NDDI Condemns Maritime Academy Oron Restructuring Committee

Sunday Okobi

A frontline advocacy group in the Niger Delta region, the Niger Delta Development Initiative (NDDI), has written to President Muhammadu Buhari, criticising the recent committee set up by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, to restructure the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Akwa Ibom State. The organisation described it as an action done in bad faith.

In a statement issued and signed by the President of the association, Gabriel Thompson, and the Group Secretary, Ita Umiom, NDDI said the recommendations of the committee chaired by Chief Adebayo Sarunmi, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), should be disregarded as it is capable of igniting crises in the region which has recently become calm.

Outlining the reasons for condemning the committee’s report in the statement, the group said: “The Sarunmiled Committee is made up of men that have lost touch with modern realities in the maritime industry, and as such, did not interact with professionals in the industry, some of whom are ex-cadets of the institutions which are now globally successful master mariners, before making recommendations to the minister.

“These professionals include the best sailors and mariners all over Nigeria who have in-depth knowledge of how maritime institutions are run internationally.

“The committee was wrongly constituted because when you put together a committee of such magnitude, you don’t bring people that do not have the knowledge of the requirements of STCW (Manilla Convention of 2010 as amended) which are the laws that guide international maritime activities currently. To that extent, the committee even criticised the IMO standards adopted by the institution. “There is no way a committee can restructure an institution like MAN Oron without interacting with the critical stakeholders, including the host communities.

“The committee was skewed to negativity because its attention should have been focused on bringing recommendations that should make the academy a world class institution that could compete favourably with countries such as Philippine and Singapore whose mariners occupy nearly all the vessels on the world maritime waters.”

According to NDDI, “provisions of training vessel is critical to the academy because it will enable the cadets to participate in the mandatory sea time experience as required by the STCW Convention 2010; provision of relevant equipment, infrastructures, proper funding, creating enabling learning environment with qualified lectures which are among the critical areas that need restructuring and not the human beings in the academy.

“The recommendations that Directors of Oron extraction in the school, who have committed no offence whatsoever, should be compulsorily retired is a misnomer.

“To show that the committee lacks the required knowledge, the recommendation that the procurement department of the institution should be merged with works department is against the Procurement Act of 2007 and also negates the spirit of due process and world best practices.

“The committee’s recommendation to tamper with the original organogram of the school which was approved by the federal government is also a unfortunate.

“Also, the committee chairman, a former NPA managing director, who made no known contribution to reposition MAN Oron during his tenure, lacks the requisite knowledge to chair such a committee.