The management of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron local
government area of Akwa Ibom State , has been told to embark on
training and award of scholarship to students and lecturers of the
academy.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Transportation , Rt. Hon.
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi when he performed the commissioning of some
key projects executed by the school authority on Monday.
Amaechi said, award of scholarship and training of personnel staff
should be made a priority by the school management as it would be of
immense benefit to the school and Nigerians generally.
He said ” The first thing to say to you is that you need to train your
staff and sponsor them to get there Masters and PhDs . This is to
enable us have quality seafarers and maritime graduates. Our maritime
Industry is extremely weak . So, we must encourage our staff and
students in terms of scholarship and training so they can compete
favourably with the world”.
” There are so many countries that are surviving on maritime, not on
oil. We need to begin to look inside and see how to grow our nation
and our economy because if you don’t create an avenue for employment
you would create an avenue for crime”,he said.
Amaechi also said that while providing such opportunities for members
of the academy the management should not hesitate to discipline any
lecturer or staff who fails to discharge his or her primary duty.
Amaechi said efforts should also be made by the management to
encourage teaching especially in the area of introducing allowances
to lecturers.
” Discipline should also be made essential by management. Any lecturer
or staff that is not playing by the rules should be shown the way out.
The greatest problem we have in Nigeria is lack of enforcement of
laws”.
” It is Important that I clear the air on the issue of allowances. It
does not include the non -academic staff .I am only talking about the
academic staff because we have very few of them. Nobody is willing to
come here (Oron) to teach. So, you need to ensure that you encourage
people to come and live in Oron and teach the students, and to
encourage them their take home must be interesting. The law is very
clear about payment of salaries. I have told the Rector that If he
can’t pay them outside what the civil service requires he should
introduce allowances that can encourage both local and foreigners to
come and teach”,he said.
Some of the projects commissioned by the Minister includes; the school
auditorium, Administrative block among others.