MAN Oron as metaphor for neglect of manpower development in maritime industry

During this year’s World Maritime Day on September 27, 2018, Commodore Duja Effedua (Rtd), the Rector of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, made a startling revelation that the academy will cut down the number of student intakes for this year’s admission.

In what appeared to be part of the reform programme to reposition the ailing foremost maritime institution, Comr. (Rtd) Effedua said the decision to cut the intakes from the 2000 students, which have been the average intakes over the years, to a little over 200 students was as a result of gross infrastructural gap.

Also, according to him, the dearth of qualified lecturers was another reason for the decision.

The student-lecturer ratio is about one lecturer to 90 students, at times one lecturer to 200 students.

The situation is as bad as that.

The Rector also reeled out the litany of infrastructural decadence that has made the Academy a shadow of itself.

In other words, the retired Commodore was on a rescue mission to wheel back the pioneer maritime institution from a precipice of disaster.

To the undiscerning minds, the Rector’s revelation may be red herring and one of the grandstanding postures of a government appointee who wants to blow his own trumpet.

But to us at nigeriamaritime360.com, it was a profound statement that reflects the criminal neglect of manpower development in the maritime industry.

The sordid state of infrastructural development as well as the sickening descent of the Academy into a state of anomie is a sad commentary on the manpower programme of government in the maritime industry.

The academy was founded in 1979 to train shipboard officers, ratings and shore-based management personnel that are meant to drive the industry and position the country as a force to be reckoned with in the international maritime community.

To us, the travails of the academy make mockery of the claims of government on capacity building in the maritime industry. It reflects its unserious attitude towards the growth of the industry.

Those who envisioned the academy wanted the country to play in the big league of the nations which are not only self-sufficient in seafarers but will be able to export them such as Philippines, India, Russia and other countries which make huge earnings from such venture.

However, over the years, the academy has become a graveyard for decadent infrastructure ,haven for half-baked cadets who are not employable and a theatre for political and ethnic rivalry through long criminal neglect of government.

We are even amazed that rather than concentrate on how to improve the fortunes of the academy to make it a world class institution which its creators envisioned, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), an agency which has the statutory responsibility to fund and support the academy, chose to embark on another effort which was repetitive of what the academy stands for.

We regard the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) for which the agency has spent billions of naira to train 2500 cadets in maritime institutions abroad as a replica of the aims and objectives of the academy.

We dare say that the dwindling fortunes of the academy started to nose-dive and turn for the worse the moment NIMASA conceived and began to execute the NSDP.

That time, the unfortunate neglect of the academy started.

No wonder the cadets of the academy sleep on the floor for lack of hostel accommodation, the cadets became half -baked with certificates that are not worth more than the papers they are printed as a result of lack of functional library, up to date reference materials, stimulation centre and other critical infrastructure germane to their educational pursuit.

We are saddened that as commendable as the NSDP of NIMASA was, it has become a huge white elephant project whose graduate cadets are as unemployable as their unfortunate counterparts at MAN, Oron mainly because they all lack the basic sea time experience necessary to make them have a global appeal.

Our worries are further aggravated by the fact that the country seems to be losing on both sides of the divide.

The cadets at the academy are not marketable as a result of their lack of sea time experience.

The NSDP graduate cadets who could have filled the vacuum are not better off.

So our desire to be self-sufficient in seafarers and even export them for foreign exchange is hanging in the balance.

Our present crops of seafarers are aged and depleted.

No wonder our coastal shipping business under the Cabotage regime is still being dominated by foreigners as a result of lack of qualified seafarers to crew the vessels on coastal waters.

Worse still, the foreign shipping lines look towards other African countries such as Ghana, Cameroun, Togo to crew their vessels.

More depressing is the fact that government is still paying lip service to address the critical challenge of these cadets which is seatime experience.

We note with trepidation that nowhere in the rescue statement of Commodore Duja Effedua at the World Maritime Day did he mention effort to give the hapless cadets of the academy sea time experience.

As inspiring as the reforms programme of the present leadership of the academy may be, it will pale into insignificance if the cadets lacks sea time experience.

We may be tempted to regard all the pronouncements and efforts of government on capacity building in the maritime industry as mere rhetoric and pretentious if the cadets who are supposed to take over from the aging seafarers are not given the necessary sea time training.

We commend NIMASA for its efforts in funding the academy so far, especially its promise to equip the proposed modern stimulation centre and the pledge to pay salaries of new lecturers the academy is scouting for.

We believe that all these efforts and assistance will be meaningful only if genuine steps are taken to get the cadets on board vessels for sea time training.

We advise that the permanent solution to the issue of sea time training is to get the academy a training vessel.

This vessel, to us, will serve dual purpose: as a training vessel and could also be put to commercial use.

The Nigerian Maritime Society in Diaspora (NIMSID) has even claimed that NIMASA has the capacity to procure at least 20 vessels for training of cadets from both public and private maritime academies.

The body based its projection on the alleged N30billion it claimed the agency proposed to spend on 5000 seafarers abroad.

In as much as we don’t want to be drawn into this controversy, it however gives an insight into the capability of NIMASA to procure training vessels for the academy.

After all, the agency recently procured and took delivery of a floating dock said to worth about N49billion.

A new cargo ship could sell for between $5million and $10 million which hovers around N750 and N1.5billion.

If this is done, we believe that the so called reforms being carried out by the new management of the academy would not only be meaningful but impactful.

With the efforts of NIMASA to place the NSDP graduate cadets on board foreign vessels for their sea-time training experience, Nigeria would be on the path of building a virile seafarer pool from where we could crew our cabotage vessels and also export them for foreign exchange.

Anything short of that, the reformation drive going on at MAN, Oron would be hollow while government efforts to build capacity in the industry will be like building a castle in the air.