Rector of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, MAN, Oron in Akwa Ibom Commodore Duja Effedua (Rtd.) has said that significant infrastructural, administrative and technical improvements in the last four years have boosted the academic status and image of the institution.
The Academy, established in 1977 as Nautical College of Nigeria and upgraded to Maritime Academy of Nigeria in 1988 to produce seafarers for Nigerian maritime industry and the world at large had over the years lost its academic reputation due to mismanagement and misappropriation by successive administrations.
But Effedua, appointed in 2017 to reposition the institution told correspondents on tour of the Academy yesterday that major upgrades in academic and physical infrastructures in the school have seen the institution regain global acceptance and recognition.
The Rector maintained that fiscal discipline, administrative and academic restructuring have proved key even as its cadets are now better rated and have become fellows of the prestigous Nautical Institute in the United Kingdom.
“You have seen what I have done with my team, we have done significant things in significant times. When we came, the Academy was in a near-collapse stage. We are here to add value, not to steal money
“I didn’t get extra funding to do what you have seen here, it is just that I blocked leakages, and when you block leakages corruption will fight back. The corrupt people, the staff from within and those from the outside, they are cabals who had benefited from the academy and milked the academy dry.
“I am here to reposition the academy and the International Maritime Organisation was at the verge of shutting down this institution an if they had done it, imagine the rate of unemployment.
“80% of the funds sent by the Federal Government was always looted by the staff and the resident cabal within the environment and some of them in Abuja, that is why there was no progress in 39 years. The margic you saw is three years plus job. Now we are the best in Africa in terms of equipment and we are struggling to be best in the world. we have trained our men to handle our equipment.” He explained.
One of his greatest challenge Effedua said remained balancing the academic/non academic staff ratio to reflect the status of the institution as an academic one.
“There are challenges which we are yet to overcome. non academic staff. of the 545 members of staff, out of the number, over 380 non academic. The academic staff were a little above 50 when I came, i had to recruit professionals. People who added value and changed the narrative of the place, bringing it to about 120 now.
“When I came here I met somebody who read forestry, what was he doing here? we also met some with fake certificates, some did not do NYSC before they got the job? some had poor attitude to work. Our biggest challenge are the sins of the past, lots of court cases.
“On the operational loopholes, we had 575 staff. 400 from Akwa Ibom, 23 from Cross River, some States nil, in Federal character? I never sacked them what I did was during recruitment, I tried to balance it behind them.
“Some people had fake certificate without NYSC and FG had mandated me to fish them out and I should not do it? Some were not even coming to work for over 3-4 months and they were collecting salaries. No, things no longer work that way. I had to stop all those. Some petitioned me to EFCC and ICPC, those guys are not stupid people they did their investigations, they check their files. I received over 6500 petitions but I was not distracted.
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“One of the buildings was abandoned at floor level, even after money we fully released, the rooms were overgrown, I called experts and they confirmed it could carry three floors, we finished the job and someone came out recently to tell us he did the job upto three storeys.
“But this has become the most beautiful place in the state and one of the best in Nigeria. we are producing quality cadets. They petitioned that we have reduced the number, it’s not true, the IMO governs everything we do here.
” They said that there are many seafarers in the world and the employment is not only in Nigeria. That academies should slow down on production, so that they can clear the backlog and employment would be on availability of space.
“Our job is to give you qualitative training. Our graduates now are better than previous sets because we make them do mandatory courses for free. Everything they have is free because the money they used to steal that they cant steal again is available for use. Over 6,000 petitions have been raised against me.” He explained.
The Rector said he paid 97% of old debts he inherited while none of the over 50 court cases against the institution was successful.
“I inherited over 50 court cases and they keep coming up and not even one of those who took us to Court won and the cases are unending. There are other contractors who finished their work and were not paid, even while the academy was still being funded.” Effedua maintained.
The institution, he said had in recent times regained its superior academic reputation while her cadets have began to be accorded respect in the maritime industry.
“Our cadets are the best so far for now, we won the award as the best maritime training provider in 2019 and I am sure the award will remain here forever. The simulators are state of the art and are in Billions of Naira, we did not get any loan.
“Before now our cadets go with one certificate, now they go with about five to six certificates because the mandatory short courses they would have had to come back for pay for them, we are doing it for them free. So they are better marketable than their seniors because they are now members of the Nautical Institute UK and EMEREST UK.
“We have over 60 of our courses accredited. They all have free laptops. where did we get the money from, we blocked leakages. They all have books. before they were 18/1 in a room, now we have just two in a room. it’s almost life a two-star hotel. Feeding has been remarkably improved.
“Equatorial Guinea wrote us three weeks ago that they want to send their cadets here. about 2135 professionals from the maritime industry have been trained here in the last few years.
“IMO were so happy with us that they donated 2000 books to us. The new engineering workshop is my next target. The exhibition hall will be a kind of museum. where they will cannibalize a vessel in parts. To train cadets on the functionality of a ship.” He explained.
On Corporate social responsibility, the Rector said that the institution donated three computer centres to three secondary schools in Oron, bought over 500 JAMB forms for indegenes of the area and donated 1,000 litres of fuel weekly to the General Hospital at Iquita in Oron.
