The President General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria ( MWUN), Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, has said that the level of compliance by International Oil Companies ( IOCs) on engagement of local stevedoring companies as required by law under government Marine Notice 106 has reached 60 percent.
Recall that the Federal government through the Ministry of Transportation had issued May 8 deadline to the IOCs to allow registered stevedoring companies deploy dockworkers to work in their oil and gas platforms.
The Ministry had mandated the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Stevedoring Association of Nigeria to monitor the level of compliance of the IOCs immediately after the May 8 deadline.
Speaking on the development in a chat with journalists in Lagos on Monday, Adeyanju said the IOCs including Exxon Mobil, Texaco among other multi- national companies have started engaging the local stevedoring companies.
He said although NPA has not disclosed the number of IOCs that have complied, there has been an increase in the level of compliance.
He said, “The level of compliance by the IOCs on the engagement of stevedoring companies has reached 60 percent the once powerful multi-national companies are now engaging stevedoring companies that is what I can say about issue for now.
“But the Nigerian Ports Authority has not been able to tell us the number of the IOCs that are complying with the stevedoring extant laws. They should tell us how these IOCs are obeying the Stevedoring extant laws because the bulk of the matter lies with NPA.
“For the Union, they have seen our reactions, if Exxon Mobil, Texaco and those big multi nationals are now engaging the services of stevedoring contractor appointed by the NPA, I think the level of compliance is getting better. ”
Speaking on the review of minimum standard for workers in the shipping sector, Adeyanju said the negotiation with shipping companies is still ongoing just as he commended the effort of the former Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo for his intervention through the Nigerian Shippers’ Council in resolving the issue.
Adeyanju, while canvassing for the appointment of a technocrat as minister of transportation tasked President Bola Tinubu to consider competence in appointing a transport minister like Sambo to effectively drive the industry.
He said it will spell retrogression if a minister, who does not understand port operations is appointed to drive one of the most important sector of the economy.
According to him, it takes a technocrat to understand and identify challenges stakeholders face in the industry and make effort to address them.
He said, “We want a technocrat who knows about port operation not a novice who does not know what the stakeholders are passing through.
“The former minister, Muazu Sambo was a technocrat, he knows about port operations that was why he was very fast in addressing some issues but if you now appoint a novice it means you will have to start all over again. We know what we all are passing through. Is it Port Harcourt or Delta Port you want to talk about, nothing is coming from there. Warri port is still an old port, Calabar port has not been dredged. So we need someone that will concentrate in all these areas not only in Lagos ports.”
On plans to collaborate with other unions following the dissolution of COMTUA, Adeyanju said MWUN is still weighing the options as the Union would no longer form alliance with associations or individuals who do not have the interest of the port at heart.
He said, “We are going to stop collaboration with people that are not serious. We know our responsibility as a union. When we collaborated with COMTUA, we realise that their mindset to issues that concerns port operations is different. The way we react to issues is different from the way they would react. And our own mandate is to protect the interest of workers.
“I don’t see anything wrong in trying to diversify into other projects as a union giving that we have four different branches but those you are trying to diversify with how serious are they? That is why we are having clash of interest coming from other groups. So we are trying to weigh options because we can’t just collaborate with people who have no regard for stakeholders in the industry. ”