Pius Ujubonu (SSA to ANLCA President)
Institutions of learning can never be enough, especially when you are looking at technical areas like the maritime industry, where your question should come is if the two schools are going to run the same curriculum, a situation where one would have a curriculum and the second one would be an extension of that curriculum is not good, nothing stops the two schools from being run under one management. Oron would be a campus and Okerenkoko would also be a campus. MAN Oron has always been there as a monotechnic, but if government upgrades it to a polytechnic, it becomes a different thing all together, but Okerenkoko is a university, I think the best is to go for a merger of both schools. Nothing stops the university from being taken to any part of the country as satellite a campus.
Mazi Okafor Emanuel (POTEMAN)
For Nigeria's population of 180million people, MAN Oron and the proposed maritime university in Okerenkoko is not enough for the manpower that we need to develop for now and the future, the Philippines have over thirty maritime institutions in their country, you can see that on most vessels that sail across the world, you must see a Phillipino on-board doing thing or the other, they all came out from their maritime institutions. So for us in Nigeria, two institutions are not enough, anyone that is interested should go to the school not minding the geographical part of the country it is located.
Eugene Nweke (Former President, NAGAFF)
We need such a technical outfit as a nation, the maritime university is ideal, it will complement what we have already, after all we call ourselves a big maritime nation in Africa, but yet Ghana is having a regional maritime university, but we can allow Ghana to be regional and let us have more maritime universities, over time, the efficiency will be achieved and we will find out that other African nations, instead of going to Ghana will come to Nigeria. So, we would not look at the errors of Akpobolokemi, those that he did with good intentions should be sustained, I don't belong to the school of thought that says if an administrator makes a mistake, his good plans should be thrown away, a huge money has been invested in that maritime university and the country cannot just scrap it and throw it away, what they need to do is to review it, consolidate on it and get it working.
Aloma Idris (Seafarer)
I believe strongly that MAN Oron should be integrated as a faculty of the Okerenkoko university, I am of the opinion that the two institutions should be merged because we don’t need to duplicate efforts to set up another University in Oron. MAN Oron could now become a campus of its own under the maritime university where they can now train nautical engineers because that is the core mandate that they have and other engineering, management courses can go to other areas. In fact, we can even have a multi-campus university which is what it was supposed to be.
Tunji Obagbo(POTEMAN)
There is need to develop our seafarers to optimal capacity and that is why we will continue to clamour for more universities in the country. Creating two maritime universities is not too much and it’s a welcome development despite the situation of the country. I think two maritime universities are not even enough considering our population, because training of seafarers in Nigeria is on the increase therefore two schools are not enough.
Stanley Ezenga (PRO NAGAFF)
Nigeria has a population of over 180 million and two of such schools are not too much for us considering the fact that Nigeria wants to be reckoned with globally as regards seafaring and other maritime activities ,expertise requirement is of essence in order to compete with other maritime nations of the world. My major concern is that the two schools are located in one region and there is the need to spread the establishment of such schools to other regions of the country.
Chris Sadoh (HOD SMA)
It is not out of place to say that Nigeria with her population does not need just only two universities of the nature because it goes beyond floating maritime schools in Nigeria, considering the fact that the existing ones are not well taken care of by government and we don't have what it takes to maintain such schools irrespective of government participation. Smaller countries in Asia have more maritime schools that are well equipped but in our own case emphasis are given to government schools when some privately owned schools are doing great. However, my submission is that we need more of such schools now because two of such schools will not meet the yearnings of seafarers in Nigeria and the world.
Peter Onovo (Seafarer)
Creation of maritime schools or universities in addition to MAN, Oron is a welcome development, but my headache is that the new schools when eventually functional would swallow MAN Oron because the school will be funded by government directly while Oron will be struggling for fund from NIMASA. I think the issue on ground should focus on how government can provide equipment for the existing schools like Oron and college of fisheries because sea time experience is very important for our cadets. I am appealing to government to provide facilities to enhance Nigerian seafarers before thinking of establishing more maritime university.
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