Five years after no Nigerian diver had emerged an Air Diving Supervisor; two divers working on Nigerian waters have completed the mandatory 200-panel hour required by the International Maritime Contractors Association (IMCA) under the supervision of the Chief Inspector of Diving (CID), Mr Julius Ugwala.
The divers- Mr Dacosta Moriafen, a Nigerian and Mr Louis Stefanus De Jager, a South African- working on board a Floating Storage and Offloading vessel at the EBOK Field attained the 200-panel hours last week, years after they became divers.
The 200- panel hour is the practical component required of Trainee Air Diving Supervisors (TADS) by IMCA before their final certification as supervisors.
Up until the time of filing this report, Nigeria had just nine diving supervisors; a situation, which the CID said, limits Nigerian divers from taking up available jobs.
His words;
“Dacosta waited for this opportunity since 2014, it is exciting to be a part of his success story.
“The panel hour is compulsory. You need to go offshore to get 200 hours on the panel. Until you get your hours, you cannot go for your final exams or get your certificate.
“It is difficult in Nigeria because the expats are afraid that if Nigerians start developing, one day, they will not have jobs here again so, they use systematic racism to deny them the hours because IMCA said that it is only in the discretion of the supervisor to do that.
“The company can ask the supervisor but it is only on the discretion of the supervisor if he wants to that. If not, he can just bring up excuses.
