No doubt, the Nigerian dockworker has gone through several years of transformation, especially since the pre-port concession years.
Even before then, there used to be Dockworkers Union of Nigeria (DUN), which was one of the four unions that were merged to form the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).
The Dockworkers union was so powerful that it took a very determined Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to get its buy-in for the four bodies to merge into what is now known as the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria.
Before going far, let us reminiscence on some of the perceived attributes of the Nigerian dockworker, prior to port concession. They were seen to be very violent, and always agitated. They were perceived as being largely illiterate. In the area of employment, they had no identifiable employer that can be held accountable for their remuneration. In the area of their activities in the ports, the union and its members had free access to cargoes on board ships. Sometimes, they pilfer too or forcefully take portions of such cargoes. Importantly too, one sharp practice that was prevalent was Akugbe (a local coinage for defrauding the cargo handing companies and stevedoring companies).
The union leaders were directly involved in placement of dockworkers at the various terminals. For doing this, the leadership (or more precisely the President General) put less men on the job, collected wages for the men, paid them what he felt was okay for them and pocketed the rest. Surprisingly and sadly too, the average dockworkers had to live with it. It was the era where naked force and brute ruled.
The PG of the MWUN, the branch President and on to the leaders of the various lower echelons were lords – unquestionable!
And to underscore the strength of dockworkers, the first President General of the MWUN (Comrade Uzoije Ukaumunna) was a dockworker. He ruled over the union for many years, turning dockworkers to tin gods in the ports, so powerful was he that he could order that a particular ship must not berth and no one (not even the MD of NPA) could reverse the illegal directive until ‘the union’ got its due and the boss was pleased.
He and of course, dockworkers were so powerful that Government, realised that for its port reform programme to succeed, it must start the reform the union. The removal of the Ukaumunna-led executives was reportedly based on petitions from users and providers of port services to the effect that the leadership of the union had become a near-terrorist organisation; intimidating shipping companies, harassing the management of Nigerian Ports Authourity (which was at that time, the master stevedore) and also intimidating other groups. Ukaumunna was a dockworker, and most of the atrocities were being committed by dockworkers. The incumbent President General of the union; Comrade Tony Nted Emmanuel is also a dockworker.
Back to the present, undoubtedly, the port concession effectively addressed all of the above atrocities of the Nigerian dockworker and the union’s leadership.
So it seemed, until recent developments which exposed the plight of dockworkers. It is also instructive that issues bordering on employment status, remuneration, welfare and sadly, influx of unregistered dockworkers are coming up about 10 years into port concession.
There have been deaths of many dockworkers, there have been many industrial accidents leading to permanent injuries to the workers. Recently, there were protests at the ENL Terminal, where aggrieved dockworkers alleged that they were yet to be given employment letters, 10 years after they were engaged by the terminal operator.
In all of these, one alarming development is the come-back of dockworkers who are no longer engaged in the ports. There are confirmations that they are back, and that they are being accommodated by the leadership of the dockworkers at the unit and district levels.
We are also at a loss about the recent statement credited to the DG of NIMASA to the effect that the agency would soon commence registration of dockworkers and issuance of biometric identity cards to them.
Does this mean that NIMASA does not have a database on dockworkers? If so, how has it been coordinating their activities?
One fact is obvious since the merger of NMA with JOMALIC to form NIMASA, the new agency is still living in the garb of the old NMA, which had nothing to do with dockworkers. If NIMASA has its way, it would wish that aspect of its responsibility away.
We are happy that this was alluded to by the DG of NIMASA; Dr Dakuku Peterside last week when he met with the maritime media. He said even though NMA is dead , the legacy baby NIMASA is still being nurtured the NMA way.
History will judge him if he is able to redirect this, and one way by which this can be done is to see dockworkers and he sees other composites of the agency, it shouldn’t be seen purely as a maritime labour issue and not a core NIMASA case.
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