Th e leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it would partner with the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) to ensure that the controversial Ports and Harbour bill which has passed second reading in the House of Representatives is cancelled. The president of the Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba said this yesterday when he paid a courtesy call to the National Secretariat of MWUN in Lagos as part of its nationwide visits to its affiliates. Wabba said that greed was the drive behind concessionaire of important sector to private hands which according to him,was not in the interest of the masses and the nation.
He said that such move would jeopardise the national security in the hands of few persons adding that the bill would aggravate the insecurity on the ports and the country in totality. “Th e management of our ports is about security, if you take away the responsibility of NPA now and put it in private hands, especially now that we have seen arms and ammunition being imported into this country on daily basis, we are putting the lives of Nigerians on the line.
“I therefore urge government to look at this very important scenario because a lot of other countries want to undermine our security interest, national interest, economic interest and this bill will actually aggravate that particular problem. “Th e services that bill is out to outsource is a service that is being paid for in dollars so instead of this money to be paid into our national account or collected by NPA, they now want few individuals to corner the dollars into their pockets,” he alleged. He added that the bill would also aggravate the issue of unemployment as workers would be relieved of their jobs thereby causing problem for the country as unemployed youths will engage in vices ranging from kidnapping and other insecurity issues.
“I am aware that the bill is going to throw many of the workers in the maritime industry to the labour market and when these occur, will lead to economy disaster. “Th erefore because of these reasons, I don’t think this bill is desirable and therefore we are going to partner with you to advance this issue and see how best we can be able to salvage the situation,” he stated. Earlier, the President General of MWUN, Com. Adewale Adeyanju had complained about the bill which he referred to as an obstruction bill. He however expressed high hope that the union had confi dence in the congress to help fi ght the course
