In this interview with Anozie Egole, the President General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju speaks on sundry maritime industry issues.
Dockworkers are not the only people working in the ports. We have clearing agents, we have camp boys too
Going by the high rate of unemployment among seafarers, are there strategies by the union to improve the employability of the seafarers?
I think that is the purpose of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF); being in Nigeria, you cannot be sending people to MAN, Oron, and seafarers school and at the end of the day when they graduate, there is no job for them. So we are looking at how to accommodate all the indigenous ship owners so that they can employ Nigeria seafarers as it is being done in other countries. But the ship owners are complaining about certification that the certificates of most seafarers are not recognized. We now told them to upgrade MAN Oron to standard; there is no point for us going to Ghana to renew our certifications or other countries when we have responsible universities here being recognized by international body. So we want to appeal to indigenous ship owners to make sure that some of our cadets that are graduating are considered for employment.
What is the level of compliance so far between the IOCs and dockworkers?
You know before now, they always thrive on impunity, they come to this country; they make billions of Naira at the expense of poor Nigerians. But the three days warning strike that we issued has yielded very good result and I think the level of compliance is about 40% to 50% for now. And they have started allowing the stevedoring contractors to manage all those dockworkers to come and register with them. I can categorically confirm that the level of compliance is wonderful. And I commend the efforts of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) who I think equally backed the roles that are governing them and that of NIMASA. You cannot just employ anybody that is not duly registered. I think that was where we came in; that the jobs that are being done both on and off shore are the works of dockworkers. You came and you failed to recognize NIMASA and NPA who are the landlord of the ports, then who are you going to recognize. Because you are trading on their water and you are not respecting the laws of the land. So we felt there was need for us to cry to the whole world to see how we can manage the whole thing and they have seen reasons and they are complying. What I can tell you now is that the level of compliance is almost 50%, as of today.
What are you doing on the issue of cargo pilfering which has started happening at the ports and terminals?
I do not know why some media persons always accuse or attack dockworkers; they are not the only people working in the ports. We have most of these clearing agents there, we have camp boys there too, so why have they not centered on those people too. We are responsible dockworkers; nobody will pilfer any container in the ports. So when you are accusing dockworkers, you need to identify who are the real dockworkers, the real dockworkers are those who are working onboard vessels, they are the ones who are doing what we call stacking. You need to know that there are many agencies in the ports that are parading illegal boys, all of them in the name of dockworkers, are they dockworkers? They are not. The only recognized dockworkers are the ones duly registered by the law and being supervised by NIMASA. You people need to find out who are the real dockworkers; those ones that do the job of kelebe(informant), are they dockworkers, you can hardly see any responsible dockworker who will start pilfering container and no dockworker will go and do kelebe for anybody, some of them(kelebe) are working in the ports too. They should not associate my members to that type of rubbish because the era of pilfering containers is no longer there, it has been buried.
What your reaction to the move by Ship Owners Association of Nigeria to start taking graduates from MAN Oron for sea time training?
Fantastic, the man (SOAN President) came in at the right time, I commended his efforts, you know he was part of the people that signed this CBA for seafarers and merchant navy he is a wonderful man. And if he continues doing that, I don’t think seafarers in Nigeria will be lacking jobs.
What is your reaction on the recent Peak Service Surcharge (PSS) introduced by CMA CGM shipping lines for cargos loaded from USA coming to Lagos ports?
What is the job of the Shippers’ Council, they should caution them, they should not add more to the problems of Nigerians and they should be cautioned. If other shipping lines are doing like that, them what is left for us, can we afford what they are about doing now, the answer is NO. So I think the Executive Secretary of Shippers Council, I know him to be very proactive and a good leader, I believe he is going to do something when the time comes. If the terminal operators and the government through the NPA are even doing some waivers because of roads, how then can somebody bring extra charge, it won’t happen. I believe the Shippers Council will caution them when the time comes. The Shippers’ Council knows what to do and they are going to do it when the time comes.
What is your take on the recent closure of the land borders by the President?
It has to do with insecurity, so it helps and the government knows why they are doing that, how can you differentiate Nigeriens from Nigerians. Some people do not know that there are people from Niger Republic and there are Nigerians too, many don’t know if they pass through this border, they call themselves Nigerians. Most of all these herdsmen (majority of them) are not Nigerians and they claim to be Nigerians. Some are from Cameroun while others are from Niger, Benn Republic, Chad amongst others. So if the government felt that they need to bring sanity and security into the country we have to support them on that. It is for the benefit of Nigerians, how can somebody come from Niger and start messing up in our own country, can you even go there and do so in their country. So the government has every right to whatever they believe is going to be for the benefit of Nigerians. See what South Africans are doing to us, we supported them during their own trial period, but see what they are using to pay us back, killing Nigerians as if we are animals. So if the government says closing the borders is for the security of this country, we will support them.
A lot of people are calling for the relocation of the tank farms in Apapa as a means of ending the perennial traffic gridlock on the axis, what do you think is the way forward?
We commend the effort of the NPA, I think if given the power, by now this traffic issue would have been a thing of the past; we commend the effort the current MD of NPA is trying to put in place because of these roads. The level of activities at Tin Can Island ports are zero, if not this movement by badges that they just introduced by now some of the investors should have ran away from this country. So we want them to be more proactive in getting this Tin Can axis road repaired up till Coconut. I believe if that is done, some of the vessels that have ran away will come back because we want them to come back.
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