President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN); Comrade Emmanuel Tony Nted recently had an interview session with some maritime journalists in his office in Lagos. This was after he had held a press conference earlier on the same day to address issues and controversies surrounding the upcoming elections of the union in March 2017. Comrade Nted also used the opportunity to address sundry issues in the nation’s maritime industry. Shipping Position Daily Correspondent; Dapo Olawuni was there.
“Some are even asking me to do third term; just because the port has been peaceful in the past three years”
-Tony Nted, President, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria
As the quadrennial delegate conference of MWUN approaches, there are allegations that you want to foist a candidate on the union
There are different allegations and petitions flying around, petition to ministry of transport, petition to the labour ministry and so on, but this cannot deter us from doing what is right. As far as maritime election is concerned, those who qualify will contest the election, when they win, we would all clap and come back to Lagos. But to say that I am imposing a candidate on the people is not correct, I have only one vote, and in a situation whereby three people are contesting an election, I will vote for one person and I will support one person, I cannot share my vote to the three people, if I am supporting a particular candidate does not mean that I am imposing the person, that does not mean that I would not look for one candidate out of the three to take over from me. For you to confirm that I am not imposing anybody, you will see that so many people are qualified to contest the election have been asked to collect forms for the election and we would go to the polls.
The ports have been very peaceful during your tenure, what is the secret, how have you been able to manage the situation?
This is exactly what some people have been asking me, some are even asking me to do third term; just because the port has been peaceful in the past three years, and I answer them that if former President Olusegun Obasanjo could not do third term, it would be very difficult for me to do third term, but one thing that made us get to where we are today and to make peace in the port is because we believe in God, at every given time, we do dockers restoration, you see how our hall is filled up today, if you go to the branch also, sometimes we get 500 to 600 people, I pray with them in the word of God and make them to understand that the union we are running today is a scientific one, not the era of banging tables and beating people, that if you do that, I will expel you from the industry, and when you steal in the port or you break container and we hear of it, we would expel you from the industry. Also, we always work with the workers, talk with them to know what our intentions are, we always tell them the truth and not lies, if you lie to them and they find out they would hate you, at every given time we tell them the truth, the one we can do and the one we cannot do. For example, if it were to be the last administration that you tell the workers that there would be no negotiations this year, there would be crisis in the port, but when we told them this year, they understood with us that things are bad and that the PG is telling the truth. So, everything we do in this industry as far as the labour is concerned, we carry them along and that was why we are able to succeed to where we are today.
You have commended government's decision to ban vehicle import through land borders, do you think they should reduce tariff?
During the port concession, the Bureau of Public Enterprise were authorised to review the charges in the port, and when the ports were concessioned the tariff was also the biggest in the concession agreement and everybody knows what they are supposed to charge on general cargoes and so on. But today, I do not know if the terminal operators are charging in excess. If the federal government is saying that no cars should pass through the borders and we know that our ports are very expensive, we would urge the government to review the tariff so that people who import cars through the Nigerian ports would be able to make their gain. Secondly, we are telling the government that the condition of access roads to the port is bad, without taking care of the access roads, the business would not flourish, the man hours are lost, accidents happen on the road, people are being raped, people are being killed because of the bad port access, man-hours are also being lost, so we are telling the government to do the job as quick as possible. After this, NPA wrote us a letter that they have contracted the job and that the contractor would start the job as quickly as possible, but as I am speaking to you, nothing is on ground.
What are the things you were unable to do that you would like your successor to focus on?
One thing I have not done is a letter we wrote to NPA that there is an urgent need for every stakeholder in the port to contribute one per cent for dockers’ welfare, but this has not been done. I can assure you that we would continue to push for it until the National Assembly does something about it, I know my predecessor would do something on it as quickly as possible.
What is the current situation as per tally clerks and on-board security?
The case is in court, the workers came to us and said that based on ILO convention, if I lost a job you would need to get another job for me, and since the former MD of NPA became adamant and not ready to do anything, the workers decided to go to court. We have had series of meetings with the minister of transport and he said that the government gave the contract to tally clerks and that the contract has since expired, so he has no business with tally clerks, but we argued that every terminal operator that operates in the port engages a stevedoring contractor, when the workers leave or on their exit, the terminal operator pays them money, so for you NPA engaging the tally clerk company, at least you have to give the stevedoring company some money to pay them off, this is the bone of contention, the NPA refused and this was why the workers have gone to court.
Don't you think there is need for the government and the workers to sit together and reach a compromise?
Yes, we have had series of meetings and what we are doing now is sending letters to the ministry and attention the minister of transport; probably by next week, because the case is in court, we have mentioned it in some quarters but they said that since the case is in court, they don't want to say anything, we want to try again to send the letter to the ministry asking for a meeting where we can sit down and discuss with the minister again, if he agrees to listen to us, the next thing is to withdraw the case from court and settle out of court, this would be a better option.
Customs recently intercepted 661 rifles imported through our ports, how do you think dockworkers can help secure the country?
The dockworkers can help, they have been doing a lot, they are whistle blowers, when there is any danger in the port they would raise alarm, but in the case of the arms, probably the container was not examined, this was why the customs have said that every officer who connived in the exit of the container would be arrested, if the container was examined, the dockworkers would have raised alarm. But probably due to the Nigerian factor, they (the arms importers) settled their way out of the ports, but by the grace of God, it was still apprehended.
You have talked about policies of government as they affect your members, what is the way out?
We are asking the government to relax some of these policies so that they can create jobs for the people, like we have said; most of the importers and manufacturers are unable to access forex. Second issue is security, the life of the people are at stake, investors do not want to come in, people are being kidnapped and robbed on daily basis, no electricity or good roads, how can people come in under such conditions.
The NJIC agreement you signed recently with NIMASA, how can it be of benefit?
The agreement we signed is not about areas of benefit, although one of the benefit is that dockworkers will not be relieved of their duty, the terminal operators are planning to relieve more workers of their jobs, but because we negotiated, the people would retain their jobs and the workers are happy, because we approached them before we took the decision.
Discussion about this post