By Okey IROEGBU
Ports and Harbour Bill is one of the draft bills that have lingered at the Legislature since the 7th Assembly. Initially the introduction of the bill was interesting until critical stakeholders faulted the bill. It could be recalled that the Ports and Harbours Authority Bill, 2015, which seeks to repeal the Nigerian Ports Authority Act 1955, as amended, has been passed by the Senate and was awaiting concurrent passage by the House of Representatives in 2018. One of the major movers for the passage of this Bill by then was one the port concessionaire. While fielding questions by then from journalists, she lamented that the Bill has been delayed at the National Assembly for too long.Investigations showed that the bills when it first reared it face during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan for consent, the executive arm of government was working on them at snail’s speed. Up to the end of that session. But then Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Marine Transport, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi who later became the governor of Enugu state added another twist to it when he said the Bill was in the process of being passed into law when some stakeholders came up with some serious issues.He said that everything
about the passage of the Bill went on fine until it got to the public hearing stage when the stakeholders adopted a position that would conflict with other fiscal laws of the country. He also disclosed that if such a position is taken, NPA would have to depend on annual appropriation, which would starve it of funds, which would not be good enough for the system considering the kind functions performed by the authority. The bill definitely may not mean any good to Nigerians hence the delays and twist at different stages. This Bill was later and seriously initiated by an Honourable member of the 8" national assembly and was also seriously resisted by well-meaning Nigerians. The strong opposition could not allow the bill to scale through.That this same bill was suspected to be creeping into the National Assembly to be passed by the present law makers was a big surprise to the Leadership of the two in-House Unions in the Maritime sector; the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies SSASCGOC (Maritime Branch) ably led by Com. (Prince) Dr. Adeyanju Adewale fnli, President General (MWUN) and Com. Akin Bodunde, President (SSACGOC) Maritime Branch. It was on this note that they invited Maritime journalists to alert them on their continued opposition to this action, more so by their action to sneak the bill through the back door“We wish to note that this said bill if allowed to be passed into law will have far reaching grave consequences on the security of the nation as it will
cede harbour, jetty and terminal operations into private hands.“We are therefore not surprised that the bill is being vigorously sponsored by certain unpatriotic individuals within the maritime sector, who are hell bent on appropriating our common wealth and cornering same into the lining of their individual pockets and that of their cronies. “We would have thought that given our persistent cry and various notices pointing to the deplorable state of our various nation’s seaports, decrepit state of port access roads, collapsing quay aprons, and the general failure of infrastructures within our ports the focus of this 10th
NationalAssembly would have been to find solutions to the myriad of problems bedeviling our ports, terminals, jetties and Oil and Gas platforms and even the need to dredge all the ports particularly Calabar, Warri, Onne etc for increased efficiency.The Maritime Labour union seriously frowned at the recklessness in misappropriate public infrastructure through unfriendly legislation for the benefit of individuals whose only interest is capital accumulation and not to the good of the general public.“We are even further surprised that the sponsors of this bill outrightly ignored our demand to call the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in our sovereign territorial economic zones, who have snobbishly refused to obey our extant maritime regulations, standards and laws to order but, find it expedient to sit in the comfort of their hallowed chambers to push for laws that will be detrimental and inimical to the welfare and wellbeing of the working class, Nigerians and our nation’ security and sovereignty,” the brief readsThe joint body therefore used the medium of this press briefing to get their views known to the Executive, National Assembly and the new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy that this is certainly not the right way to go as this ploy by these selfish individuals in the maritime sector will cause chaos and anarchy in the industry.“We note that the bill as being proposed, if passed into law will render the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) employees jobless and endanger the productivity of other port users. Even more sinister is the proposed idea of the Bill to provide wholly, employments that will not be pensionable as well as not transferable and without access to terminal benefits. “This is the height of inconsideration by the proponents of the Bill to the right of workers to the necessary payment for services rendered by a worker, in accordance to known law, industrial relations practice, equity and good conscience.“It is our believe that allowing this Billed to be passed into law will effectively institutionalize the evil concept of casualization of workers and as well negate the provisions of the Pension reform Act 2004 as amended. “Having said this, We, the two in-house unions in the maritime sector; MWUN & SSASCGOC, will not fold our hands or rest on our oars and allow few unpatriotic Nigerians within the industry to rip-off the Nation’s common wealth and render our sector unproductive via this infamous Bill that will only create poverty, hopelessness, hunger and generate avid bitterness amongst the already impoverished workers and Nigeria citizenry. The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria; MWUN and Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies SSASCGOC (Maritime Branch), without mincing words in solidarity rejects this bill seeking to repeal the Act that set up Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in its entirety.“Consequently, we confirm our absolute vote of confidence on the Nigerian Ports Authority ACT as it currently relates to the Nigerian state and the well-being of the workers in the sector and we will vehemently resist all attempts to push this
hellish bill further. We therefore demand for its withdrawal in its entirety. “As addendum, we wish to further draw the attention of the Federal government to the duplication of functions of MDAs within the maritime sector. To this end, we urge the government to define clearly the functions of each government Agencies to avoid unnecessary conflict of functions.“Also, there is need to ensure that the appointment of the headship of these Agencies are technocrats, vast in maritime operations in consonance with the laid down laws,” the text finally reads. Why Ports and Harbours Bill should be pass.
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