Stakeholders in Nigeria’s maritime sector have raised fresh and emphatic objections to renewed moves to convert the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, into a full-fledged university, warning that the plan poses grave dangers to the country’s seafarer training system and could ultimately cost Nigeria its international recognition.
Leading voices across the sector, including Alumni of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron (AMANO) Master Mariners, lecturers at the institution and professional bodies, told Shipping Position Daily that the university proposal is not only ill-advised, but also capable of crippling Nigeria’s only internationally-recognised maritime training academy.
They warned that turning MAN Oron into a conventional university under the National Universities Commission (NUC) would push it into bureaucratic and academic structures that are incompatible with IMO’s Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW), the global benchmark for seafarer certification.
Chief Jonathan Peter Agassi of AMANO, described the proposal as dangerous and politically- motivated, insisting that the school must remain a specialised maritime institution. Agassi said he spent years as a cadet in Oron and never witnessed a single academic shutdown or strike, a stability he argued would evaporate once the academy is absorbed into the Nigerian university system.
According to him, maritime training is highly specialised and cannot be compared to conventional academic programmes, noting that even the lecturers at MAN Oron undergo professional maritime training, not classroom-based pedagogical courses. He warned that once the Academy becomes a university, it would be subject to strikes, politicised appointments and NUC regulations that are incapable of sustaining maritime facilities, simulators and equipment needed for IMO compliance.
Agassi disclosed that the Governing Council of the Academy, in its last known position, also rejected the plan, insisting that the institution can be upgraded to award degrees without becoming a university. He warned that political actors pushing the idea risk plunging the country into international embarrassment, as the global maritime community cares only about compliance with international conventions, not local politics. “The international community does not care about our politics. What they will do is downgrade the institution, and it is the country that will suffer,” he said.
Supporting this view, the President of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners (NAMM) and board member of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Capt. Tajudeen Alao, said the university idea contradicts how maritime training institutions operate globally.
He noted that he has visited similar academies around the world, and none of them functions as a typical university because maritime training requires strict alignment with IMO standards.
According to him, MAN Oron cannot be placed under the NUC, because the Commission does not regulate maritime training, and its funding framework is too weak to sustain the high-cost technical infrastructure required in a maritime academy.
Alao stated that the global trend is for maritime academies to award degrees, while retaining their specialised status, citing the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) as a comparable model.
He warned that if Nigeria tampers with the structure of MAN Oron, its graduates could be rejected by international shipping companies, rendering the certificates worthless beyond Nigerian waters. “If you do anything contrary to the international convention, you will have nowhere to market your products,” he added.
A lecturer at MAN Oron and member of the Nigerian Association of Merchant Marine (NAMM), Capt. Adewale Ishola, also expressed strong opposition to the proposal. He said the Academy risks losing its identity and sense of purpose if turned into a university, stressing that the plan would derail its founding mandate as a professional seafarer training institution. Ishola said the lecturers and professionals at the Academy are aligned with the view that it may award degrees, but must never abandon its specialised maritime structure.
Across the maritime industry, the fear is that converting MAN Oron to a university will subject it to academic strikes, weaken its funding, complicate its regulatory oversight and disconnect it from IMO standards.
Stakeholders warn that such a move may lead to a downgrade of Nigeria’s maritime training status, forcing Nigerian cadets to seek professional training in other countries.
Many experts describe the conversion agenda as politically driven and uninformed, cautioning that any attempt to satisfy local community demands at the expense of international regulatory compatibility, will plunge Nigeria into a major maritime training crisis. They argue that the Academy’s current infrastructure, regarded as superior to most universities in the region, will become difficult to maintain under NUC’s bureaucratic funding model, leading to decay and loss of accreditation.
