47 years after, international students flood Maritime Academy for MSC

The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom State, has started receiving foreign students for its Mandatory Short Courses (MSC).

Rector of the Academy, Commodore Duja Effedua (retd), disclosed this during the recent World Maritime Day Celebration held in Lagos.

According to Effedua: “For the first time in 47 years, we are beginning to see foreign students come for Mandatory Short Courses, and these are the main requirements for seafarers’ careers at sea.”

He also told the gathering of industry stakeholders at the occasion that the Academy had experienced visits by foreign lectures seeking teaching jobs, on the recommendations of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

His words: “We have evolved and foreign lecturers now come to the Academy in their numbers to seek lecturing jobs.  These lecturers are actually directed by the IMO which certain people claim does not recognise our Academy.

“We are on the IMO’s Whitelist of Maritime Training Institutions and they are recommending lecturers to come to our Academy to teach. If they don’t believe in us, nobody will come here to donate books too.”

Making a reference to talks about comparison with the Ghana Maritime Academy, Effedua said: “Talking about Ghana, we have no reasons to compete with their Maritime Academy. Their Academy is producing capacity for Ghanaians and West Africa, and we are doing same here in Nigeria. It is to the glory of the two nations. But talking about the training equipment, no institution compares to ours.”

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