Comrade Umar Jimoh Omeiza is the president, Senior Staff Association of Communications Transport and Corporation [SSACTAC] NPA branch. In this Interview with Roland Ekama, he spoke extensively on the transport sector and other sundry issues.
What informed the idea of organizing the recent workshop on pre – retirement in partnership with the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria [NPA Branch]?
Comrade Umar Jimoh Omeiza is the president, Senior Staff Association of Communications Transport and Corporation [SSACTAC] NPA branch. In this Interview with Roland Ekama, he spoke extensively on the transport sector and other sundry issues.
What informed the idea of organizing the recent workshop on pre – retirement in partnership with the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria [NPA Branch]?
The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria NPA branch and the entire unions in the country have the same fate. In other words, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria and Senior Staff Association of NPA have been working cordially to achieve a common goal, so it’s not really new to both unions. We consolidate in many areas, to ensure that our members who are people working in NPA benefit from us when they are about to go and also use their gratuity that will be given to them very well, the union will also give some assistance as a parting gift so that you will know how to manage your port folio when you leave service. We cannot do it alone, which is why we gave it out to consultant and it was well appreciated for which I must thank God; that we succeeded in that workshop. We have started and by the grace of God, we will not stop, we will continue to do it.
Has port concession done well for your association?
Generally you will not expect a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer from me because port concession, as far as I am concerned has its merits and demerits. A situation where you have to sack more than 8,000 people, excluding thousands of dockworkers who were also thrown out, in other words almost 15,000 lost their jobs is not fair and apart from the severance benefit that was given to them, nothing else came as incentive, this is not quite encouraging. When it comes to implementation, it was hurriedly implemented. When there is a change, we expect the negative and positive sides of it, workers of Nigeria Port Authority are paying the price and few of the concessionaires are leaving up to expectations. For instance, Dangote cement at Apapa port cannot pollute the port the way they are in other parts of the world, as I speak one of our members has lost his life as a result of the pollution and two others have holes in their heart as a result of inhaling the hazardous particles. Yet he the almighty Dangote can’t be moved because of the concession. Yes, NPA is a regulatory agency of the government, but they can’t regulate things as they used to.
What is the relationship between your union and the management of Nigeria Port Authority?
I will say it is very cordial, the relationship is formal and the management is also proactive which I will say is a great help to us .However we have issues before them and I believe as usual , they will attend to it because the Managing Director has come to unveil the new condition of service, some part of our pension that have accrued has been paid, this was as a result of his effort ,he paid our bonus for the year without any hurdles ,he is renovating the headquarters which to me is a credit on his part, but there are lots of things to be done which we are all working towards and as partners in progress, we believe that there is need to complement the efforts of management, but really the relationship has been cordial.
In your own opinion, how do you think Apapa traffic gridlock can be addressed?
We have said it times without number that the ports have been neglected for so long a period and the roads especially the access roads in the ports are in a bad shape and there is need to reconstruct these roads and of course, there is need to redirect our traffic. If you do not have any business in the ports, you don’t need to queue at the ports access roads or on any roads linking the ports. All we need to do is to ensure that the roads are repaired, we have what we call ‘authority to load’ when NPA was in charge; that is, if you are not with papers or document you cannot come around the port access road to queue or load. It is better that this is coordinated now because we have several concessionaires at the ports and it is competition among all of them and to me the competition among them is unhealthy. Let me tell you also that those trucks you are seeing are not coming to the ports alone because along Ibafon road alone we have more than 50 per cent of the trucks are coming to load fuel and the fuel dump shouldn’t be within the vicinity of the port locations however it is a general phenomenon; world over that tank farms are located in an isolated areas that is very far from residential and port environment. We have said this in 199, but nobody listened to our call and today this has been the consequences, at that time, we also said that if Nigeria must be a hub, most transport system in the country must be able to complement one another.
In your own opinion how can you describe the transport sector of the country?
We must encourage and ensure that our navigable waters are cleared so that we can have barges, smaller vessels and tugs that can navigate up to Lokoja where goods can be moved in batches which also involve the riverine areas. In other words, the rail must also be in place because it is when this is done that we can move forward and let me also tell you that on the short run, we should move to the present rail system but the rail system outside the port is not enough because it was meant for a purpose which was to evacuate produce from the north to the port for export , we had one from Enugu to evacuate coal to the port as well and as we speak those produce are no more there, how then can we talk of export. The main purpose of the rail is gone so we can say that the relevant of the rail system has been reduced drastically, we need to design rail network. When we are talking about rail, we cannot talk about the haulage of goods alone but we must also talk about passenger traffic, because you must move people from one destination to another. There must be a platform that can indicate that if I want to go to Lokoja from Lagos,how will I move? If I want to go to Ibadan, how do I move from Lagos? If we bring in the rail system that will be effective, road transportation will reduce and monies being spent on roads repair will reduce drastically. As a result of that, money expended on roads will drop. Some people might say that the purpose of the rail system has collapsed, but there are passengers that would love to travel by trail to their destination. The master plan of the rail is there and also the with government policy on ground we can take off from there.
Some stakeholders have allegedly stated that NPA is not monitoring the concessionaire properly, do you agree with that?
I will not agree with those who made such assertion because I do not know the area where the stakeholders are coming from. There is no way that such question can be generalized, the truth is that we cannot generalise that kind of question because when you do that, we are not been sincere with ourselves, none- the- les, are we talking about pricing of services at the port ,is NPA in charge now? What we used to have was that the pricing and clearing of the goods normally drop, but today it has tripled. It will please you to know that the concessionaires collect foreign currency on stevedoring. Even as it is, I must say that it is an error to give stevedoring to foreigners because when you say terminal concessioning, quay apron is not terminal therefore stevedoring activities shouldn’t be in the hands of concessionaires. It is called terminal concessioning, not quay apron concessioning; it is more than terminal concessioning. I must say that the Nigeria Port Authority is performing very well but the policies by Federal government and directives from the ministry and from the presidency are not helping matters as far as NPA operations are concerned. It is not because I am working under NPA,I am not the M.D or G.M, but the truth must be said and if they are not performing we are the first people that will say it loud and clear because we are the receiving end, so it will give the NPA a big kudos and a pass mark which to me is the highest that one can give, so when people say that NPA is monitoring the concessionaire very well, then I will strongly disagree because we will look at how the concessionaires, the port users as well as other stakeholders have benefitted from the authority.
As the president of SSACTAC, what have been your challenges as well as your achievements?
The way I will appraise myself is that I try as much as I can to be people- oriented because I am holding this office on trust, we have constitution, we have rules and regulations ,we have budgets year in year out which we also adhere to and it is worker- friendly because if it is not worker- friendly, we will not be able to do It ,it is also welfarist .If it has nothing to do with welfarism, we will not go into it because we take into considerations the welfare of our members ,taking into considerations our place of work that is what we do and this is how I can appraise myself and we stand for the truth for our members the whole truth and nothing but the truth, others are left for my members to judge.
What is your assessment of the maritime sector in the first quarter of the year 2012?
In the last quarter, you will see that the Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigeria Port Authority have both exposed opportunities and happenings at the ports. The maritime sector in the first half of the year was quite impressive following NPA‘s performance and that of Customs too because Customs has been able to meet their target annually and we are head above other west African countries when it comes maritime business. When combined together, you will agree with me that the industry performed better in the last three months of 2012. And if we continue in this direction, I have no doubt that Nigeria will be the hub in West and Central Africa. I will say that I am satisfied with the performance of the first quarter because if as a nation the budget for the year has just been presented by the President and before this time, these agencies have not got there budget approved, they were worried they could not move but they have started the implementation because right now Apapa port, contract for roads rehabilitation have been awarded, tug boats and other smaller ships have repaired and soon new ones are coming while the ones that do not suit NPA have been auctioned. Even as we speak, bigger vessels now come to Nigeria with cargoes and people have gone on training for those types of vessels and these cannot happen before, so the industry has fared well in the last quarter of 2012.
Are you in support of the reduction of government agencies in the maritime industry?
It is not a question of support or not, but, the question is: is it healthy for Nigeria to get six or seven parastatals attached to a ministry? And when you go deep to find out there functions you know that there is duplication of functions among these agencies of the government. Where you have a job where two or three agencies are doing one thing, whom do you take instructions from? Which do you accept? Before the present government came in, there was an agitation that Road Safety should be a department of the Police, but they say no. But really the job of road safety has already been enshrined in the police act. If the number of people in that profession is not enough, all you need to do is to enlarge your establishment, don’t shrink it and let them stand as departments on their own.
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