The President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, has given reasons the union is insisting that the International Oil Companies (IOCs) must comply with stevedoring regulations in the country.
The MWUN PG, in a chat with our correspondent, stated that the IOCs refusal to allow dockworkers at the terminal could be because the IOCs may have been short-changing the Federal Government at the terminal.
He also said that the IOCs have flooded the operational areas with foreigners at the expense of local Nigerians and in breach of statutory regulations, including the Local Content Act, NIMASA Act that prescribe indigenising of the workforce.
He informed that the law stipulates that government-appointed and NIMASA-registered stevedores and dockworkers shall be allowed access by the IOCs to the operational areas allocated to them by the NPA.
He alleged that there are things the IOCs are hiding and lamented that up till now, the Federal Government has failed to compel the IOCs to comply with the statutory regulations.
“It is regrettable and painful that the Federal Government and its agencies especially the Ministry of Transportation and NPA, for the past four years have failed to compel the IOCs to, not only comply with the statutory regulations, but to also comply with the communique reached at the stakeholders’ meeting of 2018.
“We have endured enough promises and the usual government gimmicks of ‘we are looking at the matter’. After several deceptions and unfulfilled promises, we decided to take our destiny into our hands. We believe that these IOCs have some things to hide which they do not want Nigerians to be aware of, and this is especially bothersome in this era of increasing insecurity across the country.
“We need to ask why the IOCs are afraid to allow registered and approved Stevedores and Dockworkers access to their operational areas as prescribed by the law. The Federal Government and our members (dockworkers) have lost a huge sum of money both in revenue and wages” he said.
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