The Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria has declared total confidence Comrade Onikolease Irabor as the president general of the union.
The development is a curious dimension to the lingering face-off between Comrade Irabor and a branch of the union which about three weeks ago declared that it had lost confidence in the union’s president general.
The shipping and courier branch of the union had after its branch working committee meeting in Lagos on September 12, 2008 dissociated itself from the activities of Irabor alleging several misdemeanours.
The meeting was said to have been presided over by the branch president, Comrade Edwin Ogbonna and attended by all members of the branch.
Shipping Position Weekly confirmed that since the action of the shipping and courier branch, there have been several attempts to broker peace between Ogbonna and Irabor to no avail, the latter has reportedly called the bluff of the former, saying that one branch can not hold the union to ransom and that the full wrath of the MWUN Central Working Committee should be visited on the erring president of the shipping branch.
But in a swift reaction to the face-off, the NPA to which Irabor belong also met in Lagos on September 16, 2008, that is four days after the shipping branch’s meeting to throw its weight behind its ‘son’.
The meeting which was attended by 33 members of the NPA branch’s working committee rose to condemn the shipping branch’s outburst declaring it as “unwarranted, misleading and calculated to cause confusion in the maritime sector”.
According to the NPA workers, “since March 2001 when Comrade Peter Onikolease Irabor assumed office as the President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria till now, the maritime sector has witnessed unprecedented peace particularly in her ports, terminal and industrial units”.
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They attributed the prevailing peace to the good leadership quality of Comrade Irabor and stressed that he adopted dialogue, informal discussions to solve workers problems.
In the communiqué which was made available to Shipping Position Weekly after its meeting, the NPA branch stated that “to associate such a leader that believes in discussion with dictatorial tendencies as alleged by the shipping and courier branch is fraught with mischief and should be condemned and ignored by all peace loving people, workers and management alike”.
Shipping Position Weekly however confirmed that the current discontent coming from the shipping branch is not unconnected with the forthcoming elections of new executives for the MWUN.
By March, 2009, the current tenure of Comrade Irabor and his fellow executives lapse, hence the high wire horse trading.
A source told Shipping Position Weekly that the contest for the new president general may have been narrowed to the dockworkers branch as well.
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