The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN),Oron, Akwa Ibom State, has recently received foreign students for its Mandatory Short Courses.
Rector of the Academy, Commodore Duja Effedua (Rtd.), disclosed this during the World Maritime Day Celebration held on 26 September 2024, in Lagos.
According to Effedua, the development was happening for the first time in 47 years of the Academy’s history.
“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,” Effedua said.
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 for lecturing jobs. These lecturers are actually directed by the IMO that people claim did 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.”
The Rector used the opportunity to express his gratitude the Nigerian Maritime Administration and safety Agency (NIMASA), the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy as well as to the National Assembly for their support to the Academy.
He thanked the industry for its constructive criticism, which he said have helped the Academy evolve, and called for more engagements to enable the industry to understand what the Academy is really doing.
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.”
Speaking on the WMD 2024 theme of ‘Navigating the Future: Safety First,’ Effedua blamed human error for the 26 March 2024 accident in the United States, when a vessel rammed into the Baltimore Bridge, saying it was avoidable.
His words: “In the Academy, it is always Safety First. But we are calibrating. On that accident in the US when a cargo vessel rammed into the Baltimore Bridge, many things went wrong and it was clearly a case of human error, though they tried to blame it on machinery failure.
“But the human beings would know, and there are actions that would have been taken to prevent it. How could such vessel leave the port without tugboats escorting it? The tugboats should have been there to escort it. So, this is the talk about Safety First.”
The Rector concluded his message by highlighting the importance of simulations while the cadets are being trained.
He said: “That is why we concentrate a lot on simulation training. On the simulator they collide and nothing happens. But if you do that in real life, there would be loss of life, damage of equipment and insurance issues. However, on the simulator you can make mistakes over and again and be able to correct yourself and everything would be fine.”
