The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom state is a cat with many lives; so to say, having survived several attempts to establish ‘rival or sister’ academies.
The hint was first dropped in 2007 by the then-minister of state for transport, Alhaji Mohammed Habib Aliyu at a function in Lagos mid-2007 when he told a gathering of maritime sector stakeholders in Lagos that the nation can do with another maritime academy.
By the end of third quarter of 2007, the now-abandoned academy in Badagry had come up as the second maritime academy; it had been given a small portion within the staff school of the Topo, Badagry-based Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON). The project has however been abandoned.
For about 30 years, MAN, Oron as it is fondly called has been struggling to train would-be marine engineers and master mariners, apart from thousands of other professionals for the maritime sector.
Apart from the Oron Academy, there are pockets of related institutions that are rendering almost the same service, but only MAN, Oron is recognized by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). There is also the College of Fisheries and Marine Technology in Lagos. There are some private maritime training institutions as well.
Our concern has never been about how many maritime training institutions there are in Nigeria. We have always been worried about the impact which the move could have on the attention and cash-strapped Maritime Academy in Oron.
The rector of the institution, Mr. Nseyen Ebong has always seized every available opportunity to appeal for more funding, especially to complete several on-going projects in the academy. His worries had always been the large number of abandoned projects dotting the institutions landscape.
The school needed more facilities to admit more students. He became more worried when its main benefactor, that is, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) abandoned it.
All that have changed as the expansive premises of the academy is like one big project site. A recent visit by this paper revealed that the institution is enjoying improved funding and an unprecedented patronage.
Perhaps all these are geared towards realising the ambition of being upgraded to a university, a fact that was alluded to by the immediate past permanent secretary of the federal ministry of transport, Mr Femi Olayisade when he visited the academy recently to commission some equipment.
Perhaps, what MAN Oron had required is just beginning to materialise. Has it ever occurred to government that the Nigerian academy cannot match its counterparts elsewhere in Africa, such as the one in South Africa, Egypt and the regional academy in Ghana, because it has been largely under- funded.
Nigerian cadets prefer going to the Regional Maritime Academy in Ghana for their mandatory post or pre- sea going training. The reason is that the Oron academy is not fully equipped to offer such training opportunities.
Sadly too, Nigerian youths who have had some level of raining in shipping are being lured by some unscrupulous Nigerian to countries like Ukraine for non-available sea time.
The neglect that the academy has suffered is partly responsible for the high rate of unemployment within the maritime sector. We are sure that if MAN, Oron had been equipped adequately to offer mandatory training leading to certification to the academy’s cadets, perhaps many of them whose only certificate is the Higher National Diploma in Nautical Sciences or in Marine Engineering will not be roaming the streets instead of being on board.
As much as we are not opposed to having more than one maritime academy in Nigeria, we agree with and want to congratulate the immediate past permanent secretary for saying it as it is: that MAN, Oron is the only maritime academy and that others can only be campuses after it had been fully upgraded into a degree awarding institution.
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