Guardian

PRESIDENT General of the Maritime Union Workers of Nigeria (MWUN), Emmanuel Nted, at a rally in Lagos last week, spoke with reporters on the plight of the maritime in Nigeria, calling for more pro-active measures to end violation of laws by multinational companies. WOLE OYEBADE was there. Excerpts:

Aim of the rally

We are here to thank the president for all the good things he has done in the maritime industry especially in the seafaring department. We have four branches of the MWUN but the president has impacted positively in the seafaring branch. So many cadets were sent abroad for specific trainings in marine engineering, naval architect, on board captain and so on. When these people returned, they became professionals in their fields, thereby reducing unemployment and impacting in the maritime industry. This, the president has done. No president has ever done this and we are grateful.

Before now, we have about 19 fleets of vessels managed by the Nigerian National Shipping Line. All these vessels had gone into extinction and most of the captains onboard those vessels – most of them Nigerians – have gone outside our shores to earn a living. But today, the president has indeed done more than is ordinarily expected in the maritime industry, sending more people out for training to fill these vacancies.

A time will soon come when other countries in the sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa will be coming here looking for captains onboard, marine engineers and naval architects among others, and we will have enough to give them. All of them will be returning as professionals in their fields and not be looking for jobs.

We are promoting local content, because when they come back, Nigeria will be better for it. Instead of going overseas to bring foreigners to work for us, the Nigeria people will be able to captain vessels, and we will have first engineers, second and third engineers, all Nigerians.

That is the more reason we embarked on the solidarity walk and ask the president to do more. We are not politicians and what we are doing today is not politically motivated. If the president does what is wrong, we will shout, and if it were something good, we’d say thank you. It is not every time we should be critics.

How many workers are beneficiary of this presidential gesture?

About 2,000 workers have gone, and we believe that before the end of the year, another 1,500 will also travel. Some of them travelled to Philippine, India and some other places. Philippine is a maritime country. Most of vessels that do domestic trading in Nigeria, coming from foreign countries, majority of seafarers onboard are Philippine – the captain, engineers and others – so it shows that Philippine is a maritime nation. The duration of the course is four-year.

This is coming at a time when some maritime workers are out of job

Yes, that is true. About 50 per cent of the people here today have no job to do in the main port. Some of them were taken to the jetties but on getting there, they were not allowed to operate. They have jobs to do mainstreams and offshore, but they will not allow them.

The federal government has done the right thing by appointing a contractor to manage activities of ship dock at the port and jetties – mainstream and offshore. But what we are seeing is an eyesore. Multi-national companies come to our country to avert statutory procedure and charges. When a vessel comes in – mainstream or offshore – they sneak-in, offload and run away. People bring a vessel, they work violating the law of the land with impunity; they avert payment of tax and statutory charges all in connivance with some people in authority.

When we catch them, they would run to the court for protection. They use delay tactics for two or three years, while the workers would not get their earnings at the end of the day.

We believe that there are some hands of Esau in this and by the time we catch them, we’ll expose them; whether they are from Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), have harbour market or from government. They need to desist from these illegal acts. They are destroying the economy. This country needs money to move forward. The industry also needs to make progress. People need to be trained and earn their living.

But when companies are hiding the vessels where dockers need to work, it means that they are losing job. All of these must stop, otherwise we will expose all of them and we are going to be drastic. We ask the government that whenever they find any company violating the law, they should blacklist the culprits. They country would still move forward without them.

Has the government met your demands aimed at addressing the face-off between the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) – Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and possibly to avert industrial action by the maritime workers?

No. The issue of NLNG is another eyesore. People would just come, operate in this country, violate the laws and go scot-free. That is the country we are living in. Government really needs to take action on these issues.

The NLNG is claiming that the federal government has given them tax-holiday for 10 years to help them stabilise. But this is a profit-making organisation. More so, after 10 years expiration of the tax-holiday, how come they still refused to pay NIMASA all the statutory charges? It claims that an extension has been given. Extension for what? That they are not making profit? And who gave the extension and when? These are the issues.

We have given 21 days to the federal government, and if nothing is done, we will close down the all ports across the federation to draw attention of the government that NLNG is violating laws of the land and with impunity too.