Engineer Mathew Alalade is the President of Merchant Navy and Water Transport Senior Staff Association. He spoke with Shipping Position Daily correspondent, Dapo Olawuni in Lagos recently on the implementation of Cabotage Act in Nigeria. He also said that the major reason seafarers steal on-board Nigerian owned vessels is because they are not well paid and catered for by their employers.
“The problem between seafarers and shipowners is that the shipowners want to cheat the seafarers by giving them peanuts as salaries”
What is the relationship like between you and the Navy?
Our relationship with the navy is cordial in the maritime industry, NIMASA who is the regulator recognizes us, and as a trade union gazetted by the Federal Government as merchant navy, in the transport industry we are well known and all the meetings with IMO and ILO we are being involved all the time so the relationship is cordial. In those days of the Nigerian National Shipping Line, we were always working together with the Navy, when there was a civil war insole of the west African countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, we took logistics to them and we took some of the officers onboard, at that time, I was still active and sailing, the navy complements us as sentries on their boats and they still complement us. If there is anything they needed, they usually come to our office here and if there is anything we need from them we go to NNS Beecroft in Apapa. I want to commend the Navy for clamping down on those who want to tarnish the image of the merchant navy.
Would you say that NIMASA is meeting the yearnings of Nigerian seafarers?
NIMASA is trying their best because they offered training programmes for seafarers, presently they are training some of our officers in dynamic positioning, I can say that are trying their best even if it is not up to what we are expecting. As a union we are supposed to be upgraded and our seafarers also need to be upgraded, there should be training in retirement, they should prepare our people down for retirement, it has been four years that we had this training and we want it to continue. We raised an alarm recently on the non-issuance of discharge book by NIMASA; we want to commend them that they have since started the issuance of the discharge book.
What is delaying implementation of the MLC 2006 and NJIC agreement on seafarers’ remuneration?
Late last year, the NIMASA called us for a meeting for the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC) to review the wages of the seafarers in Nigeria; the wages were last reviewed in 2010 even though it is supposed to be reviewed every two years. The present administration have however taken a good step by calling us, the meeting is still on, hopefully, we are going to come out with good resolutions on the wages and the condition of work for the seafarers. We had a meeting with the Nigerian ship owners last week; three weeks ago we had another meeting with the trawler owners over wages. The wages were not reviewed since 2010 due to neglect on the part of government, for 2012 and 2014 there was no review, but now the government has woken up from their slumber.
How optimistic are you that the NJIC review would be concluded this year?
I am very optimistic that we would come out with something this year. The meeting is interwoven as we look at the MLC 2006 and the Manila Convention 2010 as regards seafarers welfare, Nigeria is signatory to all these conventions. The meeting is progressing very well with our counterpart in the industry, the maritime workers union also involved. For now we have not reached the stage where we determine wages to be paid, but by next meeting we would determine this looking at the provisions of the IMO and the ILO.
In terms of sea robbery, how are the seafarers faring now?
It is only in the fishing sector that we get report of attacks, on the other merchant vessels, we don't hear such news. Compared to the last four years, piracy had reduced, the Government has done enough to sanitize our waters in terms of security, though there are little skirmishes here and there, but it is not so alarming like we usually have it four years ago.
There have been reports of increase in seafarers stealing products on board vessels, what steps do you take whenever you get such reports?
Let the shipowners come up with a standard salary for seafarers, the problem between seafarers and shipowners is that the shipowners wants to cheat the seafarers by giving them peanuts as salaries, this was why many of the seafarers do not depend on their salaries, they would rather depend on product sales. So it is a two-way thing. But by the time we come up with the NJIC agreement, all these will stop. During our days, we didn't put our eyes on the products, we depended on the salaries and thank God we are still surviving. The question is- why are they not stealing products from the foreigners? It is simply because the foreign vessels pay good salaries, but Nigerian shipowners don't pay good salaries, they don't provide good working condition and yet they do not want the union to come in and stand for the seafarers. The shipowners should come out and implement what the government says and the seafarers would be faithful with them. From our own members, we do not get such reports of stealing because the shipowners we work with, we are partners, we don't allow such practice in our union, and we have disciplinary measures against anyone who offends the law.
Do you support NIMASA's plans to adopt the UK Merchant Shipping Act?
It is strictly on the welfare of seafarers which the MLC 2006 and the Manila Convention seeks to achieve, when we are compliant, let the shipowners also be compliant and pay the required salary. A seafarer that has gone out of job would readily accept any salary you push at him, but he would compensate himself with stealing your product at the end of the day.To get the seafarers engaged, it is a tripartite agreement, the union must be involved, NIMASA and the shipowners would also be involved.
What is your take on the approach of the government in bringing back our national carrier?
I think the government is quite committed to this course. My advice is that they should kick-start the process with this Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF); the fund has been stagnated at NIMASA for a long time, they should disburse this money, by keeping it there all this while, what do they want to use it for? I know the government is committed, but let them dip hand into this money so that there would be jobs for Nigerian seafarers and sea time for the cadets. Some of the Nigerian ship owners have tried their best in offering their vessels for sea time to cadets, but it is not all of them that have complied, I believe the government should partner them on this.
Cabotage is not being implemented after about 13 years; it has only succeeded 30 per cent; however we want more from the government side so that it would give our Nigerian shipowners a soft landing and the leeway to operate, thereby creating jobs for seafarers. Government should remove the numerous waiver clauses in the Act, this has allowed the foreigners to infiltrate our shipping sector, and government should find a way to encourage the shipowners so that there would be job for our members too.
You promised a permanent secretariat for this union, how far have you gone with it?
Yes, it is true I promised to build a permanent secretariat but till now, due to the low purse of the association, we could not accomplish it. What we first did was to sanitize our membership because we were having a lot of our members being harassed by security agencies, but now we have stopped this by withdrawing all our old identification cards and introduced new ones with two years expiration date. Another thing my regime did was the discharge book, we talked to the government and they listened to us, on the NJIC we are still looking into it. So, in terms of the secretariat, we are still working towards it, the economic recession had slowed things down for us; the income that we depended on was not coming.
Our major challenge is funding, we want our permanent secretariat at Apapa area where there is maritime activities close to the port, we wanted to approach the NPA for help in this regard, but we found out that most of their offices are currently being concessioned, but we are on it.
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