President-General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, in this interface, gives insight into how the government policies are impacting negatively on stakeholders, especially ports workers.
Government policies
Government policies are affecting us severely. The vessel traffic has gone below the global standard. Vessels that used to come with 500 containers now come with just 100 containers and that has impacted on the workers in such a company. The economic impact is hitting the workers very hard. If the management can no longer bear the pressure, some workers could naturally face redundancy. It is affecting both the workers and the management as well. There is no way the union will impose any serious sanction on any company when the union knows what is going on. We need to be fair. It is give and take.
Again, the issue of infrastructural decay is appalling. Go to Cotonou, it is not up to Lagos, look at its port. However, with the union making cases all the time, the Minister of Blue Economy has already waded into the matter to enable the country has very good and clean ports.
Access roads
The gridlock has reduced drastically. That is why we commended the Governor of Lagos State who partnered the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, as well as the local government.
The area we are asking the government to deal with now is the influx and occupation of illegal or unwanted people on the access road. People have suddenly turned the road to where they buy and sell. The government should clear the road of these traders. The government and stakeholders should make the access road leading to the port free of all forms of illegal activities. The road belongs to the government, people just can't impose themselves on the road and turn it into a marketplace. If you want to trade go and get a space inside the market, not a road leading to the port. It is even a shame to us as a country having such a thing on the road leading to the nation's economic gateway.
The port is where we do international business. It is not like a local government where you can stand and start giving people tickets. Here, vessels come in and out. People bringing in the vessels are from other countries. When they see such things on our roads what image do you think we are creating in the eyes of international community. So, we are asking the Lagos State Government and the Nigerian Ports Authority to jointly end this illegal activity.
Cargo diversion
There is no way one can rule out cargo diversion with the way things are at the moment. It basically has to do with the economic situation we have found ourselves in this country where the tariffs have gone up beyond the reach of some people.
Some of them prefer Cotonou and other smaller countries where they can easily meet up with the tariffs.
But I think the new Minister is working hard to reform the whole thing to gain back the traffic.
These tariffs imposed here in Nigeria are unjustifiable. They are just using these tariffs to scare investors. If I have options to get my business done, I will definitely go for the one that is cheaper or where the tariff is friendly so that I can recoup my investment. One bad thing about raising tariff is that it is the consumer that suffers it at the end of the day.
N200,000 minimum wage
Well, it can only be God's grace.
We deliberated with like minds within the industry. Today, we have changed the narrative. The narrative that in the past years where workers were paid peanuts or what they felt you were entitled to. Now we have a minimum standard. Minimum standard in the sense that any worker employed in the maritime sector needs to start from there. That is the benchmark.
We built on what has been happening before, what my leaders, the past president-generals and others had laid down. We invited technocrats, and brought everybody together to work on it. The Minister of Blue Economy also contributed to this success. He gave the directive that the matter should be resolved.
However, the challenges we encountered were enormous in the sense that some were paying higher while others paid below the standard. If you are working with most of all these shipping companies known all over the world there is no way you are going to compare them with those four or five groups of shipping companies having only five or 10 workers. There was nothing like standard because the shipping industry was not regulated.
But the new Minister of Blue Economy used his initiative to adopt a standard. You know the Dockworkers in the industry have minimum standard. We have standards for seafarers, and now we have gotten for shipping. We quarreled with ourselves before we were able to get to this point. Kudos to all the shipping companies who later understood what we were talking about. In the past, people would work in the industry; retire with nothing to show for it. It was like a death sentence. But now, with this new minimum standard, something has been put in place.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Aged seafarers
The situation is better now because the government has intervened. We still give kudos to the Minister of Blue Economy, Oyetola. He gave directive that they should verify those aged seafarers of the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Lines, NNSL. As I talk to you, the next thing is to know the total number of those that are alive, those that are dead, and their next of kin.
The union needs to sit with the government to sort the whole thing out because this matter has been on for almost 28 years.
The government only paid them the gratuity but the pension is yet to be paid. The minister asked that they should be verified so they will be paid what belongs to them.
