By Steve Agbota
The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has rejected the plans by the Federal Government to refloat the Nigeria National Shipping Line (NNSL), 28 years after its liquidation during the regime of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.
This is even as the union described the plans as a mirage, even as it condemned the Minister for failing to carry the union along in its projections.
The President -General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Adewale Adeyanju in a statement on Wednesday lamented that after 28 years of NNSL liquidation, the affected workers are yet to be paid their benefits.
Adeyanju, in a statement issued by the Union’s Head of Media, John Kennedy Ikemefuna, said that the fallouts of NNSL liquidation, especially the unpaid benefits of its former employees, must be resolved amicably before any re-floating under whatever guise could be discussed.
“The Union is now having a different view of the Minister when he did not speak about the aged seafarers who navigated with the defunct national carrier vessels over the new NNSL proposal.
“The MWUN, whose major challenges have not been resolved over the years with several Ministers of Transportation as regards the settlement of retiree-aged seafarers and other issues confronting the blue economy, which has not been given a clear-cut definition and mode of operation, is still worrisome to the Union as we speak,” he said.
He added that the refloating of a new NNSL will be a mirage if the retired seafarers, who worked tirelessly with a deep sense of patriotism for the country, are not given their due rights after 28 years of service on the national carrier vessels.
He said this would only amount to human injustice of the highest order, saying that it will also be tantamount to placing the cart before the horse if such a proposition is in the pipeline without first thinking of the aged seafarers.
“We, as a labour union, will not sit aloof and watch our aged seafarers continue to suffer unnecessary penury after meritorious years of service to their fatherland. It is true that some of the elderly seafarers have died from various ailments, some from psychological torture and trauma, mental degradation, abject poverty, and so on, that weighed them down in depression.
“It would be recalled that the former Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, set up a committee involving two ministries, the Ministry of Transportation and the Labour Ministry, respectively. The said committee was charged with the responsibility of carrying out the physical verification exercise of the aged seafarers, which the Union thought would have brought some sort of succor, but to no avail. It is indeed unfortunate to say here that the committee has never met.
“So, where do we go from here, when you want to re-float the NNSL with no consideration to the Seafarers who served the defunct carrier vessels? This is unheard of anywhere globally. Therefore, any plan for a new NNSL is a mirage in its conception, except when the needful is done,” he stated.
He hinted that the blue economy that is on the lips of every Nigerian today emerged as a global concept in 2012. Therefore, the said that the union’s position as far as the new ministry is concerned cannot function without the inclusion of MWUN in all its ramifications.
“Hence, the Union must be part of the policy process, which must be seen to conform with the rules of social inclusion and collaboration, because the blue economy must be seen to strengthen social equity order; hence, our disposition, given the aged Seafarers debacle, which is yet to receive serious attention.
“The President-General, who doubles as the Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, had before now prayed for the Minister to look into the nagging issue of the seafarers to see how he could bring it to a logical conclusion,” he added.
However, Prince Adeyanju who promised the Minister of the Union’s support towards making sure that the nation achieves much in the sector in his tenure, also frowned at the Minister’s projection on the refloating of a new NNSL when he visited Lagos without putting into cognisance the plight of the disengaged aged seafarers, who were parts and parcels of the defunct national carrier as it were.
“It will be unkind to the Union to hear any assertion by the Minister regarding a new NNSL without carrying along the previously disengaged seafarers concerning their entitlements, which have not been fully settled,” he explained.