The Maritime Workers Union Of Nigeria (MWUN), on Tuesday, said the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, is currently repositioning the authority for greater efficiency and growth of the sector.
Speaking in an exclusive chat with LEADERSHIP, the president general of MWUN, Com. Adewale Adeyanju, said Dr Dantsoho has vast experience on how to effectively reposition the authority due to his background as an industry technocrat.
Adeyanju, however, assured the NPA boss of support from workers to initiate a successful reform in the sector and the authority
“Dr Dantsoho has vast experience repositioning NPA and I can assure him of workers’ support and commitment, that is, we will continue to work with him because he has been a very good father to the Maritime Workers Union of Nigerians.
“We will continue to advise him where necessary and we will continue to give him soft landing and I assure you that he has landed properly and I can tell you he’s taking his time to reposition the port authority for greater efficiency,” the union leader stated.
Adeyanju, the deputy national president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), however, urged the NPA boss to also facilitate the renewal of expired concession agreements of some terminal operators.
He said this was necessary because workers are agitated over the current state of their employment due to non renewal of the expired agreement of some terminal operators.
“Currently, we have an issue that is affecting us and that has caused anxiety in the minds of the workers in the port. This has to do with terminal operators whose licence has expired and haven’t been renewed.
“We want him to expedite action on this renewal because he’s the landlord, the head of the port and if a tenant has not been given a renewal of his job, definitely, that is where his mind will be. That is why we are asking the government to expedite action on renewing terminal operators’ licences.
“This is because since 2006 they have been running the terminal and I can tell you that they have paid their dues. For instance , since 2006 till date, we’ve not recorded any violence crises from the workers as the operators were able to manage the port.
“Union leaders are under pressure because workers are asking whether we are asleep while there job is being threatened. They are anxious and hope what happened in 2006 won’t happen again when promises were made that nobody will lost their job but unfortunately, close to 13,000 workers lost their jobs due to concessioning.
“And, since the concessioning in 2006, the terminal operators have done well, especially the indigenous operators, they are doing well and they performed excellently well and they should be compensated excellently well for the good Jobs they have done on behalf of this great country,” he stated .
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