Maritime union leaders have given reasons why they disrupted operations at the nation’s ports on Wednesday. Th ousands of workers on Tuesday protested the pending Ports and Harbour bill at the National Assembly alleging that it was aimed at putting workers out of jobs among other negative tendencies. Th e protest held at all the seaports across the country according to the unionists was a warning to the government to withdraw the bill described as anti- people and obnoxious.
Th ey unionists averred that when passed into law, the bill would destroy the nation’s ports operations and render thousands of workers jobless. Th e protest was led by leaders of both the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and the Senior Staff Association of Communication,Transport and Corporation (SSACTAC) at the Lagos Ports Complex (LPC). Th e activity disrupted human and vehicular movements in and out of the port. Many container laden trucks at the port ready to exit were delayed.
President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju urged the NASS to throw away the bill because it negated the Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA) act of 1955 as amended. “if this bill is passed into law, it will lead to massive job loss to our members and not all the workers currently with NPA will be absolved. Adeyanju described the bill as a security risk to the nation when saying that “ it must not see the light of the day”. Speaking further he added that “we want to use this medium to appeal to members of the NASS and its leaders to throw it away because it seeks to do more harm to the majority and favour the few individuals promoting it” “Most especially, we urged Honourable Ossai to in the interest of Nigerians to withdraw the bill and stand on the side of the people.” President of SSACTAC Comrade Benson Adegbeyeni accused members of the National Assembly of shortchanging Nigerians after being voted into power by the people.
He recalled that the 2006 port concession made many Nigerians lose their jobs and the union would never allow to happen again. Th e SSACTAC president noted that the bill does not make any form of provision for workers that might be disengaged, arguing that what happened at the “NPA 10 years ago till date is an eyesore.”
