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Steve Agbota
The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) said it would be seeking National Assembly intervention over the poor salaries paid its workers.
Speaking with maritime journalists recently, the Rector of MAN, Commodore Duja Effedua (retd) revealed that, “when I took over as the Rector of the Academy in September of 2017, I inherited an over-bloated cadet strength; very low standard of training; a demoralised academic staff; huge debt profile and many abandoned projects.
“On salaries, we will soon be approaching the National Assembly over the salaries of our staff because they are poorly paid. The Minister of Transportation intervened and asked that we increase their allowances, which we will soon be concluding. If we don’t pay very well, many of them will be poached by other maritime institutions, so we need to retain our well trained academic staff.”
He explained that the Academy used to have a challenge in the area of qualified lecturers, saying that today, there is no maritime institution that has better lecturers than our Academy.
This is even as he revealed that 60 cadets are already onboard vessels doing their mandatory sea-time training.
He added: “Recently, a proprietor of one of the leading maritime institutions had a chat with me on phone, and I asked him, how many Master Mariners do you have? He replied that he has one, and I told him that the Academy has six Master Mariners.
“I asked him again, how many Marine Engineers do you have? He said one, but we have more than 13 Marine Engineers at the Academy. I also asked him, how many lecturers do you have in the School of Maritime Transport? He said his Maritime Transport lecturers used to come and go on a contract basis, but I told him that the Academy has six professionals in the Maritime Transport section, and that is in addition to the existing ones.
“Among my lecturers in the School of Maritime Transport, I have three authors who have written books. I asked again, how many of your cadets are onboard vessels for sea-time training, he said none, but I currently have about 60 cadets onboard vessels doing sea-time training courtesy of our relationship with the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), he added.
