Business paralysed at Nigerian ports as dock workers strike 

By Samson Echenim

 

Business activities at Nigeria’s premier port, Apapa Wharf and the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos and other ports in the country have been paralysed following an early morning strike embarked upon by dock workers under the aegis of Maritine Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) on Wednesday.

 The maritime workers had in the past few days threatened to shut down the ports in protest over their unpaid entitlements by the international oil companies (IOC).

As early as 6:00 a.m., the gates leading into Nigeria’s busiest ports, Apapa and Tin-Can ports were shut and all vehicular movement restricted.

The protesting port workers later softened their stance and allowed only private vehicles into the ports, barring all container trucks from entering the ports.

It was learnt that the situation at the Lagos ports is also holding sway at the ports in Port Harcourt, Onne in Rivers State and Warri in Delta State, which are the other ports with significant business traffic outside the Lagos ports.

“The same way we have locked ports in Lagos, we have also locked all other ports across the country. No business today (Wednesday) except the IOC’s meet our demands, ” said Adewale Adeyanju, president general of MWUN.

On Tuesday evening, shortly after meeting with all arms of the association, including the Dockworkers branch and NPA branch, President General of the MWUN, Adewale Adeyanju, addressing the press, explained that the association had decided to downtool following the refusal of the International Oil Companies (IOC) to pay all outstanding stevedoring entitlements to its members.

According to Adeyanju, some of the reasons they decided to embark on strike include: non-payment of government appointed stevedores/dockworkers by the IOCs contravenes NIMASA Act 2007; several efforts made for the IOCs to see reason, including the stakeholders meeting organised by the NPA, fell on deaf ears; affected dockworkers are suffering, some have even passed on prematurely due to economic hardship, whilst some have been made to become destitutes.

“As a responsible union, we cannot continue to fold our arms and watch our members die premature death because of the nonchalant attitude of the IOCs management towards the welfare of our members,” Adeyanju said.