Former Sole Administrator, Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Engr. Olu Akinsoji has felicitated with the academy on the occasion of its 2022 graduation ceremony held last Thursday.
In a goodwill message, Engr. Akinsoji also commended the Rector of the foremost maritime training institution, Commodore Emmanuel Effadua (rtd) for his achievements in repositioning the academy.
“Under your watch and administration, the academy has made tremendous strides in development, infrastructure and quality training towards the fulfilment of national policy objectives (providing specialised manpower for the maritime industry).
“Frankly, the defective rudder of the academy due mainly to leadership and funding has been restored and her ship appears to be homing to glory. It is fulfilling and delightful to be part of the success story,” the elder statesman said.
He said the MAN Oron cadets at graduation provide assurances of regimentation, discipline, knowledge, accountability, leadership, courage and pride of belonging to a nation.
“These are the attributes of your training and have placed them on the rungs of the ladder to successful lives. The system that provides this training through expensive facilities and an impressive graduation ceremony should also be kind enough to balance it up with a career opportunity for every cadet and ensure that every graduating cadet at this ceremony has a letter of appointment from industry,” he said.
While commending the Rector for a job well done, he urged the cadets to be and remain good ambassadors of the nation wherever they find themselves.
The elder statesman also lamented Nigeria’s weak maritime industry and human capacity deficiency that has plagued the industry for decades.
“The organised private sector of the industry should be stimulated and encouraged to identify their training needs and collaborate with the academy to design and provide appropriate tailor-made courses to enhance and meet set targets of manpower development for the industry.
“Operational standard approach in shipping is dynamic. Therefore, training and retraining are essential for comparative benefits accruable from the business. The industry should renew endeavour to justify the efforts of the current management of the academy and take advantage of the enormous installed facilities,” he said.
“The maritime authorities are the maritime policy executing agencies headed by the Federal Ministry of Transportation including the relevant committees of the National Assembly. It is normal to assume their presence at this occasion and to recognise their significant contribution. The achievement is so remarkable that the Honourable Minister and his relevant team must be highly commended.
“Generally, the transport policies of the nation are accepted working tools in the comity of maritime nations. However, the responsibility of this sector of maritime transport administration goes beyond policy formulation to include policy interpretation and implementation. The last two functions are the bane of our existence. This is where the weakness lies.
“The escalation of derived demand for maritime transportation, employment of staff without cognate experience, qualification and lack of appropriate training and retraining may be responsible for the situation. For example, in some vital areas, policies are made in the form of laws, but are not interpreted to provide the necessary regulations and implementation guidelines.
“The remedial actions for the situation and alleviate the weakness are: employ and encourage the cadets, henceforth employ qualified persons and people with cognate experience and train and retrain staff to perform the functions for which they are employed. Academy is a ready tool and mechanism to provide for the way forward,” Engr. Akinsoji, who also served as Nigeria’s pioneer Alternate Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and as the Government Inspector of Shipping, stated.
In all, 233 cadets graduated from the academy this year with Mesaiyete Taofiq Omotayo emerging as the best graduating cadet.
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