Headlines

Maritime labour spoils for war with Oyetola over proposed refloating of dead NNSL

Adewale Adeyanju

—demands for payment of emoluments of disengaged seafarers

The Eyewitness Reporter

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has described the proposed resuscitation of the dead national shipping carrier, the Nigerian National Shipping Line(NNSL) as an exercise in futility if the disengaged seafarers from the national carrier are not paid their gratuities.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, at a stakeholders’ roundabout on Tuesday in Lagos, disclosed that his ministry was committed to re-floating the abandoned project 28 years after the national shipping carrier collapsed under huge and unpaid debts.

Oyetola said the desire to give life to the dead national carrier was to take advantage of the $10 billion charter market in the country.

However, the President-General of MWUN, Adewale Adeyanju, in a statement in Lagos on Wednesday, noted that failure to pay the full gratuities of the seafarers who worked in the defunct NNSL before refloating the carrier is putting the cart before the horse.

Adeyanju described the proposed refloating of the project as a mirage which will not fly if the needful is not done.

“The refloating of a new NNSL will be a mirage if the retired Seafarers, who worked tirelessly with a deep sense of patriotism for the country are not given their due rights after 28 years they left service of the national carrier vessels.

“This will only amount to human injustice of the highest order.

“It will also be tantamount to placing the cart before the horse if such proposition is in the pipeline without first thinking of the aged Seafarers” Adeyanju declared in the statement.

He recalled that he had recently met with Oyetola at a function in Lagos where he confronted him with the enormous task before him, including the payment of the disengaged seafarers but said he was surprised that the minister was silent on this important matter when he announced the decision to refloat the moribund national shipping carrier.

“The Union now has a different view of the Minister when he did not speak about the aged Seafarers who navigated with the moribund national carrier vessels over the new NNSL proposal”

Adeyanju said the continued silence of previous ministers, including Oyetola, on the issue of payment of the entitlements of the disengaged seafarers is worrisome and disheartening but vowed that the union will not fold its arms and watch the aged seafarers dehumanized.

“We, as a Labour Union, will not sit aloof and keep watching our aged Seafarers continue suffering unnecessary penury after meritorious years of service to their fatherland.

“it’s true that some of the aged Seafarers have died from various types of ailments, some from psychological torture and trauma; mental degradation, abject poverty and so much more that has weighed them down in depression.

“It would be recalled that the former Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, did set up a committee involving two ministries, the Ministry of Transportation and Labour Ministry respectively.

“The said committee was charged with the responsibility of carrying out physical verification exercise of the aged Seafarers, which the Union thought would have brought some sort of succour; but the story is still the same.

“It’s indeed unfortunate to say here that the committee has never met.

“So, where do we go from here, when you want to refloat the NNSL with no consideration for the Seafarers who served the defunct carrier vessels?

“This is unheard of anywhere globally, therefore, the assertion for a new NNSL is a mirage in its conception, except the needful is done” the union declared in the statement.

“Therefore, the Union’s position as far as the new ministry is concerned cannot function without the inclusion of MWUN in all its ramifications; hence, the Union must be part of the policy process, which must be seen to conforming with the rules of social inclusion and collaboration, because the blue economy must be seen to strengthening social equity order, hence, our disposition, given the aged Seafarers debacle which is yet to receive serious attention.”

Adeyanju, who doubles as the Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)’ said he had before asked the Minister to look into the nagging issue of the Seafarers to see how he could bring it to a logical conclusion.

“However, Comrade Adeyanju also promised the Minister of the Union’s support towards making sure that the nation will achieve much in the sector in his tenure; but also frowned at the Minister’s projection on the refloating of a new NNSL when he visited Lagos recently without putting into cognisance the plight of the disengaged aged Seafarers, who were parts and parcels of the defunct carrier as it were.

“It will be unkind to the Union to hear any assertion by the Minister regarding a new NNSL without carrying along the previously disengaged Seafarers concerning their entitlements which have not been fully settled” the statement concluded

Analyses

The Anchor of Dependency: Rethinking Nigeria’s Port Financing Strategy

Monday Discourse with Ibrahim Nasiru

The recent Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) conference in Lagos concluded with a dizzying array of multi-billion-dollar infrastructure promises.

Amidst the boardroom handshakes and official communiques, a familiar theme emerged: West Africa requires tens of billions of dollars to build the “Ports of the Future.”

For Nigeria, a nation grappling with aging brownfield infrastructure and the pressure to fully optimize its deep seaports, the question of infrastructure is no longer about what to build, but how to pay for it.

For decades, Nigeria’s approach to Port development has been tethered to a traditional anchor of dependency, an over-reliance on foreign loans, lopsided concession frameworks, and external development contracts.

If the nation is to truly unlock the economic sovereignty promised by the Blue Economy, it must critically re-evaluate its Port financing strategy, shifting away from debt-heavy models toward aggressive domestic capital mobilization and genuine structural reforms that address how we handle our internal maritime revenues.

Historically, major Port expansions in Sub-Saharan Africa have followed a predictable financial script.

A sovereign state secures a massive bilateral loan, frequently from foreign development banks, backed by state guarantees or the projected revenues of the Port asset itself.

On the surface, this model delivers immediate gratification: shiny new gantry cranes, dredged channels, and modern breakwaters.

Below the surface, however, this architecture creates a cycle of financial vulnerability.

When Port assets are financed through rigid, foreign-denominated debt, the pressure to service that debt often overrides the Port’s primary economic mandate, which is to lower the cost of doing business.

High debt-servicing costs force Port authorities to maintain punitive tariff structures, expensive regulatory charges, and inflated berthing fees.

Consequently, while the infrastructure appears world-class, the Port becomes economically uncompetitive, driving shipping lines to cheaper regional alternatives and defeating the purpose of the initial investment.

To break this loop, Nigeria must confront a glaring fiscal paradox sitting right inside its balance sheet: the architecture of the Nigerian Ports Authority’s (NPA) internal revenue framework.

As revealed in recent National Assembly budget defenses under Managing Director Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, the NPA is projecting a staggering ₦1.489 trillion in internally generated revenue (IGR) for the 2026 fiscal year, hot on the heels of generating nearly ₦2 trillion in 2025.

The agency is a financial powerhouse, generating enormous wealth from ship dues, cargo fees, and concession tariffs.

Yet, because of rigid fiscal remittance laws, a massive chunk of this liquidity is swallowed directly by the federation’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) and swept straight into the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

The NPA is effectively treated as a cash cow to finance federal budget deficits rather than being allowed to legally retain and reinvest its own earnings back into the infrastructure that generates them.

Forcing an agency to remit massive sums to the federal treasury while simultaneously asking it to borrow foreign capital or beg for funding via the Central Bank just to dredge a channel or rebuild a collapsing berth is an unsustainable contradiction.

True financial independence requires a sweeping legislative rethink of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to allow the NPA to establish a dedicated, ring-fenced infrastructure retention fund.

If the agency could legally retain just 20 to 30 percent more of its trillions in actual collections specifically for a Port Modernization Sinking Fund, it could fully self-finance the urgently needed overhauls of the 100-year-old Apapa Port and the decaying infrastructure at Tin Can Island without adding a single dollar of foreign debt to Nigeria’s sovereign balance sheet.

Furthermore, this internal liquidity could be used as equity to issue local currency maritime infrastructure bonds on the domestic capital market, allowing Nigerian pension funds to invest in an asset class that generates predictable, long-term, inflation-hedged cash flows.

Ultimately, breaking the anchor of dependency requires moving past the illusion that a nation must always look outward or borrow its way to maritime dominance.

True Port efficiency cannot coexist with a system that starves its primary trade gateway of operational liquidity in the name of national revenue extraction.

As Nigeria positions itself to capture the trade volumes of a developing continent, its leadership must realize that financial engineering is just as critical as civil engineering.

We must design financing models that allow the maritime sector to feed itself first before feeding the national treasury.

Until we cut the chains of debt-heavy external financing and reform our internal revenue retention laws, our Ports will not function as engines of economic liberation, but rather as highly sophisticated toll gates filtering both national wealth and foreign debt back to external creditors.

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja

Headlines

NPA: Starving the goose that lays the golden eggs

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru

Tomorrow, on Monday Discourse, Ibrahim Nasiru looks at what he describes as the paradox in the financing system of the Nigerian Ports Authority( NPA).

An agency which lays the golden eggs that feed the nation, yet has to borrow from external creditors to fix its infrastructures.

On Monday Discourse, Nasiru advises government to rethink Nigeria’s Port Financing Strategy

“The NPA is projecting a staggering ₦1.489 trillion in revenue for 2026. Yet, why are we still looking outward to borrow billions of dollars for Port Modernization?

“The truth is, Nigeria’s Ports are trapped in a fiscal paradox.

“We treat the NPA as a cash cow to fund federal deficits, sweeping its massive trillions into the central treasury, while leaving our 100-year-old Ports to starve of the vital liquidity needed for self maintenance.

“Forcing an agency to bleed cash to the treasury while begging foreign creditors for infrastructure loans is an unsustainable contradiction.

“If we are serious about the Blue Economy, it’s time for a legislative rethink that allows internal revenue retention for a dedicated Port Modernization Fund.

Read Nasiru’s analysis on why Nigerian Ports must feed themselves before they can sustainably feed the nation.

Keep a date with Nasiru on Monday Discourse tomorrow ,Monday, June 1st, 2026.

It’s a must read

Headlines

NRC suspends Warri- Itakpe train service over operational concerns

Funso OLOJO, Editor

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has announced the temporary suspension of Warri–Itakpe Train Service (WITS) due to what the management described as operational exigency and technical advice from the Corporation’s Engineers.

The temporary suspension, according to a public statement by the NRC, has become necessary to enable the Corporation carry out critical operational assessments aimed at ensuring continued safety, reliability, and improved service delivery on the corridor.

“The NRC regrets the inconvenience this development may cause passengers and other stakeholders, and assures the public that efforts are currently ongoing to resolve the issues within the shortest possible time.

“Passengers and intending travelers will be duly informed before the end of the week on the date for the resumption of normal train operations.

“The Corporation remains committed to safe, efficient, and customer-friendly rail services across the country and appreciates the understanding, patience, and continued support of the public during this period” the NRC declared.