By Eguono Odjegba

The Maritime Academy of  Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom State, which has the mandate to train and produce middle level manpower for the maritime industry, had, for obvious reasons, veered off track for more than a decade.

•Maritime Academy, Oron

Over the years, successive governments have made futile efforts, efforts stakeholders perceived to be largely weak, insincere and politically motivated, to turn the tide. None has achieved the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) standard audit pass.

Repositioning Agenda

Perhaps this was what prompted the present government to administer a revival capsule, following the reform agenda of the academy directed by the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, last quarter of 2017. The reform which was designed to take the form of restructuring and repositioning, and which fortuitously fell on the shoulders of Commodore Duja Effedua (Rtd), who was appointed Rector of the Academy in September 2017 by the Presidency for the purpose of driving this critical national assignment.

A cerebral master mariner of note, Effedua has since drawn up a rule-to-work template for his assignment, encapsulated in a clean-up strategy, to be undertaken in phases.

Progress

A work-in-progress report obtained through facility tour of the Academy revealed ongoing aggressive clean-up exercise said to be in its first phase, and which focused mainly on strengthening infrastructural projects in the academic and training area, in accommodation, security, improved cadets learning atmosphere with emphasis on welfare and feeding, and in the area of academic technical accreditation, qualified academic staffing, research and planning.

The Rector is said to have embarked on syndicate technical resource building synergy with regional and international development partners like the World Maritime University and others, in keeping with IMO requirements.

He has also commenced the building of relationship with critical local partners and stakeholders in an attempt to unplug levers of opportunity in sea time training for cadets, which has assumed a major breakdown in the mission objective of the Academy before the coming of the present leadership.

Corporate Stakeholders

The ministry of transportation is believed to have afforded the present management of the Academy robust synergy with sister agencies such as the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), while Effedua has continued to reach out to others in the drive up to achieving mutually rewarding partnership for the purpose of availing all the opportunities the Academy can attract.

The Academy has also provided specific industrial and technical training to third party stakeholders in the oil and gas industry, and there are indications that the NLNG Ltd has proven to be a strong beacon of support.

Ongoing Clean-up Projects

The Rector, unknown to the public, has since carried out fresh design and commenced the reconstruction of major projects in the Academy to meet international standard. A recent facility tour of ongoing clean up exercise at the Academy by  Vanguard Maritime Report  highlighted a significant progress in the restructuring exercise expected to reposition the institution within the shortest possible time frame. The clean-up does not only involve urgent repairs and needed maintenance but also included urgent remodeling and reconstructions, if the present efforts must meet with the demands of international seafaring market and get the endorsement of IMO.

Head of the Public Relations Department, Mr. Peter Netson, who represented the Rector during the tour, showed our reporter round infrastructural projects, beginning with the brand new Administrative Block Access Control Gate, which was carved out of the rectorate’s car park and the front entrance to the 3-storey building. Effedua has, within eight months, created state of the art lecture halls with a sitting capacity for 25 to 30 students, hitting the standard demand for conducive and efficient learning environment.

Other projects includes the academic auditorium, the e-Library, cadets’ cafeteria and hostels. While the roofs and ceilings said to have deteriorated over the years have all nearly been replaced with better quality roofing and ceilings, the floors were given face lift.

The walkways linking the academic blocks that obviously had become an eyesore over time has also been pulled down in place of new and stronger ones.

To revive the national outlook of the Academy, the Rector has also completed the building of a Mosque adjacent the Academic Wing for Muslem cadets, stakeholders and staff members, while the building of two chapels for Anglican and Apostolic faith, respectively, is ongoing.

Survival Training Swimming Pool

The survival training swimming pool that has been moribund for more than a decade and which is believed to have claimed the lives of some kids who sneaked in there to bathe and got trapped under the debris that took over the abandoned pool, is part of the ongoing aggressive rehabilitation; said to have reached over 60percent completion stage by the site engineer.   When completed, management would no longer have to go scouting for swimming pool elsewhere for use of cadets.

Cadets Feeding

It is also not surprising that Effedua not only applied military precision in the timely discharge of these important assignments and reconstruction, additional facts on ground indicated his knack for standard, expertise and timing. He has also expressed the desire to explore possible avenue of ways of providing the cadets free meals, as is the tradition in other federal regimental institutions, nationwide.

Unapologetic about his desire to see cadets get the right atmosphere to study, the Rector also took his cleanup activities to the cadets’ refectory, following discovery that cadets’ feeding was below standard.

He quickly re-organized the place and redeployed staff members managing the kitchen and canteen to other departments. He also set up a committee to be monitoring the quality and quantity of food given to cadets, monitor meal timetable, and such other details as professionalism in appearance, service courtesy and complaints.

Environment

He was said to have complained that the environment unit responsible for cleaning and physical maintenance of the Academy lacked the required machineries to function optimally.

He went to discuss with the Minister of Transportation, and thereafter went to the National Assembly and secured an adjustment to the budget, in which cleaning machineries such as mowers, sweeping tractors were used to supplant the new official car proposed for his use, an SUV.  A man of integrity and patriotic credentials, Effedua had earlier turned down an already approved budget proposal for the replacement of the Rector’s official car, and opted to continue to use the old one he inherited.

The environment unit now has a number of youths gainfully employed, including indigenes of the host community.

White House

Since assuming leadership of the Academy, staff accommodation has received significant attention as most of the quarters with major defects are currently undergoing repairs. At a time government appointees seek to get everything double from government scarce resources, Effedua elected to give up the grandeur of the rector’s palatial residence located at a choice area of the Academy for a paid accommodation in Uyo, the state capital.

His reasons are not farfetched, as he is believed to be uncomfortable occupying the large mansion when some staff members are obliged to live outside the campus following current inadequate accommodation. As part of leadership sacrifice, he directed the partitioning of the storey building into units of compact flats, which he allocated to fifteen staff members of the rectorate. This unbelievable gesture instinctively made the workers renamed the rector’s residence ‘White House’, an action which according to Netson, arose out of gratitude.

The spokesman said the Rector is concerned about availing staff members’ accommodation in-house, and is working round the clock to achieve this in the second phase of the clean-up exercise.

Academicsnd Developing Capacity

Sources at MAN say Effedua was worried at a very early stage about the dearth of the right calibre of academic staff that should drive the Academy’s growth under the present repositioning agenda. Thus, like a man in hurry to catch up with missed opportunities, he seem focused beyond distraction, as he plot his first term graph to be able to revive and put in place all major infrastructural projects and assets including standard and functional simulators and ICT, standard academic curriculum, improved academic staff, sea time training etc. Perhaps this explains the delegation of Ghanaian maritime experts and educationists who were believed to have visited the Academy recently. They were believed to have been contracted by the Rector to help rejig MAN’s academic structural framework and to redesign its curriculum in keeping with STWCO.

Sources close to his office inform that Effedua is talking with development partners on possible ways technical and operational support can be given to the Academy, in the drive to urgently re-invent itself and remain competitive, sub regionally, continentally and globally.