesto – Former NDDC Boss

FORMER Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Pastor Power Ziakede Aginighan, has described the move by the Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi to scrap the Nigeria Maritime University established by the preceding Federal Government as antithetical to President Buhari’s avowed commitment to addressing the challenges of the Niger Delta.

Aginighan, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress who made this known in a statement yesterday said the idea of sitting a tertiary educational institution in the crude oil and gas-rich Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State was first proposed and adopted under the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo as a critical component in the roadmap to peace and sustainable development of the Niger Delta. 

He explained, “Gbaramatu Kingdom and other communities in the coastal belt of Nigeria, springing from Eastern Obolo/Ibeno in Akwa-Ibom through Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Edo to Ilaje and Ese-Odo in Ondo State account for over 70% of the crude oil and gas output of Nigeria with concomitant devastation of the environment and threats on their means of livelihood. Paradoxically, this territory has been largely alienated from the mainstream of national development without any vector of development”.

“This explains the boundless joy that greeted the decision of the Federal Government to establish the Nigeria Maritime University at Okerenkoko, facilitated by the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) with a temporary site at Kurutie, having satisfied the requirements of the National Universities Commission (NUC). With a Governing Council inaugurated, Vice Chancellor and other Principal Officers of the University appointed and take-off fund in NIMASA 2015 Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly, it is clearly an error of judgement to contemplate scrapping the Nigeria Maritime University,” he added.

Aginighan, while appealing to the Minister for Transport to review his position on this matter in favour of the immediate take-off of the University by directing NIMASA to release the already appropriated take-off fund to the Nigeria Maritime University, added that scrapping the Nigeria Maritime University Okerenkoko has the high potential of shattering the peace of the graveyard being enjoyed in the Niger Delta because of the Amnesty Programme.



Daily independent. 

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