Days of free promotion for Maritime Academy workers over ― Rector

The Rector of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom State has said that improvement in efficiency and attitudinal change is a major factor behind efforts by the Academy to put its workforce through capacity development workshops. This is even as he revealed that promotion for workers at the Academy is no longer a free-for-all thing, but has to be earned.

Speaking over the weekend after the completion of a Four-Day Capacity Workshop on Cascading Performance Management, the Rector explained that before his arrival, the Academy was more like a marketplace.

According to Duja Effedua, “The training, like I said earlier, is for all, but it’s a school, which means we cannot shut down. We also have about 500 cadets here, and the reason you don’t see them loitering is because of the disciplined environment.

“The junior ones will have their turn next quarter, by God’s grace, and I want to make it happen so that by the last week of July or the first week of August, another hundred will be launched into it.

“For those who have already learned something, mentorship is the order of the day. We let them know what their responsibilities are, and every department has a Standard Operating Process (SOP). if you don’t know what to do, the SOP will tell you. Just be honest with yourself that you left your home to come to work, and at the end of the day, you will have done one or two things.

“The Academy has changed, totally. When I first arrived, it was like a marketplace, with people loitering everywhere, including hawkers. But now, for you to come in, you must have an invite and a reason, and people now know their responsibilities.

“I lead by example also. We have this evaluation report on everybody, so promotion is no longer a free-for-all like before. You must earn it now. In fact, during the recent promotion exercise, I distanced myself from it and insisted that it be presented publicly.

“At the end, most of my close persons didn’t get it. I wouldn’t want to call them friends, but my people, they failed. That was when people started believing that I was really neutral. You must project your best feet forward if you want things to move forward.”

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On why the Academy is having capacity development workshops for workers, Effedua explained that improvement in attitudinal change and efficiency is a driving force.

“It’s quite simple. I am coming from a different background, and in the military, these are mandatory programs that you must go through at every level continuously, and the ultimate goal is attitudinal change. We have seen that it has improved efficiency.

“In my younger days, I used to know that the civil service was a highly organized sector with plenty of discipline. Being a civil servants garnered a lot of respect, which they earned because of their conduct and meticulousness.

“However, that efficiency has eroded over the years because other considerations were put into the workforce. People had to be eminently qualified for their positions, which meant that when a Head of Department, Director or Permanent Secretary spoke, you will know. But nowadays, this generation lacks the quality of training, and this has led to operational gaps.

“I wouldn’t want to insult anyone by saying that there are a lot of incompetent people around, but it appears so. They are not as efficient as they should be, and you expect people to be able to use their initiative, but most of them wouldn’t know what to do.

“You give a man a task and end up coming back to do it yourself. They don’t seem to understand their responsibilities, so who is the boss? If I give you a task and end up doing it for you, then it means you are the boss, not me.

“So I figured that there ought to be a way out, and I spoke to the Permanent Secretary who is a very articulate and organized person, and she said that she had something under her sleeve which was coming up soon, that it was this same company that came to run this kind of program for all the people under the Ministry.

“It was fantastic and I told them that this was what I had been searching for. So I told the company to come to the Academy and let us see how we can launch at least 80 per cent of our staff, including those in the Lagos and Abuja liaison offices.

“If they go through this program, they will become intellectually adjusted and the multiplier effect will translate into what we will be seeing at the end of the day. We also suggested to the Ministry to send some of their staff, and luckily, new Directors just came in. So the Perm. Sec. decided to send them here to join us.

“This is Phase 1 because I have had so many of my staff requesting to be part of it, but I told them that not everyone can go in at the same time due to the financial implications.

“All those that were left out now will be brought in, and journalists who couldn’t be absorbed with this first wave will get the opportunity to join the second wave. There is also going to be another one on the law of the sea, outside this cascading manpower capacity development and we will invite journalists to join because you cannot be writing without the knowledge of what you’re writing about.

“You work too hard to be able to catch up. If you have the knowledge that professionals have you will report more effectively. Take, for example, CNN; their defence correspondents are generals and colonels, and medical correspondents are doctors, which makes them qualified to talk about their fields. This is what we’re aiming for.”

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