The Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association has alleged that Nigeria’s foremost maritime academy; the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom State is not performing up to the standard specified by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
It described the institution as a colossal waste of government resources, owing to various reasons including the fact that the school cannot conduct a class one, training and certification.
Recall that, a recent chat with the Lagos Coordinator of the Nigeria Indigenous Shipowners Association (NISA) Captain Taiwo Akinpelumi, he had said it is shameful that despite the huge resources going to the school, the school cannot issue a class one certification, because the standard of the school is below the issuance of class one .
According to him “The existing maritime institutions we have in this country have not been put into full utilization. Let's take the instance of Maritime Academy Oron, you will see that Nigeria is among the countries IMO is trying to remove on the white list, simply because the training of seafarers as undertaken by Maritime Academy Oron, is below standard.
“It is very unfortunate and very shameful that in this country, we cannot run class one, training and certification, the institution cannot issue class one ticket up till now because the standard is still below the issuance of class one.
“So if we have maritime institution in place and we are underutilizing them, then there is no need to have another maritime institution.
“How many maritime academies do they have in Ghana, except the regional maritime academy, and the regional maritime academy is even earning foreign exchange for the country.
“Many of our seafarers do go to regional maritime academy for their training, so is it a shame that with our humongous maritime resources with our importance as a maritime nation we don’t have an institution that is of world class it is a shame.
“Maritime Academy Oron is an institution created by statute and they derive their funding from NIMASA, and the agency gives the institution five percent of its total revenue, so tell me what they have been doing with those five percent all this years
“Go to that institution and access the level of infrastructures, and compare to see if it depicts the humongous money they have been collecting.
“So the story of Maritime Academy Oron is an unfortunate example, the school has not been put into optimum utilization”. He said.
Speaking also on the academy, the National President of the Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association (NMNOWTSSA), Engineer Matthew Alalade said the school is being run locally, and this has greatly affected the international acceptance of the school.
“Also look at MAN Oron for instance; they are running the school in a local standard, because unlike other countries, the lecturer will interchange then go from place to place. So you don't take Nigerian lecturer alone, you must look at other countries too by signing MOU with them. So this is one of the problems they are facing at Oron.
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