He called on government to consider the aged Seafarers before pushing further the idea of refloating Nigeria National Shipping Line.
ZAINAB JUNAID
President General, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria(MWUN),
Comrade Prince Adewale Adeyanju spoke on the proposal by the Minister of
Marine and Blue Economy, Hon. Adegboyega Oyetola to Refloat the defunct
Nigerian National Shipping Line, NNSL and agitated for the payment of entitlements
and pensions of disengaged Seafarers of the liquidated NNSL.
Comrade (Prince) Adeyanju, made the agitation while
giving his goodwill message at MARAN Annual Maritime Lecture (MAMAL 2023)
organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) held in
Lagos on Wednesday.
The Comrade who commended MARAN for the
initiative of bringing Maritime stakeholders together to brainstorm on issues
that affect the sector, frowned at the Minister’s idea of floating a new Nigeria
National Shipping Line without putting into consideration the aged Seafarers
that were earlier disengaged.
He called on government to consider the aged Seafarers before
pushing further the idea of refloating Nigeria National Shipping Line.
Speaking on the insecurity state of the Port,
Comrade Adeyanju attributed the high spate of insecurity in the Port to non
availability of adequate facilities and equipment needed by security agencies to
man all Port Corridors.
He blamed the Federal Government for not empowering relevant
agencies with necessary facilities to manage the affairs of securities in the
ports.
“You hardly see our marine police with patrol boat, when the
government don’t provide boat for them, how will there not be insecurity. Go to
area B or even within the ports here,
there's no facilities for them to work. How do you expect the security to be
managed. So we use this bill to tell the Inspector General of Police, the
Nigerian Port Authority, all the labour stakeholders, among others, to
encourage all the safety agents within the port by providing necessary
facilities that will improve their efficiency.
“However on the creation of Marine and Blue Economy, my question
still rally round what are the proposed plan towards achievements, we need to
know it’s not about arranging meetings of stakeholders without any policy.
There’s need for emphasis to be placed on it properly especially in
enlightening the public on the project. I’m not saying it’s not a good idea, government
need to train and retrain everyone involved in the Sector to understand the real
tech marine and blue sector entails. This is to avoid a situation where some stakeholders
are carried along with the latest intelligence but others looking as if they
don’t belong to the Port.
On whether the Director General of Nigeria Maritime Administration
and Safety Agency(NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh has been diligent and capable in
running the affairs of NIMASA, Comrade Adeyanju opined that he has the capacity
to deliver.
“He has the capacity to do that. Government go, Government come. So you don't need to condemn one and leave one. Former DG of NIMASA, Temisan Omatseye was one of
the finest DG that we have overtime and he did well and I remember praising him
when I was talking about his will of transforming the dockworkers by way of giving
them what we call a biometric ID card. He started it and then the new DG, Bashir Jamoh, improved upon it. Today, the Dockers in the port have gotten their
biometric ID card that they can be identified with. These sets of people are
dock workers. So he has all that. Saying whether NIMASA DG has the capacity to deliver is an understatement, I will say let all of us join hand and encourage the present DG for the
betterment of the nation."
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