His father was a soldier while mother was a teacher; native of Abi in Sapele, Delta State; schooled at Abi up to secondary school; employed after school as an air traffic control assistant, etc; studied at Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron; sea time aboard NNSL ships; inspiration for life at sea gained by seeing seamen at Sapele in the 1970s; did not want to live the casual sex life of sailors, so married early; Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) later sponsored him and some others during studies at Oron; sent to Egypt for certificate of competency (COC) exams; never worked for NNSL as a staff, only trained aboard NNSL ships; sailed to Liverpool in 1980; promoted all the time through the series of studies and sea time voyages; got employed at Africa Ocean Line (AOL) for one year; joined Brawal Shipping Line’s Mv. Ndoni River after AOL employment; rejoined NPA in 1991 and was sent to the Netherlands to oversee the construction and delivery of patrol boats; later transferred to Burutu Port upon return to Nigeria but left NPA because did not like the posting; joined Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line from 1996 to 2001 as a chief engineer; working condition with the Iranians; signed off regularly every nine months; base ports either Port Bandar Abbas or Port Khomeini; tense working relationship which Nigerian sailors faced with Ghanaian co-workers in the company; incident of false allegation by Iranian Port State Control about the pumping of bilge water into the sea and appearance before a magistrate as a result; type of ships sailed and cargoes carried in Iranian ships; Iranian attitude to African seafarers and how he handled it; food on board Iranian ships and how Nigerians fared; other activities and occupations engaged in aside from shipping practice, telecoms; engagement by a Nigerian tankership carrier doing coastwise trading; joined Phoenix Register of Shipping as a shipping surveyor in 2013; effect of sea life on his family and marriage; his philosophy of life gained as a seaman.
Elder Dempster Line Archive
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