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For good eight years, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, the immediate past President General of the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria, MWUN, bestrode Nigeria’s maritime landscape like a colossus.
He was the No1 maritime labour leader in Nigeria. His name sent jitters across blue chip corporate boardrooms. He was a no-nonsense labour leader. His loud voice was heard even beyond the shores of Nigeria . He was fearless, uncompromising. As one prepared for his role, he came equipped with all the virtues of what a good leader should be. His integrity, communication and emotional skills , intelligence, adaptability, courage, vision, resilience and empathy were top notch .
These were the qualities which Adeyanju adopted to build trust, motivate his team to navigate through the myriad of challenges he inherited from his predecessors.
And today, this global icon of labour movement will go down in history as the most impactful and successful President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria.
Comrade Adeyanju’s signature achievements dot the nooks and crannies of Nigeria’s maritime landscape, which even the blind can attest to. For instance, Adeyanju will take credit for the landmark agreement on minimum standards of condition of service for workers in the shipping industry which saw a raise from the meagre N30,000 minimum wage to about N200,000 monthly. The same scenario played out with the dockworkers now earning a “living wage”.
At the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Adeyanju was able to break an 18-year-old myth where salary increase was stagnated . On the international scene, the erstwhile MWUN boss was able to commit the International Transport Federation, which has approved about 500,000 euros for the construction of a befitting recreational centre in Nigeria. These and many other such programmes and projects have left Adeyanju’s shoes too big for his successor, Francis Bunu, to step into.
Not to talk about the relative peace in the sector in the last eight years.
On the contrary, not much was known about Comrade Francis Bunu, this Ijaw-born labour activist who, like his predecessor, rose through the ranks to get to his present position.
As a seafarer and a former Deputy President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Bunu, as the favoured successor of Adeyanju, did not have to work too hard to pick up the ticket.
Soft spoken and described as one with a deceptive humility, observers believe he may not have won in a free and fair election had Adeyanju not “cleared the road” for him to emerge unchallenged.
With barely six months in office, Bunu would have to count on the continued backing and support of his former boss, Adeyanju, if he must enjoy a seamless loyalty from members of the union. Some stakeholders see him almost as a direct opposite of what Comrade Adewale Adeyanju stands for in terms of his style of leadership and application of native intelligence in conflict resolution.
Why some see him as arrogant and a bully, others say it is unfair to compare his six months stewardship with that of his predecessor who held sway for eight years.
But Adeyanju says he has no regrets picking Bunu, insisting “he is the best hand in the pack.” For a labour leader named as Maritime Man of the Year by the management of the Nigerian Maritime Administration And Safety Agency, NIMASA, on account of his sterling eight-year performance, Adeyanju believes Comrade Francis Bunu is well equipped and has the capacity and cognate experience to take the union to its preferred destination, and appealed to all stakeholders to support him.
But whether Bunu is on track or not will be determined in the next 42 months when his first four years tenure will face the peoples’ referendum when the entire membership of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria will go to the polls. Only time will tell.
