Sir Dr. Charles Wami, can you give us some insight into how this whole structure, a centre of world class standard in maritime training in the Niger Delta began?, and in terms of what possibilities there are from this vision, I’ll like to ask, at what point Sir did you begin to think if life as a maritime/marine professional?
Well, thank you very much IB It is my pleasure having you at Charkin Maritime Academy Facility. I thank you for the opportunity. Well, just as you rightly asked, at what point did I start to dream about my profession. Its goes way back immediately after the civil war. I attended the prestigious Government Sea School Isaka, in the good old days in the time of now King Alfred Diete Spiff. When he sited that school, we started from Borokiri, where we have NNS Akaso now. That’s where we were before we came to Isaka that was in 1972.
I think we moved to Isaka in 1975 or 76; I think about then. However, as a young primary school leaver who went into a secondary school, I decided that I liked the sea. The Sea is a place to be, and at that point I developed so much interest in seamanship. There in Sea School, we did the conventional School Certificate subjects and in addition to that, English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry. Then in addition to that, we had seamanship. A lot of us developed interest in it, and while in Sea School I was the Nautical Prefect. So, at that point I tailored my mind that ‘I am going to be a man of the Sea’. And to the glory of God, after the Sea school, I went abroad to study the Marine Radio Communication, and when I came back I joined the Nigerian Shipping Line. And I tell you it has not been easy but to the glory of God, I can see that the dream right from the Sea school pumped out. Because while we are in school, Government Sea School Isaka was supposed to be the Nautical College of Nigeria take it or leave it, because while we were there at Isaka, you know the position of Isaka you could see ships, Merchant ships, supply vessels; all class of vessels. Right from our classrooms you could see them moving on the waters, coming into Ports, Port Harcourt, going towards Bonny and Eagle Island. I felt that was a good sight for a maritime Institution to be sited. So, it turned out that when I graduated from Isaka, I travelled outside the country to study Marine Radio Communication, I came back and started working with the Nigerian Shipping Line. So, you could see from Sea School to another tertiary Institution outside the Country, still to study “Marine, Marine, Marine”, and now we are onboard the Ship. We were in the Ship for many years until 1995.
What was life at sea like?
Oh! My life at sea was the most enjoyable life. We use to have a slogan, “Sailors have the best fun”, because you have the opportunity of visiting different countries! You don’t have any issue about visa. The moment your ship is running at, let’s say, your ship is running at Port Hamburg in Germany, automatically you’re going to Germany. And while the ship is in Port, you have the opportunity of going out to town. So these are some of the benefits, and you and I know that there is no education better than travel. When you travel you learn a lot, you learn a lot on people and environments. So, I can tell you that life has been very enjoyable one, very good.
We almost missed this. I remembered you just briefly spoke about your Uncle at Nigerian Tide. Can you recount that?
Oh, Okay! Yes, the early days after Primary school, I sat for the Nigerian Military School Entrance Examination, and that was in 1972. And I passed the Military School Exam. I was so excited; I was jubilating when I saw my name in the newspaper. So, I went and told my parents that I have made it. And they said that’s not a deal at all, the war has just ended, you mean you want to go to ‘Ugwu Awusa’ to go and study. They say no! So, at that point, I was disappointed. But, I still found a way; God has a way of doing things. My Uncle then who was working in Nigerian Tide, came back one evening because he found out that I was really disappointed. So, he came back with Nigerian Tide newspaper, there was an advertisement for Entrance Examination into the Government Sea School, then I didn’t know anything about Government Sea School, so I read about it and applied for the examination and I passed. We were so many, more than one thousand, nationwide. So, when the entrance was successful, we went through series of screening, interviews, oral interviews, physical, written and at the end of the day, I was among the few that were selected. We joined Government Sea School that year 1972. It was a successful journey from that time till the time I finished in 1977.
While in Sea School, I was the Nautical Prefect and that actual inspired me to moving on, taking on a sea career. After the liquidation of Nigerian Shipping Line, I started surveying Vessels and Rigs. That was what actual gave birth to training. I love the Niger Delta people. Now, as part of the survey programme, when you survey a vessel, after inspecting all the machineries you have to ascertain the competence of the man or the people manning those machineries. So, in the course of this, I realised that a lot of them were not competent academically; on the job they have the experience but, they don’t have the paper to certify that they are actually good on the job. So, that was what led to sending proposals to their employers to see if we could enhance their performance standards by giving them in-house training and taking them outside the Country. And then, the companies actually complied because they know the disappointment if there should be any accident, on-board any of those vessels you find out that Insurance will never cover you because you have incompetent persons(s) in the ship. So, that was actually what led to setting up Charkin, a Marine School.
Thank you Sir Dr. Charles Wami, you actually already delved into my second question, which is how did you begin the journey establishing a world class marine training academy in the heart of the Niger Delta?
I was inspecting vessels, rigs, and ships and in the good old days, there was no crisis in Niger Delta. I still remember, in 1996, when I go to Eket, Mobil Field. There are so many Vessels, so many rigs in Mobil Field. I use to hop from one Rigs to another by then to go and carry out inspection on behalf of American Beach Shipping (ABS), you find out that most of those guys, because they don’t have the required certificates, I decided to send them outside the Country, precisely Ghana. Because then, Ghana was what we called the International Maritime Organization Wide List (Imo Wide List). It is a list of IMO member countries that have met the IMO training standard, as at that time. But, I’m happy that today, Nigerian has been on the IMO Wide List for a very long time. By that time it was a challenge, just Ghana. Anyway, we started taking them and I was advised that partners in Ghana, which was a Regional Maritime Academy then, they now upgraded to a University, So it’s now a Regional Maritime University, in Accra, Ghana. So, I decided that it would be good instead of bringing Ghanaian Lecturers from Ghana to teach Nigerians back home, why don’t we recruit some Nigerian Engineers, Master Mariners, recruit them and train the trainer programme?. When I say I’m talking about Charkin, I don’t want to personalise what I did. So, we decided to train Nigerian captains, Nigerian Ship Engineers and Engineers in order for them to participate in the trainings in-house. Now, while I’m taking people from here to Ghana. The whole exercise started in year 2000. Then, we wrote to Rivers State University, because we wanted to be in a University environment, in a learning environment. So, we wrote a letter to Rivers State University to allocate some piece of land, and to the glory of God, I must doff my heart for Professor Achinehu, who was then the VC of Rivers State University of Science and Technology. So, we built our first fire fighting simulator there in UST, and later built another block of classrooms. Each of the classrooms then could take about hundred and twenty students, and we had four such classrooms. And we actually dedicated two classrooms to Rivers State University for Marine Engineering students to use as their classrooms, and that actually gave a lot of cordial relationship to their own goodwill. Because the University asked me, what will be their benefits of our being in UST to them? Well, I made it clear that the benefit, your Marine Engineering Students would benefit from our short courses. Those short courses called SSCW Mandatory. It is mandatory for everybody working on board the Ship must have that basic mandatory certificate. We call it SCCW Certified. It is open to Marine Engineering students of UST even those that have graduated, a lot of them came back to go through the training because it is a mandatory programme. And we made it almost free for them. And that actually enhanced their opportunities. I can tell you, a lot of them who went through the training because it is a mandatory program. And we made it almost free for them that actual enhanced their job opportunities. I can tell you, a lot of them who went through UST and are gainfully employed today. Our training at UST gave them opportunity, edge to get employed. I know a lot of them and I don’t want to mention names, but if you’re here during this program you can attest that what I’m telling you is a fact. They are all happy. Besides that relationship, we are affiliated to Rivers State University, and we were till about 2008. I found out that we needed to expand, and I made another proposal to UST to see if they could allocate more plots of lands under DOT (Dutch Operational Transfer), but they declined. So, that made me to think ahead, that was a challenge. I wanted to build this free, even volunteered to build Olympic size Swimming Pool, structures, student accommodation, classrooms, just name it. Even the Olympic Size Swimming Pool, the University Community could also use it for their leisure. But things always work for good. I was disappointed, I decided to look ahead, so we came over here and bought thirteen plots of land at 2008. Then we started developing it, and by 2009, we’ve developed the first phase of the building, the other side of the facility and the whole of the Administrative block and the accommodation. The first swimming pool was built 2008, we didn’t know we are going to expand the way we are now. For the fact that I have that commitment and passion for Marine Industry, I said let us build a Maritime Academy that will at least replace Government Sea School. The aim of King Alfred Spiff was to build a Maritime Academy so that when you finish your Secondary School at Government Sea School, you move straight the same Isaka but it didn’t work . And I know that we are in this terrain and by the special grace of God that we all belong to this part of the world. So, we should not be abused for it, we should not throw away the opportunity. We’re so endowed with all sorts of minerals, natural resources. I can tell you that Rivers man or an average Niger Deltan, we should focus on Marine, just like you have in Norway. Because our blue economy, we (Niger Delta) should be the hub. And if you talk about blue economy and you don’t have the human resources to run the blue economy then you’re not doing anything. So, that’s where we are.
You just spoke of challenges when you actually wanted to out of your own volition build up those structures for Rivers State University, and an opportunity opened up from the challenges faced, that turned up to be an asset, a blessing really to have a world class institution. What were the other challenges faced actually setting up?
Well, off course, funds because in every business, you may have the business idea, the technical know how, but when you don’t have finance…
How did you overcome the funding challenge?
Well, I have not overcome it, I’m still in it. So, actually through the patronage from corporate bodies we get funds. You know, proceeds from such patronages were thrown back into the system to set up all these structures. We made it to be world class Institution because we have all it sorts of equipment, training aids, we have procured from one of the best Marine Manufacturing companies in the world;, the Company is called Convert. Convert is one of the biggest Marine Training Equipment Manufacturing companies, they’re in Norway. So, we try as much as possible to have the best. I can remember when we procured one of our simulators with full mission, we were told that we’re number 3 on the list of the whole world. There is another equipment we bought again called High Voltage Simulators, and I think that’s number 2 or number 3; so, we always go for the best, once there’s a new thing in place, we go for it. And whatever thing we have is in accordance with the International Maritime Organization (Imo).
Currently, the world is in the choking grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now we’re talking about Omicron. This has crippled the entire global economy, the maritime sector with its direct links with all the continents in the world. And when you have a pandemic like this, it is like basically the whole world is shut down; and this is what we’ve seen from 2019, and so on. The global economy can be said to be in a state of paralysis. How has this impacted your training at the Academy and what are the prospects for the Academy and the Maritime Sector in the coming year, the foreseeable future? We’ve had all of these shutdowns, people cannot travel. We’ve heard of these stories of Sea Farers being stuck at sea. How has it been for you who is in the business of training sea farers and all that?
Yes! I’ll tell you that we are one of the biggest victims of this whether you call it COVID-19 or you call it Omicron. I remember last year. Well, in 2019, we’re involved with Nigerian Content Monitoring and Development Board, NCMDB to retrain and send some of the Nigerian Sea farers cadets that were trained in various Countries in Europe and Asian countries. We were involved in retraining them, giving twelve months Sea Training through our technical partners in Germany, we were to put them on board their vessel, and the first stage of program went so smooth. Majority of them went on board without any problem in 2019 into early 2020. As soon as the COVID-19 picked up, that was the beginning of our major challenge. I tell you, one of the government parastatals was also involved in this program, and you know, they would have written us off, if not for the fact that they know who we are, it was beyond one. The COVID came and we just have to live with it. Some of our cadets that were sent to go and board vessels at the airports were not allowed to travel. So, a lot of things.. it destroyed everything. Even right here in our training facility, companies that used to send their workers, because there was no contracts, everything just went down. It’s been a very difficult period, we had to downsize. Even at that point, we were paying our staff the percentage of their monthly salaries because there was no business, because business is training. And if we have people we train, and if we don’t have people we won’t train. So, it affected us a lot, and with Omicron the new one now, we are believing that we all have to take the dos and don’ts seriously. The best thing is just follow the trend, if they say go for the vaccination you go for it, rather than speculating, ‘oh, this is a scam and things like that. So, we even try to build that awareness even to our delegates who come in, and we try to abide by the protocols. if you’re walking into our facility, we have a COVID chamber, you can see I’m putting on my face mask; these are the things we try as much as possible, even enlightenment to everybody that comes across our way.
There was something you said in response to one of my earlier questions, that you love the Niger Delta. So, going forward, for any of the unemployed and unskilled youth roaming the streets of the Niger Delta states, how can these young people be given life sustaining skills, because we know, this is supposed to be centre of the blue economy that we actually just really dream about. How can the youths of the Niger Delta be empowered with the skills?
Well, as a training Institution, we have written to some State Governments, Local Government Councils, Non-Governmental Organizations, Community Youth Leaders and some Community Development Associations to come and partner with us. We are ready to assist to build that capacity. I know it can’t be free, but because of passion we have for our people, we can conduct programs at subsidized rates for them to be fully empowered. Because talking about jobs in the Niger Delta, assuming the jobs are there now and there are no skills, the job will fly away and go to somebody else who is with the skill. That’s why we always preach to our people to try and get the paper qualification. Try and get that training so that it becomes part of you. When the opportunity is there for you will have advantage. Because, one you’re from the Niger Delta, two you have the required qualification. So, I don’t see any reason why you should not be gainfully employed. But the problem is, a lot of people don’t see it as anything, they don’t want to key into that opportunity we created. I still remember very well in 2003, 2004, when we were at UST, I gave that opportunity to Maritime Workers Union, the Sea Farers Association. They came in their role as the Rivers State Chapter and Akwa Ibom State Chapter. We trained about two hundred and sixty five (265), about two hundred and sixty five of them from Akwa Ibom State Chapter, we trained them on, those short courses, accommodated them, fed them but at the end of the day we were not paid. Those short courses are 5-5 days, some are ten days. But mainly, there are the ones of 5-5 days, roughly a week program. Up till today as I’m speaking with you, we were not paid. But my happiness is a lot them were employed virtually from different oil companies. So, what I’m saying is, we are ready to partner with communities, State Governments, Local Governments, NGOs, and others. This is a learning place, come you will have something to do, we have a lot to do. We have different programs. We have Welding and Fabrication Workshops, and we have different skill programs after which you can be gainfully employed. But, all these can as be possible if there is peace in the region. That’s why we are praying for everybody to go slow, take it easy, let us have that peace, have that enabling environment for investors to come in. Because once you have investors, being the hub of the blue economy, if we have investors, off course, there are opportunities for our youths. That’s why I always encourage the youths to key into peace, once there is peace in the region there will be opportunities for people.
What poses a hindrance to the blooming of the maritime sector? The Niger Delta is naturally suited for the industry. How can we encourage the sort of investments for a thriving Blue Economy to happen?
Yes! Well, if we can just, all of us within this region, there’s something my people say, ‘if you use your two palms, tap it on the ground and tap it on your chest. Once there is that humanity, it will bring peace. Because any environment that does not have peace, nobody will like to come and invest in the place. And I’m happy today that a lot of our youths are embracing that peace, they’re ready to learn. So, it’s for all the governments to support that opportunity. The youths are ready to learn, so all we need is those in Government including me and you to encourage them so that, these youths will embrace that peace and now have the opportunity to be empowered technically and learn. And it would create opportunities for investors. Don’t tell me that I have a partner in may be in UK or Norway, and tomorrow there’s problem in Port Harcourt, the person would relax and say okay let me just watch. And if he watches and there is no improvement, it becomes a challenge. So, everything boils down to peace, whatever thing you’re doing once there’s that peace it would scale through.
We just watched a simulation of a helicopter in water in an accident situation and how the persons undergoing the helicopter training were able to get themselves out after a few trials and so on, very interesting and very scary . Besides training like that, what would you say have been the impact of Charkin Maritime Academy imparting skills in the Maritime Sector and in Oil and Gas sector?
The training practicals you just witnessed, that is called the Helicopter Underwater Escape Training. It is a very critical training in Oil and Gas and of course in the marine Industry, personnel are mostly conveyed to offshore either by boat or by helicopter reaching into the sea. We train people on how to survive, how to escape from that. And it has been happening. There are instances. Some years ago, there was an accident whereby a helicopter breached into the water and the passengers, all survived.
Out of the number onboard that helicopter, Six of them attended our training. These are some of the things we teach people, safety. Safety, in the event something happening, how do you escape? We know there is God but, practically you have to be guided. That’s a very key component of our training. In the past, oil companies used to fly people to Aberdeen for the same training. But, today it’s done here. At least, we’ve saved that foreign exchange and the time. Training that will take you three days here, before used to take you about a week. So, that’s one of the good things that are happening to the country.
We would also like you to speak on the training on Marine based engineering and that of the Nautical Sciences training
For Charkin Maritime Academy, for you to get admitted into the Academy as a cadet, you have to have five (5) Credits in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English Language, Geography and any other science subject. For a Nautical Science cadet, you are aspiring to be a Captain after some years on the ship.
For Maritime Engineering cadet, after some years you become a Chief Engineer in the ship. It’s a programme that I want people, government to key into, knowing very well that at the end of the cadet programme, you’ll be commissioned as an officer. After one year internship training, you come back to school for Competency Certificate Training, then you go back onboard.
How long does that take?
After 12 months of internship training, you come back for 6 months to prepare. It’s a preparatory class for their competency exams. By the time you finish, you are commissioned as a Junior Officer, you start earning good money onboard the ship, attracting good money and with that you can develop yourself. If you are lucky, the company can develop you like the companies we have partnership with, it’s a German Shipping company.
In fact, recently, there are some cadets we facilitated their internship training, some of them are gainfully employed. They are all onboard now, about seven of them. And from now on, the company will take over their programmes to senior officer’s programmes.
In shipping career, you don’t stop going to school. You have to keep updating your knowledge until by the time you become a Captain, that is the peak of your career, you won’t go back to school again unless you want to do something different related to that sector. And the good news is that, if you are a Captain of the ship and you retired, you are rest assured the IOCs are there waiting for you, either as a pilot or a boarding master or whatever. It is endless opportunities, Chief Engineers, the same with Marine Superintendents. Some of them are even Chief Engineers in big time Hotels. In fact, you have endless opportunities.
You were with the Nigeria National Shipping Lines in its early days, what lessons can you share about the sustenance of business in Nigeria from that experience?
With Nigerian National Shipping Lines, we as officers onboard were doing our jobs but, unfortunately, those at the top, they were doing their jobs but, government influence really impacted negatively on the Nigerian Shipping Lines. I’ll give you one example; In those days we use to go to Korea to carry NNPC locomotive equipment. We would go, to Philadelpia now it is Ukraine, Russia, just name it, to carry steel for Ajaokuta and Aladja Steel Complexes, Korea for NNPC Wagons. At the end of the day, these Federal Government parastatals will not pay for the cargoes. That is one of the things that made NNSL to cripple.
Too many organisations end with the death or aging of the dream initiators. You are still young and agile, what plans do you have for the sustainability of the great vision that this Academy is beyond your active working years?. Abroad, you see family businesses or individual efforts that are 300 years old, 100 years old. CNN has a programme celebrating business that have stayed alive, impacting on society for 100 years. What plans do you have to make sure that when we all are gone, Charkin will remain because it has a role to play in training, building futures for young people in the Niger Delta, in Nigeria, in West Africa and other continents?
Well, the plans we have which are already in place, is to have a system in place whether I’m here or not. Last time, I travelled out of the country for about 6 weeks, the system was still running. We have a system in place. Whether you are there or not, the business will still stay. It’s just to keep everybody up and down, have a good team, professionalism, standards. As an individual, I won’t say I’m the only man that made this place what it is, No! But we are here as a team. If you see the way we work, you won’t know who is the Head, you don’t know who is the tail. We all work with one unity, one mind together. So, that system that has been in place, we want to make sure it remain so till only God knows.
Maritime Sector Shipping, Sea Farers, generally considered a male dominated area of business and career. The other day when I went on inspection of the classes and so on, I also saw some female cadets and for me, a woman, a journalist, in a male dominated profession, I’m always glad to see the women. Are more of women coming in, is the maritime sector fair to women? Are the rules being modified to be in line with modern life where men do their best, and women too? Are there more jobs coming into the professions both maritime and Oil & Gas?
For the female folks, it’s only in this part of the world or let may say African Countries that the women don’t participate much in maritime industry. If you go places like Germany, Norway, I’ve seen female sea captains. But, Ghana in the early days trained a lot of Female cadets who are now Captains. Some of them are even in the decision making of the IMO (International Maritime Organization). You know, we have a lot of Ghanaian female captains; I use to have one as a Lecturer here in Charkin. And ofcourse, today, a lot or Nigerians are also participating in the Sea Faring. We have a lot of Nigerian Female Sea captains, Engineers. So we are encouraging the Women based on, few years ago, IMO (International Maritime Organization) made it mandatory, they carried out a campaign, ‘Go to Sea’, and they were making emphasis on the women. So, what we are doing now is to encourage Government Agencies to fish out, young Women School Leavers. You know, we must not all be Lawyers and Doctors or this and that, try and spread out. The opportunities are there at the sea, the sea will never go dry. What you and I are putting on came through sea. The World Shipping trade is an everlasting kind of Profession. So, there must be jobs for every sea farer both male and female. So, as we are carrying out this campaign, we want our governments to encourage our female youths to also come on board and go through this cadetship training. We have some of them, the likes of Andoni Local Government and Obio/Akpor Local Government, they key into this programme; I think they have about 5 to 6 Female cadets at the Academy now. We believe that other Local Governments Councils in the Niger Delta States would also key in. the Academy is recognised by the Federal Ministry of Education through the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and of course with NIMASA, which is the Regulatory board of the International Maritime Organization, IMO. When you are in Charkin, you are good as in any tertiary institution.
What advice do you have for young people, especially young men in the Niger Delta about life and building a secured future for themselves?
My candid advice to every young man in Niger Delta, not only in Niger Delta, just do things that you know are right at the right time. And be humble, don’t live a false life. People live false lives and that false life attitude leads them to a lot of things they are not supposed to do. I’m talking about being humble, just cut your coat according to your size. If you start living a false life because my sister is doing this, let me also try to belong to that class, you are putting yourself astray. So, my advice to everybody is just let us work hard, have the spirit of God fearing because, when you have God fearing spirit, you won’t do things some other person would say, Oh why are you doing this? What you are doing is wrong? Because you know that as a Child of God who has the fear of God, you will not do anything that will hurt your fellow human being.
I still would want to know, what values guide your life and your work that led you on the path of success? If we are talking about successful persons in the Niger Delta, You are definitely going to fit into that profile because you are a businessman, successfully running a business in particular. What are those values that guide you?
I’ll just use one common language. First, like as I said earlier, do things in your own way. Have the fear of God, right. Once you have trust. Okay, you said, I’m a successful business man right, I am a successful maritime training operator. It’s because, I don’t cut corners. And I will never cut corners. Everybody in the system knows, we don’t cut corners. There have been instances where even your friends, even people you know very well, you start wondering how could somebody like this ask for this?. There are instances people would come, oh please do this, they want certificate. And I would say please. it’s never done. I can’t be a party to that, if some other people do it, not in Charkin. And I can bet you that we don’t do it, not only that particular training. Every training we do, if it is five days programme, you must participate fully, fill attendance. Most of the courses we offer are fully attended. They may not be examinable, but we still carry out certain assessments to ensure that you are sitting down in class, you are not just looking at the structure, your mind is somewhere else. You must go through our assessments both oral and written. So that we can really know that you really served in this class for five days. Ask anybody who went through Charkin Maritime, we don’t cut corners. When you don’t cut corners in anything, you’re doing, that attitude will make. I remember in 1997/1998, I used to have a friend, he was then the MD of Tidex, an American, Captain Ken Whyte, he’ll tell me Charley you know what, over a bottle of beer, over a pint of beer, it can make you and also destroy you. Let’s assume now, I cut corners this young man came to me and say oh Uncle, please give me certificate, right and I grant that offer, he may go somewhere there sitting down in a bar, ‘Ah you, I don get my certificate oh! I no even do the course, I go there, Charkin just sign it and collect some money. You have destroyed your business over a bottle of beer. But, if you refused, the same man could also at that drinking bar say, “Nna na wa oh, I go Charkin place, I beg this man, him no gree”. You have made your business so, that is the principle we apply in Charkin Maritime, honestly speaking.
There is a typical adage, “ Monkey was carrying pikin at the back and as they were going, the baby monkey threw away somebody’s gallon of oil but the mother monkey didn’t know when these things was happening; You understand me. I can’t rule out that it is not possible, but to the best of my knowledge, it has not happened because, we have system that if you do such, the system will detect it, and to you, you might end up going to jail. Both operator and the person who requested for it. So these are things we try as much as possible to put in place. And this has actually helped our business, our training to grow. People come all the way from Ghana, from Angola, from Dakar. They come for training. There are some certain courses we offer that we are the only one in the whole of West and Central African sub-region that offer these courses. And so, these are key courses that people must go to sea, people must go to sea. That is why Charkin is a world structure. All the courses that are related to Maritime, Oil & gas are all offered here in Charkin Maritime Academy.
Just one last question, How do you de-stress running any business anywhere because it is a very stressful venture, and you have to take care of yourself?
Well, I have time, now is about half past three. Unless we have more pressing things, I can stay longer than that, otherwise at the close of business today, I’ll go to my house, stay with my family, play with the children, play with the grand children if they’re around. Early in the morning, I go for my morning walk out, and my medicals when its due. I take care of myself. I am a member of Port Harcourt Club 1928 and I belong to other social clubs, sports clubs, Air python, Golf Course at Bori Camp, etc. So, when you meet with your friends, you relax over some stress. So life goes on.
Thank you very much. We really appreciate the time spent. We know you’re very busy, but If we have further questions based on this discussion, we’re going to come back to you.
No problem. I appreciate.
