The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has raised serious concerns over the insufficient oversight provided by the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), which it blames for the ongoing non-compliance of International Oil Companies (IOCs) with regulations concerning stevedoring contractors.
Despite several interventions and agreements that were aimed at ensuring that the IOCs allow proper access and operations for stevedoring contractors, findings by our correspondent reveal that compliance remains patchy and largely insufficient, leading to renewed calls for action from maritime workers.
In a chat with our correspondent, the President General of MWUN, Com. Adewale Adeyanju expressed deep frustration with the IOCs’ disregard for the agreements, highlighting that the promised transparency and adherence have not materialized.
He said: “The agreement has already elapsed, and we were assured by the NPA that 60 to 70 percent of the IOCs had complied. Yet, we still don’t have the names of those who have complied or allowed stevedoring contractors to work freely in their formations,” Adeyanju stated.
He lamented that the union’s dissatisfaction stems from the NPA’s failure to enforce the agreed terms robustly and provide a clear list of compliant IOCs, which has resulted in what the union describes as ‘half compliance’.
Also, in a chat with our correspondent, Mr Bolaji Sunmola, President of the National Association of Stevedoring Operators (NASO) reiterated the issue, explaining that “there are still restricted work areas where our members cannot fully take charge.
“We have compliance on two levels, the full compliance and the half compliance. So, I would say we have more of the half, 50% compliance level. Let me say that we are at that. Hopefully, we are on that stretch now. We have 50-50 compliance. The full compliance is what we are yet to have now.
“The half compliance simply means there is a restricted work area, there are still restricted work areas that members are not allowed to be there”, he said.
