A former Rector of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Pastor Nseyen Ebong, has urged the President Ahmed Tinubu led government to provide the Academy with a training ship.
Pastor Ebong, who was speaking during the 2024 Cadets Graduation Ceremony of the Academy at the Rt. Honourable Chibuike Amaechi Auditorium, lamented that the lack of a training ship for cadets was tantamount to the lack of a training aircraft for trainee pilots or a clinical theatre for medical students.
The former rector, who expressed satisfaction with the pace of transformation that has come the way of the Academy in the past six years, said the continued lack of a training ship for cadets is an expression of lack of seriousness by successive governments.
According to the former MAN Rector, “By the establishment of this brand new ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, my understanding is that the federal government of Nigerian wants to give particular attention to the maritime sector.
“I want to use this opportunity to suggest to the government of Nigeria that the cadets need a training ship. With the kind of training that we offer in this institution, the training ship is important.
“I remember in 2005 when the then president called the minister of transport and said, ‘tell the rector of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, l want him to visit other maritime training institutions all over the world to see what is happening there, and when he comes back, l want to see the report.’
“So we embarked on a very expansive tour, starting from the Maritime University of Ghana to Cote ‘Voire, flew to Malaysia, Singapore, went to Shangai, and we ended up at Southampton Maritime University.”
With nostalgia, he related issues that cropped up during the trip which defined the place of cadets training ships.
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“Something happened when we were in South Korea, l was standing on the deck of the training ship that the government gave to the school. The rector has taken us on a tour of the ship, this huge, mighty ship anchored at the water front. And the rector told us ‘l have asked the government to give the school another brand new training ship next year’.
“And there l was as the Rector of MAN, he has a set of training ship on which we were standing, l had none. And he was telling us he has requested for a newer and better ship; my mouth started to water. At that point l lost interest in the job till we returned to Nigeria.
“So, l want to advise the federal government to provide Maritime Academy of Nigeria with training ships. Number two, for the kind of training that is offered in this Academy, we are to comply with the international standards, the pivot of maritime professional training the kind that we offer is the international convention STCW for Seafarers and its subsequent amendments.”
