Nigeria, May 18 -- On 16 February 2023, then President Muhammadu Buhari signed a law intended to upgrade one of Nigeria's most strategic training institutions.

The law-University of Maritime Studies, Oron (Establishment) Act 2022, gazetted on 15 May 2023, created a new university in Akwa Ibom State and repealed the Maritime Academy of Nigeria Act, CAP M3 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, which had governed the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron for decades.

In legal terms, the academy ceased to exist on 16 February 2023.

Three years later, that legal stamp has not translated into practice as the university exists only on paper, while the academy, which the law abolished, continues to operate.

Students still apply to the aca...