2018 PASSING-OUT-PARADE OF MARITIME ACADEMY OF NIGERIA: RESTORING A LOST TRADITION WITH EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
By Edet Okpo
On Friday, November 2, 2018, the Management of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Akwa Ibom State, under the Rectorship of Commodore Duja Emmanuel Effedua (Rtd.), will be holding the 2018 Passing-Out-Parade (P.O.P) for graduating Cadets of the foremost maritime training institution in the country.
By a quick comparison, the Passing-Out-Parade is equivalent to what is popularly known as Convocation or Graduation Ceremony in other tertiary institutions, which usually marks the climax of studies in the Academy for Cadets within specific academic sessions who have met the basic requirements for the award of various certificates in respective fields of their professional training. In other words, it is a formal, periodic academic ritual that openly validates the Cadets’ competence and ceremonially confirms to the whole world that the qualified ones within a particular batch(s) are duly and officially churned out into the wider world of opportunities to contribute their quota to nation building and sectorial development of self. Information from the Corporate Affairs Department of the Academy indicated that Cadets in their different fields of study, within the 2018 graduation year will be eligible to pass out.
The 2018 Passing-Out-Parade ceremony could be said to be significant and momentous for four specific reasons of interest. First and foremost, this is the first time in about seven years that this very important event in the life of Cadets will be held. One principal or plausible reason for failure of previous Managements of the institution to have held the event in those years may not be far from the lapses they were unable to circumvent with appreciable consequences, but which, commendably, the incumbent Rector and his Management team have tackled decisively; hence the possibility of this year’s Passing-Out-Parade.
Secondly, against what may have been the case in recent past where there was growing apprehension as a result of intense criticism over the leadership, fortune and future of the Academy, the 2018 Passing-Out-Parade would serve both as an encouragement and reminder to the Federal Government and other critical Stakeholders that their huge investment in the institution is beginning to recoup towards excellence and professionalism in the creation of additional and regenerative man-power base to fill the existing gap in the sustainable development of the country’s blue economy.
That the present leadership has not only been able to rehabilitate the intrinsic and long-standing standard in the Academy’s academic calendar, but has also been able to pool resources together, after years of silence and anomalies, provides the third reason that marks the 2018 P.O.P as noteworthy and felicitous. Staff, Cadets and members of the Host Communities who have been around in the past years must certainly have wondered who will restore the lost tradition of P.O.P in the Academy and when next such will become a reality. Today, their fears have been allayed by the fresh breeze of sweeping changes courtesy of the purpose-driven and result-oriented leadership and team work mentality that Commodore Duja Effedua has brought into the narratives of the Academy. We therefore can confidently say that, with these developments, and the more which are to come beyond the Passing-Out-Parade, the Academy is already experiencing a new dawn in its fluctuated history of growth.
Perhaps the fourth and final reason the Passing-Out-Parade of 2018 is outstanding in the context of the foregoing is the possibility that it will silence or give opportunities to hard-line critics, who once felt that nothing was working in the institution, to see and testify that the Academy is truly on a restructuring and repositioning cause, a convincing and potent reason they should reconsider their views, attitude and hope in the capacity of the present Management to holistically transform the Academy with their genuine support and contributions.
This brings to mind the grand objective of the founding fathers of the Academy. Established approximately 41 years ago in 1977 under the Federal Executive Council No; EC (77) 172 as a pioneer maritime institution in Nigeria, the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, which birthed with the name Nautical College of Nigeria, had come as a conscious attempt to fill the country’s specific and diverse maritime needs. Although it assumed its present name in 1988 following the promulgation of Decree No. 16 of 1988 that also expanded its scope, the nut-shell integrated mandate of the Academy was (and still is) educating and training shipboard officers, ratings and shore-based management personnel, or more elaborately, the training of all levels and categories of personnel for all facets of the widely untapped and ever expanding Nigerian maritime industry. The first batch of Cadets of the institution graduated in 1983. Thereafter, hundreds of thousands have been trained as ready products in high demands.
In the contemplative consideration of the above, the Passing-Out-Parade therefore must not easily be dismissed as a mere ritual or formality, but an occasion for careful all-around review and preview of individual goals and corporate objectives of having young and promising Nigerians trained within a closely monitored and regimented space for professionalism.
To the graduating Cadets, the joyous occasion of their passing-out-parade is reminiscent of the many hurdles they had scaled during their training and the challenges that lie ahead as they prepare to bring their professionalism into solving the composite needs of the subsector. To the continuing and prospective Cadets, the P.O.P event comes both as redemption of hope and a challenge for them to be serious with their studies.
It cannot be denied that the Maritime Academy has been perplexed with a number of challenges over the years, some of which include inadequate number of professional teaching staff, lack of modern equipment or teaching facilities, unavailability of vessels for mandatory sea-time exposure for Cadets, over-bloated number of non-qualified and non-teaching staff, poor funding and welfare packages for staff, etc.
One index that influences the renown and competiveness of a Maritime institution in global reckoning is her participation, productivity and general contribution to the national, regional and international Maritime Industry. While the leadership of Commodore Duja Emmanuel Effedua has demonstrated convincing ability to reposition the Academy for global competiveness as evidenced in what he has achieved in barely a year, it still remains a great challenge on the part of Federal Government and relevant Stakeholders to give prompt and practical attention to the enumerated areas of needs.
Bravo to the graduating Cadets!
*EDET OKPO is an Uyo-based Journalist, Maritime Observer and Public Affairs Analyst.
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