Follow Us on Google
By Bimbola Oyesola
The Presidential Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) has expressed its readiness to collaborate with the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) to entrench sanity in port operations.
This is even as the PSTT has saved over N3.2 billion for the government in nine months since it was inaugurated by the Federal Government to oversee the affairs of the nation’s maritime sector.
At a meeting with the leadership of the MWUN at the union’s secretariat in Lagos, national coordinator of the task team, Moses Fadipe, noted that the intervention of the PSTT saved government the colossal amount between March and December 2021.
“Between 3rd March to 26th December Federal Government saved N3.2 billion as a result of our intervention, which has now reduced delay in port operations, not only in Lagos but Port Harcourt and Onne,” he said.
He said that the PSTT is a child of circumstance brought in because agencies are not doing what is expected of them.
“Maritime is a cash cow, which can sustain the economy, if well utilised, our responsibilities to monitor, enforce and streamline operations at the ports. Monitor the activities right from inception to the departure of vessels. Goverment officials don’t just board vessels now indiscriminately. They are now to spend only 45 minutes and should not be more than three, while for Customs and Immigration only two personnels and must not spent more than 30 minutes,” he said.
Noting that members of maritime workers, as stakeholders, would be incorporated into the team, the PSTT coordinator appealed to the workers to ensure that they are not manipulated by officials of Customs and Immigration to take samples out of the ports, warning that anyone caught would be prosecuted.
The MWUN president-general, Adewale Adeyanju, in his address, said the union would be willing to assist the Presidency to ensure the success of the task team, but stated that it was important too that the task team should carry MWUN and its entire membership along so that it does not look as if the team had moved into the union’s front yard, to operate in isolation.
He described the present crop of maritime workers as highly trained, reformed, oriented and motivated Nigerians, whose first and primary loyalty is to the country, rather than to either themselves or any self-serving groups.
Subsequently, he warned, that any of his members caught, in carrying samples would be disowned and dismembered.
He assured that the MWUN leadership would not ever support illegality under any guise.
He said, “Don’t allow any official of Customs to use you to carry samples giving us a bad name. Let them go and take it themselves. Yours is to open the container, do your work professionally. Those samples belongs to Nigerians like us and it’s wrong to steal them. This union will not allow it.”
He commended the PSTT team, noting that what they are doing is for the benefit of the nation, hence would ensure that none of the union member is used by other agencies in the port to sabotage the team.
