Mr. Cyril G.A Okoro (Director of Research, POTMAN)
Mr. Cyril G.A Okoro (Director of Research, POTMAN)
The only way is to divest the federal government hold on the school; you can share the holding among the ship owners, Shipping Associations in Nigeria and the Indigenous ship owners Association (ISAN). These are the end users of the products that come out of the academy, so they should be on the board of the academy in order to monitor the funding from the government and they can even also provide the funds to sustain the academy. When all this is put in place then they will be able to monitor the people passing out of the academy and give them employment instead of employing Philippines which leads to capital flight for us as a country. The terminal operators should also be on the board of the academy because they also employ some of the boys from the institution apart from the regular seafarers, master mariners should also be co-opted into the academy in order to ensure that the institution does not fall below international standard. Majority of the mariners are foreign going and they have gathered the experience over the years.
Mr. Odili Emmanuel (Cordinator, Marketing Dpt. CIS)
I know that if you employ the right persons into the right positions, the output will definitely be reasonable, if the academy should employ qualified specialists and experienced hands from the industry, then it will thrive. MAN, Oron has been established for a long time now and I understand they are trying to turn it into a university, if they do and also employ qualified personnel, the academy will come back alive and our cadets will not have to go to Ghana because over there they have qualified lecturers. Another key issue is the condition of service of the lecturers working in this academy; our government doesn’t usually pay attention to workers’ welfare and if there is no job satisfaction, employees will not deliver their best and will constantly be on the look out for another better job, so the condition of service should be one that will make the lecturers proud.
Captain Adewale Ishola (Former President, Association of Master Mariners)
First of all Oron is not being run like a federal institution, it is more like an Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers State- centered institution. I am happy because the ministry of transport has taken cognizance of this and they have been handling the admission process for the past three years in order to bring it up to federal standard, the federal character policy should also be injected into the staffing of the academy, because presently most of the staff are dominantly from Akwa Ibom or Cross Rivers. Academically, we need more specialized lecturers, more experienced master mariners in order to help beef- up the teaching staff of the academy. In terms of infrastructure development, there are lots of pending projects that have been hanging for too long, if you go there, the project equipment and facilities are now looking obsolete because it has been in the offing for too long, they need total revamping after which modern equipment should be installed in order to help the curriculum. Also in the curriculum of the school, emphasis should be laid on the practicals since it has to do with the maritime industry; there is the need to acquire training ships and stimulators. There should also be exchange of lecturer programmes of affiliate institutions, there should be exchange of lecturers from all these already established maritime institutions so that we can tap from their experiences. Finally more quarters and hostels should be built for the students as well as the lecturers.
Kelvin Imotonhan (Maritime worker)
World -class seafarers capable of generating growth and development in the maritime sector can only be produced for the country when dedicated effort is made by relevant stakeholders towards the Maritime Academy of Nigeria at Oron. The Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) needs to also live up to its statutory responsibility of producing qualified and professional seafarers for the country by providing adequate funding for that school. In recent times, stakeholders have been unrelenting in their call for the government to urgently do something about the situation. If shipping and international maritime business in Nigeria is not to be completely taken over by foreigners and our young men going to foreign academies, then all hands must be on deck including the private sector, let them find a way to inject funds into the academy because it is our pride.
Sadoh Chris [Starz Maritime Academy]
MAN, Oron as I know, is a government established institute, to run maritime courses in Nigeria. The problem is that the same government that established this institute does not actually give it the necessary facilities to function and as a result of this, MAN, Oron cannot actually organise some professional exams especially like the mandatory. People in Nigeria do not see MAN, Oron as an institute that can run such mandatory courses and issue certificates accordingly, that is why a number of graduates who finished from there prefer to Ghana or Egypt because Ghana is recognized and Nigeria is not recognized in Africa not to talk about the world.
Mr. Ademola Irinyemi [Registrar IFFN]
Our students when they finish from MAN go to Ghana or Egypt, are we saying that the Ghanaian academy is better than MAN, Oron, or are we saying that the Egyptian academy is better than MAN, Oron? The government and the management should come together and proffer solutions. For instance, a person like Captain Omoteso is a voice; not only in Nigeria, but he is a voice internationally. Why can’t people like him come up as a committee and put up a position paper and tell the government that this is what should be done .On the aspect of infrastructure, the government can do that because we have the resources and the human capacity that can get institutions to do this. We are coming to a point where we must believe in our own competence .Government should set a committee to move MAN, Oron forward and expose their lecturers to international training so that the student can defend themselves practically and there should be a robust curriculum. The internal system of the institute should be restructured.
Comrade Johnson Adidi [seafarer]
The only way by which MAN, Oron can be revived is through government participation. What I mean by government involvement is the fact that institute is well known in Nigeria by those in the maritime sector and the government should therefore put things right for the students in the school. Take a look at the school of Oceanography; that school is doing well because of the practical knowledge that the students are exposed to. The students are competent and they carry out practical any where in the world and it is the effort of the people in charge that is responsible for this. So for MAN, Oron, I think it is high time they had one voice and with one voice, the government can understand their language and they should table all what they lack to the government then from there something can come out.
Clement Ogu [Cadet]
The institute can be revived if only the government can consider the fact that what MAN, Oron lacks a lot in terms of facilities. The institute is not practically inclined and it is affecting the student greatly. The management of the institution and the master mariners (whom I will say, have seen it all) can come together and put ideas together and write a proposal to the government on how to move the school forward. I think when this is done, there will be a change. With that the idea of going to Ghana will not come up again.
Discussion about this post