Maritime workers are threatening to shut down ports for 7 days

diamond hope

January 30, 2018 12:12 PM

The maritime union has threatened to shut down ports if the federal government fails to meet its demands again.

On Monday, January 29, 2018, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) threatened to withdraw all its members from the seaports nationwide if the federal government doesn’t carry out emergency fixes on access roads to ports by Monday, February 5, 2018.

The union revealed this intent in a statement signed by its President-General, Adewale Adeyanju. The union said the strike action has become necessary due to the federal government's inability to repair access roads into ports across the country.

It called on the federal government to remove all the trucks on "Oshodi-Apapa Dual Carriage Way, and fill the craters and potholes on the access roads to all the ports to make the roads motorable," the statement said.

"If by Monday, February 5, 2018, the trucks are not removed and the craters and potholes filled, the union will withdraw all its members from the ports nationwide until these two demands are met."

Is this the first time this has occurred?

On May 14, 2017, the union had issued a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government to fix the access roads to the nation's seaports especially the Oshodi-Apapa Dual Carriage Way that leads to Apapa and Tin-Can Ports.

Before the expiration of the ultimatum, the management of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) met with the union and pleaded that they were doing something to fix the roads.

"We were assured that remedial works would be done on the road because it was not captured in 2017 national budget," Adeyanju said.

"We decided to suspend our planned industrial action. We waited and endured very harrowing experiences on the access roads to the Ports in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar, and Warri, hoping upon hopes that the government will at least, do a quick fix on the roads to make them motorable."

But, nine months after the union suspended its strike action, the roads have continued to deteriorate.

diamond hope