By: Precious Oluwole

The Minister of State for Transportation, Prince Ademola Adegoroye, has thrown his weight behind the calls for the upgrade of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom State, to a degree-awarding university.

The Minister, while speaking at the 2022 Cadets Graduation Ceremony of the school on Thursday, said that Nigeria is seeking technical cooperation with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the upgrade the institution, which he described as a pride of the country.

Adegoroye explained that the Federal Government is also seeking support from the IMO to the Academy in securing the STCW Convention-requiring sea time onboard foreign-going ships for her teaming cadets.

He said: “It is heart-warming to note that Nigeria has enjoyed IMO Technical Assistance in the area of capacity training. It is equally worthy of note, that there is the need to seek greater technical cooperation between the IMO and Nigeria to enhance our capacity to meet the significantly increasing demands for maritime education and training in Nigeria.

“These needs include but not limited to the following: Support from the IMO in further training of the Academys instructors/lecturers and other personnel; Technical Assistance from the IMO in converting the Academy from Diploma to Degree-awarding institution; Using the Academy as a sales-point for IMO books and publications in high demand by trainees; and Greater involvement of the Academy with the IMOs seminars/conferences/workshops and other activities.”

The Minister, who joined other stakeholders at the event to commend the Rector of the academy for turning around the fortunes of the institution in the last few years, urged the graduands to be good ambassadors of the school wherever they find themselves.

In his presentation, the Rector of the Academy, Commodore Duja Effedua (rtd), promised not to rest on his oars in ensuring that the Academy ranks among leading institutions in the world.

The Rector, who took time to take guests on a memory lane of where the Academy was when he was appointed and where it is today, thanked the Federal Ministry of Transportation for its support for the institution.

He said: “When I came in, we battled with failing standard of training, over bloated cadets’ environment, demoralized manpower, infrastructure decay, poor maintenance of facilities, dearth of teaching aids, makeshift library facility without relevant books of reference, among others. However, we have been able to turn that around in the last five years.”

In all, 233 Cadets graduated from the Academy with National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND), with Mesaiyete Taofiq Omotayo emerging as the Best All Round Graduating Cadet.

Three of the best graduating Cadets got immediate employment/scholarships with Starzs Investments Company while Bricks Nigeria Limited also took two of the most disciplined Cadets for immediate employment.