Even as the Maritime Workers Union if Nigeria (MWUN) has officially lifted ban on electioneering campaign into various offices in the coming elections into its four branches, not less than 13 candidates have indicated interest to contest for the coveted position of President of dockworkers branch of the union.
President General of MWUN; Comrade Adewale Adeyanju disclosed this at the weekend during a send forth party organised for the former presidents of the four branches of the union at the Festac Town resident of its immediate past President General; Comrade Tony Nted In Lagos.
Adeyanju said that 13 candidates have emerged from the dockworkers branch alone and that this is giving him night mares.
While confirming the election time table to Shipping Position Daily exclusively, Adeyanju said that the election into two branches; Seamen and NIWA branch, and Shipping and Courier branch would hold Lagos on 25th of April.
He also confirmed that tentatively, the NPA branch and the Dockworkers branch election is billed to hold in Abuja on 2nd of May 2017, after the May Day rally.
While making an appeal to his predecessor Tony Nted who hosted members of the union to intervene, Adeyanju said: “I am having sleepless nights from your constituency where both of us came from; the a dockworkers branch. Presently I am having 13 contestants for one seat and I continue having bad dreams. So I want to know the tonic you used that you were not having nightmares. I want you to please talk to them, and I am going to talk to them as well"
"We have various offices under the dockworker’s branch, we wanted to prune them down to at least one or two and that what we are going to do. We don't want a situation whereby it would degenerate into conflict"
"We have about eight positions in the branch; the president, vice president, the treasurer, the trustees and the auditor and one other special female member, and currently we have thirteen"
"We have just declared it open, people are yet to pick forms, until when we resume fully on Tuesday, then we would be able to know those contesting for the president and other offices"
"In the other branches, we don't have any contentious issues. I and the executive are trying to put our house in order so that we don't have friction"
"The seafarers and shipping branch election would come up on the 25th of April in Lagos, while the dockworkers and NPA branch have been fixed tentatively for 2nd of May 2017 after the May day rally in Abuja" he said
Responding, former to Adeyanju’s concerns, former PG MWUN, Comrade Tony Nted Emmanuel advised Adeyanju to rest assured that there would not be crisis in the coming elections.
He noted that elections into the union are by consensus, but that if all 13 candidates refused to reach an agreement and settlement, they should be allowed to slug it out at the polls.
"This time, we are not going to have another Dahiru in our midst, all the time we have been having elections, it is always in agreement and consensus, but if everybody wants to contest election and they did not fight anybody, they do not go to babalawo, they should all contest, at the end of the day the vote would be counted and whoever won would become the president"
"But if there is wise counsel, we can always agree on sharing the positions, but if this does not work, we allow them go to the poll"
"Thirteen people can never be president of the dock workers branch for God's sake, we need just one person that we can manage and it is not for us to choose" Tony said.
Discussion about this post