The Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association has condemned in totality the imposition of the Interim Management Committee on the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa-Ibom State.
The National President of the association, Engr. Matthew Alalade in an interview with newsmen in Lagos said the development was in defiance of the guidelines and the Act establishing the institution.
He also faulted the Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi for going ahead to appoint an Acting Rector for the institution when he should have appointed an acting Vice-Chancellor for the institution following the passage of a bill by the National Assembly recently conferring a University status on the institution.
According to him,”The school has been upgraded to a University status, I don’t know why the same government is coming up with appointment of acting Rector. However, from the Act, appointment of who becomes the Rector should be for somebody who have been there and such a candidate must have served for an upward of 15 years as a senior instructor or lecturer or must have attained a Director position. You cannot just pick anybody from anywhere to be a Rector in an academic institution like MAN Oron.
“The government must toe the line of integrity, if the Minister of Transportation deemed it fit that the guidelines must not be followed, he should have find a way to ease out the former administration of the institution out and then follow the procedure.
“What the Minister should have done is to set machinery in motion to graduate that institution to a University status. The fact finding committee set up by the Minister should have fine-tune how to transit the institution from Polytechnic to University status, now that they are dwelling on Rector rather than talking about Vice-Chancellor, it is confusing”, he added.
The Merchant Navy boss further faulted the transmutation of the fact finding committee to an interim management committee to implement its own recommendations decribing it as lacking transparency.
On the implications on. The students of the institution, he said,”Unfortunately,it is not a good omen for the students there and for the host community. I know the students must have been in disarray now. They don’t know what to do now. I know the activities in that institution will be at the lowest ebb now. So, it is unfortunate that a ministry which supposed to midwife and to see to a peaceful atmosphere of that institution is aiding crisis in the institution.
“There at Abuja, they don’t know what is happening but the students there, I believe hey are in disarray now. The government will have to step in fast so that things will not deteriorate because the communities are agitating that they should follow the procedure.
He noted that as an International Maritime Organization (IMO) accredited institution, it was wrong to bring politicians to manage it arguing that the professionals should be allowed to manage the affairs of the school since IMO has its own standard which they use to measure institutions like that.
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