The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) yesterday criticized the Minister of Works, Power and Housing; Mr Babatunde Fashola for allegedly paying lip service to the bad access roads leading to the nation’s seaports, especially Lagos ports.
The union consequently issued urged the management of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to apply palliative measures on the bad spots.
President General of MWUN; Comrade Adewale Adeyanju who was accompanied by a top delegation of NPA management for an on-the-spot assessment of the dilapidated Tin Can Port road, lamented that the Federal Government, terminal operators and other port stakeholders are losing huge revenue daily as a result of the bad roads.
He lamented that a large number of dockworkers are currently facing redundancy and are on the verge of losing their jobs because vessels no longer find Nigerian ports attractive for business.
Adeyanju noted that the union already lost two of its members in 2017 as a result of the bad access roads to the port.
He warned that if the situation continues unabated, the union will have no choice than to withdraw its members’ services from the port all over the country.
He urged the NPA management to apply palliative measures on the road before the raining season, saying that if this happens, the port will no longer be accessible.
"We have given ultimatum, but it is not about ultimatum anymore, it is about total show down, and for us to see what is on ground, the NPA Managing Director yesterday together with her ED Finance and Administration as well as other top management agreed for us to do an assessment of the road today (Thursday) so that we can have palliative measures applied"
"If you go inside the port now, you can hardly see two vessels there, at ENL where we normally have up to six vessels, it is only one that is there, so there is diversion of vessels to other countries close to us and this is affecting our members, it is equally affecting the revenue drive of the terminal operators and the NPA"
"When the ships are not coming, the management may think otherwise, and to stop this, we have decided to come out and cry to the whole world that enough is enough"
"If the rain should start any moment from now, you will not see any vessel again in the port’’, he stressed.
Comrade Adeyanju said the union is equally looking for ways to collaborate with transport owners, because according to him, the truckers are contributing to the problems.
He declared that: "The transporters are not helping matters, if you don't have anything to do at the port, you must not come to the port"
"We are not going to rest on this matter, we will continue to disturb them, the Minister of Works is the owner of the road, but what efforts has he put in place? No effort"
Also speaking at the road inspection, President of NPA branch of MWUN, Comrade Ifeayin Mazeli lamented that port workers are facing a lot of stress daily in order to access their offices in Apapa.
Also speaking with our correspondent during the inspection, Engineer Mohammed, General Manager Engineering of NPA assured that the NPA will apply palliative measures on the failed portions of the road from Coconut bus stop up to the 2nd gate area of Tin Can port.
He acknowledged that it is now proving difficult to evacuate cargoes from the ports and this is having negative effect on NPA revenue.
"There is no doubt the road is in a deplorable state and NPA management has been trying its best in proffering solutions to it. We have been holding regular meetings with the ministry of works"
"Once the road is in a bad state, evacuation of cargoes become a problem and this is affecting our own revenue, this is why we always come in to intervene by carrying out palliative measures on the stressed portion of the road and we would continue to do that"
"When we can back to the office now, we will map out to address critical areas that when done will improve on the flow of traffic" he said
The road inspection exercise yesterday commenced from Apapa port and terminated the Tin Can Island Port.
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