The MWUN PG, Comrade Adeyanju left and Comrade Abiodun right.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The plans by a section of the current members of the national assembly to resucitate the hitherto rejected piece of legislation called the Port and Harbour bill is putting the house at daggers drawn against the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), the umbrella body of all workers in the Maritime Sector of the Nigerian economy.
MWUN had a press briefing Monday where the body detailed their grievances against the move as it sees the bill as being against jobs and against the overall interests of the Nigerian people. The President-General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju kicked off the briefing with stern warning that “they are ready to fight to kill the bill again and bury it permanently”. The bill was initially rejected by the 8th national assembly, but some intrigues within the house is seeing the national assembly trying to re-introduce the bill now.
Participants at the press briefing.
Comrade Akin Abiodun, the president of the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies which is also an arm of MWUN said that “We wish to note that this said 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 common wealth and cornering same into the lining of their individual 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 sea ports, decrepit state of port access roads, collapsing quay aprons, and the general failure of infrastructures within our ports that the focus of this 10th National Assembly would have been to find solutions to the myriad of problems bedeviling 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 for the general good of the public”.
The Unions noted also that their call for the International Oil Companies to obey the extant laws have been ignored and asks the national assembly to call them to order rather than sponsoring a bill that had been previously roundly rejected.
The Unions therefore totally reject the bill for what they call its hellish intentions buttressing their points with the attendant losses of jobs and the lack of efficiency in the operation of the Ports and Terminals since they were concessioned in 2006. They said that about 12,000 jobs were lost during the concessioning of the Ports and that less than 2,000 persons are now employed there 17 years after, that the promised billions realisable from the deal have not been met.
During the question and answer session, the MWUN PG said that they are going to continue to fight to reject this bill and completely kill it in all its ramifications.
He also touched on the maltreatment of the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Joe Ajaero who was “harrased, blindfolded, taken away and beaten by people loyal to the governor of Imo State while he was at the State on a solidarity visit to the workers in the State who have not been paid for about 20 months”. Comrade Adeyanju said that workers will soon react to the unfortunate occurrence in Imo State.
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