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Two industrial
unions in the Nigerian maritime industry are set to cripple activities
at the nation's seaports Tuesday over a proposed amendment to the
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Act.
The protest, which
would take place simultaneously in all the nation's seaports, would be
organised by the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and the Senior
Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporation
(SSACTAC), Maritime Branch.
Sources close to
the unions told THISDAY that the protest was to force the hands of the
National Assembly, which had refused to respond to their letter written
last June, expressing opposition to the proposed amendment.
Already, the Ports
and Harbours Authority Bill, 2015 which seeks to repeal the Nigerian
Ports Authority Act 1955 as amended, has been passed by the Senate and
is awaiting the concurrence of the House of Representatives.
The bill was sponsored by a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Nicholas Ossai.
MWUN had petitioned
the Speaker of the House of Representatives over the bill, saying that
it would lead to massive job losses for NPA workers.
They also pointed out several economic and security implications of the bill if passed.
When contacted,
Secretary General of the union, Mr. Felix Akingboye, confirmed the
imminent protests but refused to give details.
He said
"We are mobilising our members in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onne, Warri and
Calabar for the demonstration. It will hold simultaneously in all the
ports from 6am to 6pm on Tuesday. We are opposed to any attempt to
further strip Nigerians of our patrimony through further concession in
the guise of amending the NPA Act 1955 as amended.
"The promoters of
the Bill are only after their personal interests and this is to
concession the harbour operations of NPA to private individuals,
whereas, all over the world, harbour operation is an exclusive duty of
government because of the security implications and huge revenue
generation."
According to him,
"The proposed bill has great security and revenue risks for the federal
government and it would lead to a mass sack of NPA workers. We have
carefully perused the Bill and the existing NPA Act of 1955 as amended.
"We cannot see any
deficiency in the present NPA Act that warranted the Bill except for the
latent intention of its promoters to corner for themselves harbour
operations, which are major revenue earners for the NPA and by extension
the federal government without taking into consideration the security
implications to the country."
The government, he
stated, should avoid the same mistakes of the ports' concession of 2006
which led to the sack of 12,000 NPA workers.
The President
General of MWUN, Mr. Adewale Adeyanju, said the workers would not allow
politicians to further strip the ports through the bill.
"We are aware of
their plans. When the bill was being debated they did not invite
critical stakeholders. How can you be amending the Ports' Act without
taking the opinion of port workers? We are not going back on this." he
said
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