Hon. S. Tornorlah Varpilah, Board Chairman of the Liberian Maritime Authority (LiMA) is presently in Nigeria leading a team comprising of his country’s maritime administration and maritime education and training institution on a visit to the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron.
He spoke to Ismail Aniemu, shortly after a tour of the academy’s facilities and first hand assessment of the various simulators on campus
Varpilah commended the academy for its modern facilities, competent faculty members and well trained cadets while calling on the Nigerian government to step up on funding for maritime education and training institutions
Q: Once again, we want to say welcome to Nigeria. We’ve seen that you went around our Premier Maritime’s institution. What’s your view about this academy after a tour of the facilities
Wonderful. For a long time I haven’t seen something like this. And I think the institute is well positioned . I was particularly impressed about the infrastructure you have, the faculty you have, and just everything.
I would just encourage the government of Nigeria to continue to invest in the institution. Because I think maritime is a big industry, and in our region we need to invest in the maritime sector so that it can create jobs and it can provide the economic benefits and leadership that is desired for Nigeria and the region.
So I’m very much impressed, and my team is also very impressed. We are going back to Liberia with a lasting memory. We came purposely to talk about collaboration and partnership, and we hope to foster that.
I’m just too grateful, and I want to thank everyone that is working for the betterment of the institution.
Q: What’s your dream for the prospect of a maritime collaboration between Nigeria and Liberia? What are the likely fallouts you desire to see?
What I want to see is a lasting partnership that will grow into solid collaboration.
I would like to see our students coming to Nigeria and taking courses here. I would like to see our faculty coming to Nigeria and taking courses here. I would like to see the same thing happen in my country too— that the faculty here can go to Liberia and also teach the students.
I was quite impressed about the simulators you have, the equipment you have. And this is something that I think I would like to see more students on ships — on our ships — because Liberia is an open registry and we have so many ships but we don’t control the ships.
With the right ideas and the committed leadership I see on both sides, there will be great opportunities for all of our students graduating from here. I’m very sure we can make a great mark.
I want to see that this campus will develop to a point where it can even offer bachelor degrees. And I would like to see that, in the near future, that our students that we send to the regional maritime university in Ghana will come here and then continue their courses
Q: Tell us about promoting ocean and blue economy in Africa
Oh, blue economy . That’s another opportunity that we have in our region. The blue economy, in my view, hasn’t been properly tapped and I think that this institution will play a leading role in opening up that opportunity so that the blue economy can be an industry that can absorb and create more jobs in the region and Africa as a whole.
We have the ocean, we have everything, but I think we have to position our universities and training programs to bring up new programs that will unearth the potential in our blue economy.
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