The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom State, has urged indigenous ship-owners to follow in the footsteps of Greg Ogbeifun by taking more cadets onboard ships in Nigerian waters.
Speaking during an interview with select maritime journalists, the Rector of the Academy, Commodore Duja Effedua, explained that it is not the responsibility of the Academy to get cadets onboard vessels for sea time training.
According to Commodore Effedua, “For the sake of clarity, it is not the duty of the Academy to provide sea time for cadets. Our job is pre-sea time training. Provision of sea time is the duty of the maritime administration and the stakeholders who will employ the cadets. You can see Greg Ogbeifun, he has already given automatic employment to two of our best graduating cadets during the 2021 Passing Out Parade ceremony. This means that those two will get the needed sea time. The ones that graduated last year (2020) that he gave automatic employment to, he described them as fantastic.
“Ogbeifun is not somebody anybody can easily please. For him to describe the ones he employed in 2020 as fantastic, and also employed two cadets in 2021, it means they must have been exceptional onboard his ships. So, if we have 20 ‘Greg Ogbeifuns’ in Nigeria’s maritime industry, that means 2o cadets would have secured automatic employment onboard ships. We pray other maritime stakeholders turn up and provide capacity building for these cadets.”
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On partnerships between the Academy and the Nigerian Navy, the Rector revealed that efforts are in place to repair the school’s boatyard.
“We are into talks with the Nigerian Navy right now. They came here recently for some discussion. Part of our agreement with the Navy is that we will provide Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) courses which will make them certified internationally for civilian duties in addition to their military duties. In return, the Navy will help us with our boatyard and also help us in our Engineering Faculty which seems to be our weakest link for now, and we hope to tackle it headlong in 2022. For the Nigerian Navy to be able to build not one, two or three ships, it means they have evolved; and we as a training institution can benefit from their wealth of experience,” Commodore Effedua added.
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