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Tag: maritime workers

  • Maritime workers raise alarm over plans to repeal Ports, Harbour Bill

    Maritime workers raise alarm over plans to repeal Ports, Harbour Bill

    The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government-Owned Companies (SSASCGOC) have voiced their strong opposition to the proposed Ports and Harbour Bill in the National Assembly, which seeks to repeal the existing Act that established the NPA.

    The two internal unions in the country’s marine sector issued the warning, saying that if the Bill becomes a law, it could threaten the security and the economy of the country and cause many Nigerians including NPA employees to lose their jobs.

    At a joint briefing in Lagos on Tuesday, November 7, the President-General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, and his NPA counterpart, Akinola Bodunde, claimed that some individuals were secretly introducing the Bill that the 8th National Assembly had rejected and discarded.

    They urged Nigerians to oppose the Bill, which they alleged was intended to appropriate and transfer national heritage to a small number of people.

    According to them: “We wish to note that the bill if allowed to be passed into law, will have far-reaching grave consequences on the security of the nation as it will cede harbour, jetty and terminal operations into private hands.

    “We are therefore not surprised that the bill is being vigorously sponsored by certain unpatriotic individuals within the maritime sector, who are hell-bent on appropriating our commonwealth and cornering same into the lining of their pockets and that of their cronies.

    “We would have thought that given our persistent cry and various notices pointing to the deplorable state of our various nation’s seaports, decrepit state of port access roads, collapsing quay aprons, and the general failure of infrastructures within our ports.

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    “The focus of this 10 National Assembly would have been to find solutions to the myriad of problems bedevilling our ports, terminals, Jetties, and Oil and Gas platforms and even the need to dredge all the ports, particularly Calabar, Warri, Onne, etc for increased efficiency; and not to clandestinely and recklessly seek to misappropriate public infrastructure through unfriendly legislation for the benefit of individuals whose only interest is capital accumulation and not the general public.

    “We are further surprised that the sponsors of this bill outrightly ignored our demand to call the International Oil Companies, IOCs, operating in our sovereign territorial economic zones, who have deliberately refused to obey our extant Maritime regulations, standards, and laws but, find it expedient to sit in the comfort of their hallowed chambers to push for laws that will be detrimental and inimical to the welfare and wellbeing of the working class, Nigerians and our nation’s security and sovereignty.

    “The Joint House Unions, MWUN, and SSACGOC use this medium to convey our views to the leadership, members of the National Assembly, and the new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy that this is certainly not the right way to go as this ploy by these selfish individuals in the maritime sector will cause chaos and anarchy in the industry which has enjoyed sustained peace since the idea of projecting the harsh Bill was killed in 2018 will not be allowed to come to fruition.”

    The unions also claimed that a draft of the Bill shows that it offers entirely non-pensionable, non-transferable, and non-terminable work without access to terminal benefits.

    They maintained that the Bill has to be removed so it does not conflict with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s pledge to create five million jobs in Nigeria through the newly established Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.

    The said: “This is the height of inconsideration by the proponents of the Bill to the right of workers to the necessary payment for services rendered by a worker, in accordance to known law, industrial relations practice, equity, and good conscience.

    “We believe that allowing this Bill to be passed into law will effectively institutionalize the evil concept of casualization of workers and negate the provisions of the Pension Reform Act 2004 as amended.

    “This is in direct contrast to the avowed promises of Mr. President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to ensure the provision of about five million jobs for Nigerians through the newly-created Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.

    “Having said this, We, the two in-house unions in the maritime sector; MWUN and SSASCGOC, will not fold our hands and allow a few unpatriotic Nigerians within the industry to rip off the nation’s commonwealth and render our sector unproductive via this infamous Bill that will only create poverty, hopelessness, hunger and generate avid bitterness amongst the already impoverished workers and Nigeria citizenry.

    “Consequently, we confirm our absolute vote of confidence on the Nigerian Ports Authority ACT as it currently relates to the Nigerian state and the well-being of the workers in the sector and we will vehemently resist all attempts to push this hellish bill further. We, therefore, demand its withdrawal in its entirety with the laid down laws.”

  • Maritime workers urge war against ‘wharf rats’

    Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has called on the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and port concessionaires to address the menace of cargo vandalism at the seaports by suspected wharf rats.

    Reacting to allegations of complicity leveled against his members, MWUN President-General, Adewale Adeyanju, said labour workers at the terminals were well paid and could not be involved in any  criminal activity at the seaport.  He said  he had warned dockworkers to desist from physical examination of containers.

    According to Adeyanju, the development, if not urgently addressed, will send wrong signals to the international maritime community about Nigerian ports.

    Adeyanju urged licensed customs agents  to manage information sharing, saying pilfering of containers at the terminals could be traced to insiders of the customs service, terminal operators and officials of NPA.

    He insisted that dockworkers had been discharging their duties diligently for over a decade without any cargo vandalism, adding that the ugly trend resurfaced recently.

    “We will not accept any form of accusation from any quarters  that dockworkers are part of the people damaging or vandalising containers at the seaports because we are responsible and committed to workers welfare packages. The clearing agents, canteen boys, kelebes all have ideas about information on consignment but the dockworkers have no idea about the vessel, the manifest and what she discharges,” Adeyanju said.

    He also called on the labour workers to desist from any form of practice that would tarnish the image of the union, noting that anyone who gets himself involved in illegal business will cease to be part of the union.

  • Maritime workers renew threat to shut down seaports over bad roads

    Barely one year after it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Government on the need to repair the Tin Can Island end of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in Lagos, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), has renewed threats to shutdown the nation’s seaports.

    Its President-General, Adewale Adeyanju, who spoke  in Lagos during a working visit of the Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Service of the  Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Ahmed  Gambo, regretted that one year after the government signed the MoU to repair the Ijora-Apapa and Oshodi-Apapa expressways before the end of second quarter of last year, nothing had been done. He said the agreement signed by both parties has since expired last year, without government fulfilling its side of the bargain.

    “The Vice President of this country came to visit the port last year; he saw the situation of the port and a contract was awarded to the same man constructing the  Wharf Road linking Apapa port; so we want to know what is happening to Tin Can Island port access road. We cannot access Tin Can Island Port, we cannot even access Mile 2; what we told the ministries at the meeting last year was for them to upgrade the roads through palliative measures because Apapa was still under construction then. While Apapa port access road is a bit motorable for now, sadly, nothing is done to Tin Can port access road,” Adeyanju said.

    He said the union will sustain the tempo for repair of the road until something is done to fix Tin Can Island road , especially when it is considered that both parties signed an MoU notwithstanding that it lapsed without government doing anything on her part.

    “We believe in due process and we signed what we call a communiqué with the federal government last year. The way things are now, we might be forced to renew that ultimatum to government,” he warned.

     

    While commenting on the security agencies deployed to ease gridlock along the ports corridor, the union leader further frowned at the federal government taskforce on port decongestion over alleged extortion on truckers, noting that the situation has led to high cost of transportation.

     

    According to him, truck owners have increased haulage charges due to the alleged extortion and molestation of the taskforce at the Ijora bridge , even as he noted  that such actions have caused major setback to the growth of the maritime sector.

     

  • Maritime workers seek rail transport removal from Exclusive list

    The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has urged the Federal Government to remove rail transportation from the Exclusive Legislative list and add it to Concurrent list to attract private investments to the sector. This, they said, will enhance efficiency at the seaports.

    Speaking with The Nation, the union’s Assistant Secretary-General, Comrade Abudu Eroje, said the country was facing gridlock in Apapa because the ports were not connected to functional rail lines.

    According to him, aside the Lagos Ports Complex, Apapa, which has a rail system that is not working, none of the seaports is connected to rail system. This, he lamented, has made movement of cargoes in and out of the seaports difficult, since it must be by road, with the attendant gridlock and additional cost.

    He said the gridlock being experienced in Apapa and environs will be a child’s play compared to what will be experienced in Badagry and Lekki when the two mega deep seaports become operational if they are not connected by rail

    “Nobody can talk of an efficient seaport operation without an efficient rail system to move goods in and out of the ports. Even if you repair all the roads in Apapa, there will still be gridlock because it will keep increasing until you connect the seaports to the rail systems so that cargoes will go out and come in any time of the day because the seaports operate 24 hours.

    “The best the Federal Government can do now is to remove the rail system from the exclusive legislative list and place same on the concurrent list so that state governments, even private investors, some of who are developing mega deep seaports, can invest in the rail sector without which the nation’s seaports may never be efficient,” he said.

    On problems associated with the management of empty containers, he urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to convert the Lily Pond Container Terminal, Ijora, which he said, has the capacity to take over 12,000 containers, to empty container depot to avoid containers littering everywhere on Lagos roads and streets.

    He argued that the transfer of some consignments to eastern ports, especially the Port Harcourt Port, as being canvassed by some people, might not address the challenge, saying it will cost the importer over N2 million to return one empty container to Lagos.

    The only permanent solution, according to him, is the dredging of the eastern channels to take vessels as well as decentralising rail systems by allowing individuals to invest in the sector.

  • Maritime workers blame govt for sector’s woes

    Maritime workers under the aegis of Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN), has blamed the Federal Government for the woes of the sector.

    Its immediate past President-General,Comrade Emmanuel Tony Nted, said Federal Government has consistently failed to rehabilitate access roads to the  ports, particularly Apapa and Tin Can ports in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre.

    Speaking on the sideline of a send off organised for him by MWUN, Nted lamented that despite being the gateway to the economy, the government has not done enough to address the deplorable state of access roads and other infrastructure in the ports, which results into loss of man hours, loss of lives and armed robbery attacks.

    He also said the government has failed to address the multiplicity of agencies at the ports, which result into delay in clearance of containers and attendant payment of huge demurrage by port users. “The government should look into the multiplicity of agencies at the ports,” he advised.

    Nted said other ports outside the country have one agency and containers move out of the ports with the speed of light.

    “But here, people pay demurrage; they waste their time and so on. It’s very sad. This is why they say that Nigerian ports are very expensive for business because all these contribute to it,” he said.

    Nted stated that government should create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive and create more jobs, warning that those in positions of leadership should stop playing on people’s intelligence by mixing politics with business.

    “What we are asking government is to create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive. In other countries in the world, government doesn’t create jobs; it is the private sector that creates jobs. Government only creates the enabling environment for businesses to thrive. There should be security and policy consistency, for instance, to attract investors,” he said.

  • JTF, maritime workers trade words over extortion

    JTF, maritime workers trade words over extortion

    MARITIME workers in Bayelsa State yesterday accused the Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Pulo Shield of extorting money from speedboat operators along the waterways.

    But JTF disagreed with the workers, describing the allegation as unfounded and untrue.

    The Maritime Workers Union (MWU) further accused the police of extortion and harassment of its members.

    The workers alleged that operatives of JTF and the police had made lives difficult for indigenes of coastal communities through extortion.

    They alleged that the security agents were forcibly collecting between N5,000 and N6,000 from them.

    MWU’s chairman, Mr. Lyod Sese, described the rising cases of extortion from boat operators by security personnel as alarming.

    He said the development was common along the waterways of Southern Ijaw, Nembe, Ogbia and Brass Local Government Areas.

    “If the boat operators refuse to pay, the boats are subtly delayed until compliance is effected,” he said.

    He listed Ogboibiri checkpoint in Southern Ijaw, Agip Oil flow-station at Brass and Nembe checkpoint manned by soldiers as “extortion point”.

    He said: “The duty of the soldiers is to protect oil facilities and installations but they have resorted to extorting money from boat operators along Apoi/Bassan and Yenagoa routes.

    “The soldiers and marine policemen accused boat operators of charges ranging from non-compliance with availability of first aid boxes, fire extinguisher and operation permits just to collect money from them”.

    But the Media Coordinator, JTF, Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, said the “JTF is a responsible outfit not cut out for such inglorious acts as alleged by the workers”.

    He said: “No doubt, we have our troops in the Niger Delta waterways. We have always said that anybody who finds our troops doing untoward things should report to us.

    “We learnt that the maritime workers want to increase their fares. If they want to do so, they should not blackmail our outfit to gain cheap publicity.

    “When members of the maritime workers paid a courtesy visit to our commander, they exchanged phone contacts.

    “We should expect that if there was any case of extortion, they should have reported to us. But spreading unfounded rumour is not accepted by us.

    He added: “We have given the leadership of the state maritime union the needed cooperation and we informed them that if they had a case of alleged indiscipline of soldiers, they should come forward with the name of the officer and the alleged misconduct.

    “We don’t tolerate indiscipline. Why should they attribute the extortion to soldiers? I don’t believe our men are involved. There are many other security agencies in the region’s waterways and creeks.”