Comrade Adewale Adeyanju is the President of the Dockworkers’ Branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN)He was recently re-elected for a second term, a clear manifestation of the confidence the reposed in him.Our correspondent; Dapo Olawuni spoke with him recently and he opened up on the welfare of Nigerian dockworkers and related issues.
Recently, there was an accident involving a dockworker at the Five Star Logistics terminal and now another one died at the terminal what are you doing about these strings of accidents?
It is unfortunate that we lost a bonafide dockworker at Five Star Logistics while performing his official duty, accidents will never ring a bell, it just comes, but we don’t pray for it. But the safety procedure in Five Star logistics is so porous, if there is adequate safety on ground with life jackets, the boy would have survived the death, we are now trying to make sure that all the terminal operators in all Nigerian seaports provide life jackets onboard vessels, this is the primary objective we have in mind to do now and we are going to start doing it as from next month.
The dockworker that died before this one, what step did you take?
There is nobody that died; the two dockworkers involved are still in the hospital recovering, I am fully aware, nobody died apart from the one that died on Saturday.
The one that died on Saturday, what is the union doing about it?
We have a standard, anybody that gave up like that, we negotiate through the terminal operators and the P&I club for adequate compensation for the family.
I also gathered that when the corpse was later recovered it has been eaten up by fishes?
I think this is a blatant lie, the guy has been buried on Sunday, I was fully on ground on Sunday, the corpse was retrieved from the sea around 10 o’clock in the morning and it was buried around 12’o clock at Agege burial ground. I have the pictures which were brought to me this morning, the body was fully intact and it has been buried according to Muslim rites.
What are you doing in terms of welfare and to even forestall future occurrence of such?
In terms of welfare we are 100 percent on ground, and like I said earlier we have a standard, standard for anyone that got injured onboard the vessels, standard for those that even lost their lives, we make sure that we collect adequate compensation from the terminal operator through the P&I club, their welfare is 100 percent okay. We are trying our best to make sure that we even improve upon it this year. The safety is what I think you and I should focus on, if you go round the terminal it is only few of the terminal operators that are safety conscious and believe in the safety of their workers. If a worker is working aboard a vessel, it is not all of them that knows how to swim, what you need to do is to provide life jackets, life jackets are supposed to be on standby, but they are not having it, this is why the union is standing up now to make sure that these things are put in place, and any terminal we find wanting, we will make sure that we protest and carry placard against that terminal, because we cannot continue to lose our members on daily basis.
What is your reaction to the statement made recently by owner of Ibru jetty; Oscar Ibru, that dockworkers are touts and rogues?
I think the Minister of Transport was able to caution the man that used that foul language, so I don’t need to repeat myself again, and the man has come up to apologise on behalf of himself and the company he works for. We respect the minister who quickly intervened on that matter, the dockworkers of today are not touts, it’s just that the man is still living in the past, some of the dockworkers in the ports today are graduates, we have masters and even PhD holders, today’s dockworkers are responsible dockworkers, the era of touts and touting has been buried years ago.
Really, so what is the difference between dockworkers of now and the pre-concession dockworkers?
There is a lot of changes, the port reform have changed the lives of dockworkers, though not up to the standard we want but we are enjoying it, we are only praying that they should improve upon it, before now, dockworkers do not have condition of service but today we have it. If somebody is leaving the ports now, unlike before where they just pay you peanuts and you get out of the port, but today we can negotiate their exit from the port, if you are leaving the job now we can negotiate with the terminal operator, things have changed and they have been complying.
Are the dockworkers also being restricted by private jetties owners not to work at these jetties?
They have restricted us not to work at jetties because of the unknown, you were at the meeting and you heard what the Federal Government said; now the directive has been given that both onboard, ashore and offshore, it is the job of dockworkers. The Federal Government has even lessen our job by telling us that directive has been given to jetty owners that they should allow dockworkers to operate in these jetties, we are just waiting for time now, the minister has already helped us, he has given us mandate and this is what we are going to apply now to make sure that any jetty owner that refuses the dockworkers to work, we will carry placard against that jetty owners.
I heard that this happens mostly at the oil jetties?
Yes, we are being restricted because of their illegalities, why should they deny Nigerians from working at the jetties if they do not have secrets in their operations. You know we said it at the meeting that some of them do operate in the night without the security agents being aware, why must they disallow Nigerians from working at the jetty if not because they are hiding some illegalities.
In view of the security challenges in the country, would you want government to close these jetties?
Why do we have security agents? I think what we need to do is to empower NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy to be on ground, we will not ask them to close down the jetty because this will not allow dockworkers to work. The government should focus more on these private jetty owners because of their illegalities, if government close private jetties they will be creating unemployment, we should allow the security agents to have more focus on the jetties, we have the navy, the government should empower the navy to do their job, we have the marine police, they should allow them to do their job, if they are on ground, nobody will perpetrate any act of insecurity at any jetty.
The rally your union held recently to commend President Goodluck Jonathan has been described as political, how true is this?
We are not PDP and we are not ACN, we are pure trade unions, we practice what we call pure trade unionism. If people are saying that it is more or less political, I think that is their own cup of tea, if in the past we have been having good leaders at the helms of affairs at NIMASA regulating us, the lives of dockworkers would have changed, but this one came in under one and half year and he has been supporting the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria through adequate training of our members, recently we sent about 40 people to Dubai for training, this has not been happening before, we are not PDP, ACN or CPC, if the president is good we must give him that respect that the man is good, because he has spent billions of Naira for training of dockworkers and seafarers, so what we did was just to shower encomium on him and to thank him for what he is doing in the lives of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, dockworkers and seafarers.
How has the training affected your operations?
The effect is what you are enjoying in my office now, you can come in and go without anybody stopping you, unlike before, you know the lives of dockworkers, and this is why that man used that dirty language at the Federal Palace Hotel, the dockworkers today have been reformed to standard because of the training programmes that all of us are embarking upon, and we still employ NIMASA, and other stakeholders, including the terminal operators to support the dockworkers for more training. It is the training that brings about knowledge, if you are not learned, you cannot be anything, but through training you can be president, governor or be a minister, so what we are enjoying today is as a result of good transformation from good leaders.
Is it only NIMASA that has been handling your training?
It is only the NIMASA and the union, our President General; Anthony Nted Emmanuel is the one bankrolling most of these training programmes we have been embarking on from his own pocket
Of recent, there has been relative peace and quiet between dockworkers and their employers; does this mean there are no challenges?
This is telling all of you that we have good leaders, all is not well yet, but we have no problems with some of the terminal operators. We have problems with those ones that believe they can milk dockworkers and go scot free, what we are enjoying today is because the leadership of this union are being respected by the workers, we fight for them as at when due, we get their right for them as at when due. We do not compromise with any terminal operator, but the difficult ones among them know themselves and we are dealing with them scientifically, not by violence, you know that unionism today is scientific, you discus on round table and you get your result, it isnot by banging tables like in the past, now things have changed, there are lots of improvements for the dockworkers, from the terminal operators and from their leaders. There are other challenges, the traffic in the port is very low, you know that a dog that is well fed will not make trouble with its owners, and if there is no vessel in the port you know the mentality of dockworkers, we are appealing to Mr. President to remove most of the bad policies that are affecting the poor workers in the port, there is no traffic, vessels are not coming, and this are the bigger challenges that we are having today. Dockworkers are being paid according to daily tonnages and some of them that are even permanent staff; because of the drift in economy they are being sacked. For example, SDV has sacked about 19 dockworkers; Brawal terminal has also sacked about 20 dockworkers because there is no job.
What do you think is responsible for the low vessel traffic?
I think that question should be directed to the President because of government programmes, banning of so many items from being imported and this is affecting us, they should review these policies, presently, the poor people cannot afford to buy a bag of rice.
What is the situation now at ENL terminal that handles most of the rice importation?
For the past seven to eight months, I don’t think there has been any rice vessel at ENL, for the past eight months we have had no rice vessel in the whole port because of the high tariff on the commodity. I think they should remove the tariff, how many people can afford to eat Abakaliki rice or Ofada rice? Is it really available? These are the questions.
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