Maritime Academy Oron, Seeks Synergy with Nigerian Navy for Training of Cadets

By Tayo Oladipupo I

The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron has appealed to the Nigeria Navy to help provide sea time training for the cadets of the Academy as a means of filling the gap created by dearth of training vessels for its cadets.

The Rector of the Academy said this at a function in Lagos, recently.

He said there should be a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organisations to facilitate training saying the only shortcoming in the training of cadets in Nigeria is lack of ships for training of cadets.

The Rector who was represented by Retired Commodore Joe Orji, maintained that other ship owners could offer assistance in the area as a way of their Corporate Social Responsibilities to the nation.

While commending Engr Greg Ogbeifun for being the only Nigerian providing the service to the cadets, he enjoined other ship owners to emulate the gesture saying only Ogbeifun cannot take all the cadets.

Recall that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has been at the forefront of training Nigerian seafarers under the Nigerian Seafarers’ Development Programme where over two thousand cadets have been trained outside the county.

However, none of the cadets who have passed through the programme has had sea time training experience which is expedient for the acquisition of certificate of competence.

Stakeholders have said at different fora, that the present set of seafarers and engineers in the shipping sector are ageing and there are no young ones to take over from them because they lack requisite trainings.

According to the stakeholders, the furture of shipping in Nigeria is bleak as there is no succession plan in place to replace the ageing seafarers and engineers.