28 February 2016, Lagos – The Coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group, Comrade Joseph Evah, has described the plight of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) foreign scholarship beneficiaries as pathetic.
In a statement, the Niger Delta activist said the refusal of NIMASA to fulfil its financial obligations to institutions abroad to enable the students return to complete their studies had led to untold hardship among the students.
The statement said, “NIMASA’s initial good intention to expose young Nigerians to advance studies in maritime studies was being gradually destroyed by bad politics”. Evah said it was unfortunate that the students were helplessly roaming the streets abroad, while efforts to get assistance from NIMASA to return to school are frustrated by officials of the agency.
“We want the new NIMASA D-G to say the true position of foreign scholarship program in seafarers. We have countless number of students from the program from outside Lagos coming to sleep in my office in Lagos after several visits to NIMASA offices to workout their return abroad, without success.”
- Vanguard