The Acting Rector of Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron, Dr Kevin Okonna, has disclosed that he will ensure that Cadets and Students of the academy get the highest quality of training in the institution.
Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP, Dr Okonna said that whatever the status of the institution is, he will uphold the sanctity of the institution to produce world-class graduates for the benefit of the global Maritime community.
He also disclosed that as the acting Rector of the academy, he will diligently implement all government directives communicated to him.
“As the Acting Rector, I want to implement all government directives that are communicated to me. While I’m doing that, I will ensure the highest quality of training for the Cadets and Students of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria at whatever status, whether as a diploma or as a degree-awarding institution. Also, I’m committed to carrying out all directives of the government concerning the transition to the quality of training.”
“My priority is to adhere to government directives on the implementation of the transition status of the academy. And while doing that, ensure stability in the academy and improvements in the quality of education and training for everybody. We are committed to the qualities of the academy,” he stated.
Also, the Rector said the non-connection of the academy to the national grid is taking a toll on the institution.
However, he said, the academy is engaging the electricity distribution company on how to restore the institution to the national grid.
“You know, I’ve only been here for a very short while, but if I were to tell you one big challenge we have in this academy, it is having a public power supply to drive our very many high power consuming equipment.
“This is one of the biggest problems and we are working very hard to find a way around it. Right now, we are running simulator-based courses, and we cannot use an unreliable source of power to run a very sensitive state-of-the-art simulator. We have to run generators to power because, for a very long time in this academy, we’ve not had a public power supply connected to the institution for several reasons.
“We used to have, but we had issues with insufficient supply, which were being built for unstable supply that our equipment is very sensitive to. But again, we’ve commenced engagement to see whether we can resolve these issues and get a better power supply to the institution.
“We’ve had discussions. They are coming back before the end of the week to discuss with me how to solve these problems because we need power. The solar we’ve installed in so many of the buildings cannot power many things.”
