Maritime: NPA Workers begin strike, may paralyse operations nationwide
. Lagos, P/Harcourt, Warri, others affected
Leaders of organised labour in the Maritime sector have called for a strike today to protest the Ports and Harbours Bill recently passed by the Senate.The workers said they were displeased with some provision of the Bill, as well as entertaining fears over national security, rationalisation, among other sundry issues affecting them.
The action is being jointly organised by Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, and Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporation, SSACTAC, Maritime Branch.
Acting Secretary-General of the union, Felix Akingboye, 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 6 am to 6 pm on Tuesday (today).
He said,“We are opposed to any attempt to further strip Nigerians of their patrimony, through further concession in the guise of amending the NPA Act 1955.”
He said, “The promoters of the Bill are only after their personal interests; which is to concession the harbour operations of the NPA to private individuals.”
He added that if passed into law, “the proposed Bill would have great security and revenue risks for the Federal Government; and it would lead to mass sack of NPA workers.”
According to him,“We have carefully perused the Bill and the existing Nigerian Ports Authority Act of 1955, as amended; and we cannot see any deficiency in the current 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 to the country’ and of course, the havoc it would cause on the workforce as it was previously done during the concession exercise.”
It would be recalled that, last month, the workers rejected the Ports and Habour Bill, 2015, pending before the National Assembly.
Labour, insisted that the promoters of the Bill were enemies of the country. According to the two unions, the Bill, if allowed to sail through, would worsen influx of illegal arms and ammunition into the country, among other security challenges it could pose for the nation.
In a joint petition to the leadership of the National Assembly among others, labour said: “The import of this Bill is to cede Harbours operations to few private individuals. We make bold to say that there is nowhere in the world where this is done; because of its security implications.”
“The Harbour operations all over the world because of its peculiarity is designated a restricted area as it is an exclusive preserve of government which is never left in the hands of private individuals.”
The unions said that the Al Progressives Congress, APC -led government of President Muhammadu Buhari came to power with its ‘Change Mantra;’ and promised to create jobs, provide adequate security and fight corruption, but noted, with regret, that the same government was about to enact a law that would lead to job losses.
