Rowdy activities expected today in seaports as maritime workers protest new bill
Security agencies will today, Tuesday have a lot in their hands to contend especially around the seaports formations and allied areas where maritime workers ply their trade as they are set to put paid to their announced plans to stage nationwide protests over what they described as unnecessary amendment to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Act.
The major target driving the planned protest today is to further discourage the House of Representative who is yet to pass the Ports and Harbours Authority Bill, 2015 seeking to repeal the Nigerian Ports Authority Act, 1955 as amended which had already been passed by the Senate.
The bill will need the concurrent passage by both chambers before being sent the presidency for assent. Currently, the bill was sponsored by a member of the House of Representatives, Nicholas Ossai.
According to the protest plan sighted by Business Hilights on Monday in Lagos, “The workers will stage the protests simultaneously in all the nation’s seaports. The protests are being jointly organised by the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and the Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporations, (SSACTC) Maritime Branch.
Earlier in a statement on Sunday, the duo said “the decision to embark on the protests was because there had been no response to their letter, which they wrote to the National Assembly in June this year”.
The joint body had in the letter, clearly expressed their opposition to the bill for the amendment of the Act, saying the workers would not allow politicians and their supporters to further strip the ports through the bill.
President General of MWUN, Mr. Adewale Adeyanju, said “When the bill was being debated, there was no invitation to critical stakeholders, especially during the public hearing. How can you be amending the Ports Act without taking the opinion of port workers? We are not going back on this (planned strike)”.
The Secretary General, MWUN, Mr. Felix Akingboye, also confirmed the planned protests, saying “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 give the harbour operations of the 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.”
Akingboye further explained that the proposed bill, if passed, has great security and revenue risks for the Federal Government and will lead to mass sacking of the NPA workers.
He noted that “We have carefully perused the bill and the existing NPA Act of 1955 as amended and 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 operation, which is a major revenue earner for the NPA and by extension the Federal Government, without taking into consideration the security implications for the country and the havoc it will cause to the workforce as it was previously done during the concession exercise”.
“Government should avoid the same mistake of the port concession of 2006, which led to the sacking of 12,000 NPA workers.”
In his further submission, MWUN chief scribe argued that “The provision of item 6 in the second schedule of the bill provides that every worker of the NPA would not be absolved in the Ports and Harbours Authority. No provision was made for what fate would befall those workers that would be affected, including how and who pays their terminal benefits”.
Another degrading provision of the emerging Act in the understanding of MWUN is that “Condition of service for the new authority will not be governed by statute and their employment with the new authority would be deemed as fresh employment without regard to the numbers of years they have served the NPA.”
However, a source at the Marine Police Command, Apapa confided in Business Hilights that security arrangements are on ground to avoid breakdown or law and order during the period of the protest.
