Prior to the 2021 union election, members of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Branch , Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) on Tuesday , endorsed incumbent President General, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju for a second term re-election bid.
High powered members comprising the branch and national executives of NPA declared their solidarity support to ensure that the incumbent President General gets another term in office
Speaking at the visit to the national secretariat of the union in Lagos, President NPA branch, Comrade Ifeanyi Mazeli, affirmed that the incumbent proved himself as a core unionist against the backdrop of the dispute on ports and harbour bill .
Mazeli said barely two months of the election that brought Comrade Adeyanju into office as President General in 2017, the National Assembly sponsored a bill that would have allegedly send thousands of workers out of the seaports.
Comrade Mazeli explained that Adeyanju stood his ground against it, using all his connections to quash the bill.
“If not for Adeyanju who rose against some of the provisions of the now rested Port and Harbour bill, most of the workers would have been rendered jobless or redundant today,”he stressed.
“When we came into office about four years ago, we met that monster called Ports and Harbour bill though we are not challenging or opposing government to name its asset in whatever way it seems fit but what we sought to clarify is that we saw certain things that are contained in the bill.
“Some of the things are that the people that will remain would have a new condition of service. This is vague.
“Then the union considered if to retain new condition of service and improve on it or are we going to do a new one and if we are going to have a new one, it should not be less beneficial to the one subsisting.
“Another thing is that the people that are going to remain may not be pensionable. There are lots of ambiguities in what they were saying.
“How can you work in a system and not be pensionable? It means a situation of hire today, fire tomorrow but we have an existing format.
“We workers of NPA are here this morning in appreciation of what you have done for NPA workers and they feel there is no better time to tell you how they feel concerning your leadership in the past four years.
“We have come to greet you and to give you maximum support,” he stated.
The Branch also donated Comrade Adewale Adeyanju christened t-shirts as part of campaign support for the second term.
Also speaking, Treasurer of the union, Comrade Uche Igwe Onu maintained that the union under the leadership of Comrade Adewale Adeyanju experienced all peace and unity.
He maintained that the PG deserve to be re-elected following his outstanding performances in the last four years.
Igwe Onu a former Branch President, Shipping , Clearing and Forwarding urged executives and members of NPA to sustain the tempo of unity, love and peace.
Igwe Onu reiterated that “Whoever wants to bring disunity amongst us will naturally force himself out of the system and we will continue to uphold unity, love and progress in this great union”.
Adeyanju while responding expressed shock over the branch current disposition of unity and peace amongst members.
He also pledged to support the branch President in furtherance to a second term re- election.
He therefore pledged to do more on the improvement of workers’ welfare because according to him, that is his reason for wanting to lead the workers.
Adeyanju stated that there were lots of challenges when the present administration came on board but was glad that they were able to surmount them.
The PG stressed that the peace that coexist in the union was one of his greatest achievements .
By Roland Ekama
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