‘National Shipping Line Proposal Dead On Arrival If Workers Remain Unpaid’ – Maritime Workers’ Union To Oyetola

The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, has been told that his plan to refloat a new national shipping line after the liquidation of the first Nigerian national shipping line (NNSL) is dead on arrival if the unpaid entitlements owed to the aged seafarers who worked on the first national shipping line are not paid.

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria said this in a statement issued on Wednesday by the President-General of the MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju.

The union said the Blue Economy has not been given a clear-cut definition and mode of operation, hence the need for more clarification

The statement read, “The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Hon. Adegboyega Oyetola, who was in Lagos recently, made a projection of refloating the Nigeria National Shipping Line (NNSL) after 28 years of its liquidation.

“The President-General of the Maritime Workers Union (MWUN), Comrade (Prince) Dr Adewale Adeyanju, met with the Minister a few months ago during the commissioning of the Mission to Seafarers Centre in Apapa, where he informed the Minister of the enormous task ahead of him in his ministry and the varying major issues confronting the Maritime Workers Union, especially the protracted unpaid entitlements and pensions of disengaged seafarers of the liquidated NNSL.

“The MWUN President-General informed the Minister that even the NIC has ruled in favour of the aged seafarers that they should be paid, yet they have not been paid.

“The refloating of a new national shipping line will be a mirage if the retired seafarers, who worked tirelessly with a deep sense of patriotism for the country, are not given their due rights after 28 years of service.

“This will only amount to human injustice of the highest order. It will also be tantamount to placing the cart before the horse if such a proposition is in the pipeline without first thinking of the aged seafarers.

“We, as a Labour Union, will not sit aloof and keep watching our aged seafarers continue suffering unnecessary penury after meritorious years of service to their fatherland. It’s true that some of the elderly seafarers have died from various types of ailments, some from psychological torture, trauma, mental degradation, abject poverty, and so much more that has weighed them down in depression.

“It would be recalled that the former Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, did set up a committee involving two ministries, the Ministry of Transportation and the Labour Ministry, respectively.

“The said committee was charged with the responsibility of carrying out the physical verification exercise of the aged seafarers, which the Union thought would have brought some sort of succour, but the story is still the same.

“It’s indeed unfortunate to say here that the committee has never met. So, where do we go from here when you want to refloat the NNSL with no consideration for the seafarers who served the defunct carrier vessels?

“This is unheard of anywhere globally; therefore, the assertion for a new NNSL is a mirage in its conception, unless the needful is done.

“The blue economy that is on the lips of every Nigerian today emerged as a global concept in 2012. Therefore, the Union’s position as far as the new ministry is concerned cannot function without the inclusion of MWUN in all its ramifications; hence, the Union must be part of the policy process, which must be seen as conforming with the rules of social inclusion and collaboration, because the blue economy must be seen as strengthening social equity.

“It will be unkind to the Union to hear any assertion by the Minister regarding a new NNSL without carrying along the previously disengaged seafarers concerning their entitlements, which have not been fully settled.”