Recognizing The Welfare of Maritime Workers

“You take my life when you take the means whereby I live” – Williams Shakespeare

Shakespeare may likely have experienced joblessness or encountered a wandering African before asserting the above statement similar to the popular saying “a hungry man is an angry man”.

The productive and economic strength of a nation is indisputably tied to its administrative systems which solely rest on the work force otherwise known as Civil Servants.

The Structural functionalist theory states that every organizations (Nigeria inclusive) posses different structures saddled with divergent functions for the smooth running and the survival of the society.

These structures range from the Legislature, Judiciary, Civil Service, Military and so many others with each constituting and integral part of the country.

However, incapacitation, removal or absence of any of these structures could hinder the smooth running of the organization resulting to total crumbling of the entire system called government.

Among the aforesaid structures are the workers of the Nigerian Maritime industry whose career and fate are tied to the dons or bourgeoisie in position of authority.

The travails of workers who had suffered different humiliations and illegal dismissal without any form of redress seems to be the awakening  point for the Nigerian Maritime Workers who wouldn’t want to be victims of the same inhuman treatments and rape of right their counterparts in other sectors suffered in the hands of the oppressors. Hence, the shutdown of the nation’s ports last week as a protest against the ongoing Anti-Workers Bill currently at the National Assembly for consideration.

The workers under the aegis of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and the Senior Staff Association of Communication, Transport and Corporation (SSACTAC) grounded transactions at the nation’s seaports have accused some canals in government of sponsoring a bill pregnant with policies that is capable “throwing workers out of their jobs under the guise of amending the NPA Act.”

The leaders of the two unions MWUN and SSACTAC, Comrades Adewale Adeyanju and Benson Adegbeyeni respectively had revealed the plans of some cabals to strip workers of their common wealth for selfish interests.

“Experience has thought us what happened in the past when the seaports were concessioned 10years ago, government said nobody will lose their job but from what we are about to see right now, if this bill is passed into law then thousands of workers in the maritime industry will lose their jobs”. They said.

Nigeria appears not to have learnt from the past mistakes and history they say is a better teacher. How would a Government derive pleasure in promoting anti people’s policies? What’s the rationale behind sponsoring a bill without consulting and having the input of the critical stakeholders of the industry? Have they forgotten that workers are the engine room of every organization? Why is worker’s welfare not always a priority to Nigerian government?

It’s obvious that government is not considering the implications of watching while the ports were completely shut down. Have they forgotten that the ports remain the economic stronghold of the government? Maybe nobody is considering the millions of dollars we lose each time ports activities are put on hold.

Job security must be sacrosanct. Policies must be sustained to a substantial level where it will be obvious that there is need for review or introduction of new ones.

The NPA Act amendment must be dropped in the interest of the masses and for the sake of peace as advocated by the workers’ union and if new policies must be made, they have to emerge and get endorsed by the workers themselves (a people’s oriented policy) to avoid invoking the wrath of the workers who are also the stakeholders the industry.