Babatunde Samuel (Register POTEMAN)
Babatunde Samuel (Register POTEMAN)
MAN Oron has been established by the federal government to cater for manpower development in the maritime sector. A good review of that particular organisation is based on some factors .One of which is that we will look at how prepared is the school wanting to upgrade into a university viz a viz human resources. Secondly we will look at the facilities available and to the best of my knowledge; the institute has a lot of challenges in that regard. There should be a synergy between MAN, Oron and all these agencies of government .I believe that the school can be upgraded if there is a well structured plan in place.
Joseph Anabaroanye (Registrar FFAN)
The indigenes of MAN Oron are doing their best but the truth is that the problems of the academy is beyond the indigenes because the problems have to do with the political will of the federal government. Even though Nigerians are patronizing Regional Maritime University in Ghana, the school is not better than our own MAN, Oron, thus they don't have better structures on ground and by all standards but the Ghana institute is more recognized than ours, so you find out that it has to do with international politics and issue of standards .But one of the major weaknesses of MAN is the ability to expose its cadets to sea experience and like I said it’s not within their own power because they are not the ones to operate the vessel. Thus political will is a major factor that made the institute to remain where it is today.
Engineer Isaac Isumanu (President AMERO)
Government has been developing universities in the country, but the needed technical education like in the marine sector is totally neglected. A country with over 160 million people only have one maritime school, thus MAN, Oron is not enough for the country .There are over two universities in each state of the country and I must say that there is no marine institutions in the country because MAN is not properly funded and it lacks facilities. MAN, Oron is not big enough for Nigerians, so government should look towards that direction of establishing more marine schools in the country and not only that they should also upgrade MAN, Oron with the right equipment as the first marine school in the country. By now Nigeria should have more than three maritime schools to train Nigerians.
Kehinde Fie (Seafarer)
MAN, Oron needs government intervention because so many things are lacking in the school. Government needs to provide vessels for sea time experience for cadets, even the courses should be upgraded because as it is, all the courses offered in the academy is about mandatory, that is the STCW, I believe more should been done to ensure that courses are upgraded.
Owolabi Omotayo (Water Transporter, MWUN)
The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron has been there for a long time but it is a painful thing that we find our sailors and seafarers going to Ghana to get their mandatory courses, and a maritime academy is here in Nigeria owned by the federal government, my assessment is that they have not been trying enough, but with the proposed setting up of training centers in Port Harcourt and Lagos state, I think this will go a long way to ensure that the mandatory courses are conducted in Nigeria. Again, vessels have to be acquired by the MAN Oron for the students to go for practical training on the sea, it’s unfortunate, the other time I saw some students of MAN Oron coming to boat people to ask questions that they want to know how the boats and ships are being run, it is unfortunate because they are graduates of Maritime Academy, Oron, I think the government has to fund the academy to ensure that they meet up with international standard , especially the mandatory courses which people go to Ghana for, it should be done in Nigeria here.
Sampson Chima (Registrar, NIS)
The Maritime Academy of Nigeria has graduated a lot of students who have held a lot of positions in the maritime industry, captains and marine engineers, but there has been this call that there should be an upgrading of the academy, this has made many of our seafarers to go to Ghana for their STCW, but I remember vividly the academy bought some equipment sometimes ago to enhance the training, and I was opportuned to be part of the Federal Government team that went for the accreditation under the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE.) I went there and saw it myself, we accessed a lot of things and we gave our report. If these equipment are put into use then the academy is coming up, but I still want it to compete with the ones in Egypt and Ghana, we have the equipment, the manpower is rated among the best in the world, from my assessment, I think there has been an improvement.
Demola Irinyemi (Maritime lecturer)
Let me begin by saying that I am not impressed by the level of activities at the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron because of my on-the-sport assessment carried out two years ago at the Academy. I am not satisfied because government has not allowed it to transform into a Nigerian University, the Federal Government needs to be committed to the academy because it is national project, they should upgrade it into a degree awarding institution and ensure that it is recognized by the IMO for the certification of seafarers. Most of the courses that our cadets are travelling to Ghana for can actually be run in Nigeria; we need to engage men and women that are qualified in other to assist in this project.
Quadri Gbolahan (Hodlams Cargo Logistics)
I am not satisfied because there is a lot of politics in the appointment and make-up of the academy, it is like putting a square peg in a round hole and this has been the problem, unfortunately, this is the institution that should represent Nigeria worldwide, and it’s just so sad that government is not ready to revamp it and make it a hub of maritime knowledge in Nigeria. A lot of the cadets coming out of the academy are more or less starting all over again because they are not well equipped, though some of them had opportunity of being employed through NIMASA and so on. I am not surprised because, a situation whereby experts are not conducted you will get wrong results, if you look at the MAN Oron lecturers, how many of them have international exposures? The world is fast moving and if Nigeria is not very careful we will not be able to meet up, it is too bad that a country known as the giant of Africa is not yet recognized in area of maritime, government should go back to its drawing board and empower the institution by putting the right people in right positions, if possible bring in expatriates to set a template.
Mr. John Egesi (NIS President)
I know that MAN Oron was established to bring out the best in our sailors, but whatever happened to MAN Oron is not totally the fault of that school, Nigeria has not recovered from the disbandment of NNSL, but it’s like we don’t seem to want to recall our failures, we don’t want to re-examine things we have done in the past, we just like to keep going until we enter a pit.
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