Comrade Adeyanju receiving an award from the organisers of the event.
Story by Dili Utomi.
In celebration of the first dockworkers’ day, the Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigerian (SCAN) on Thursday organised a conference with the theme Dockworkers’: The Unsung Heroes of Nigerian Ports Reform. The event which took place at the conference hall of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council in Apapa recorded a huge crowd of participants spilling out into the adjoining corridors.
Two major papers were presented, the one by the president-general of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju took a critical look at the federal government’s port reform project and raised some salient points about its success and failures so far. Comrade Adeyanju said that the lease agreement between the federal government and the 25 Terminal Operators ranging from 10 to 25 years has not been renewed because of inter-agency rivalries and has left the Dockworkers wedged in between.
In his presentation, Dr. Sam Babatunde of the Port and Terminal Management Academy of Nigeria describes Dockworkers as “the Human Capital of the Port Industry, responsible for loading, discharging, bagging, re-bagging, Stowage, Lashing, Tally and all Stevedoring Operations of the Seaports. In fact, the Dockworkers are the Port Workers as inscribed by International Labour Organisation. The above Operational Activities has been carried by Dockworkers for Decades with reasonable successes”.
Dr. Babatunde looks at the reasons, the effects and results of Port reforms, he noted that “It becomes mandatory for Countries to know that inefficient Ports, whether through outdated work practices, obsolete facilities or combiriation of both stall economic development. These are the main reasons why Governments are actively seeking Private Sector participation in the Port sector based on BOT & LOT”.
More pictures of the event.
He said that Dockworkers have strategically assisted in the actualisation of the desires of Port reforms with recorded theft reducing from 55 to 15% over time, the degree of Port effectiveness and responsiveness increasing from 25 to 85%, degree of cargo handling increasing from 25 to 75%, cargo dwelling time reduce from 3 weeks to about 1 week, dockworkers’ accident reduced and their remuneration has increased.
He concluded saying that “it is a Litmus Test that Dockworkers has contributed immensely to the success story of Port reforms and therefore deserve to be celebrated and honoured”.
Comrade Adeyanju in an interview also added that even though the government decides to pay workers a minimum wage of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand naira monthly, it will may not be enough considering the inflationary trends and so he advocates that what the government should do is to pay workers living wages which shall be adjustable to the economic realities of the times.
The event was also used to honour some deserving personalities with awards.
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