The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has cautioned management of the Nigeria Customs Service to stop the act of intercepting containers already cleared after 100% physical examination by dockworkers at the seaports, saying the practice negatives trade facilitation and other international conventions
President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju gave the warning at the Conference and Award ceremony put together by the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON).
Adeyanju who doubles as the Deputy President , Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) disclosed that the activities of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A, Ikeja along the Lagos port corridors was unprofessional adding that the waylays of consignments deter the morale of dockworkers on cargo examination at the ports.
The President General who was representing by the Deputy President General MWUN, Comrade Boniface Udoh, spoke on the sidelines of the event .
He reiterated that the situation of interception of consignments after thorough examination at the ports was frustrating calling on management of the service to push the FOU boys along the corridors further outside the corridors .
He further accused the FOU boys of contributing to unwarranted gridlock within the port corridors.
He stated that for a consignment to be intercepted by the customs personnel along the roads call for concerns , noting that somebody somewhere is frustrating government drive to boost revenue and trade facilitation at the ports
He further emphasized the need for management to checkmate FOU boys to conform with the various international conventions that stipulates 20 kilometres away from the ports .
Adeyanju in his goodwill message called on the maritime media to query the alleged unprofessional conduct by customs along the corridors adding that personnel of the service deployed to the ports should do their jobs meticulously and diligently before exiting boxes.
However, the union leader urged Adewale Adeniyi management of customs to be more proactive and apply profession conduct to end the anomalies despite sacking the customs strike force off Lagos roads.
Earlier the President of AMJON, Paul Ogbuokiri, while speaking on the theme: Rebuilding Nigeria Economy Towards a Viable Trans-Border Trade’ , underscored the need to looking inwards towards rekindling nation’s economy, as in the early days of the country’s independence, focusing more on non-oil trade.
According to him, the theme of the conference was deliberately selected owing to the poor state of Nigeria’s monolithic economy which requires speedy solution to lift the country out of crisis situation.
He expressed concern over the nation’s unfavorable balance of trade occasion by over dependance on oil and the apparent lack of concern by relevant authorities.
“Now the shock has become permanent because our crude oil has become encumbered.
“large portion of it now goes into payment of debts acquired and squandered by politicians while the other portion of it is being stolen by powerful people.
We are therefore left with little or no foreign exchange to finance our necessary and unnecessary imports” he said.
Ogbuokiri commended the efforts of President Bola Tinubu’s administration towards solving the nation’s economic problems while noting that Non-oil exports holds the key to the nation’s Economic progress particularly with regards to intra- African trade.
He praised the collaboration between Nigeria and it’s neighboring countries in facilitating transborder trade adding that such relationship would help identify bottlenecks and proffer solutions for ease of trade.
By Roland Ekama
