The chairman of the Nigeria Shipowners Association, Captain Niyi Labinjo, has blasted the national government, linking the failure to secure onboard training for local cadets to the growth in piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
“Cadets of [the Maritime Academy of Nigeria] who graduated six to 15 years ago have no jobs. So what do you want to do with the new people you are training? You are going to make them hijackers, sea pirates. That is why the issue of sea piracy cases is very high because the boys we trained have no jobs,” Labinjo told Nigeria’s Vanguard paper.
