Analyses

Maritime Labour’s selfish stand against Ports and Harbour Bill

Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, PG, MWUN

The Eyewitness News Analysis

For nine years, maritime labour has fought against the passage of the Ports and Harbour Bill 2015.

Initiated in the eighth Assembly and sponsored by Senator Andy Uba of Anambra South Senatorial District in 2015, the bill, read for the first time on the floor of the National Assembly in 2016, seeks, among other things, the decentralization of ports operations by involving more private interests in ports operations.

The purpose is to open up the ports space for massive investments and attract private sector funds that would be used to build massive port infrastructure.

The bill, if allowed to be passed into law, will repeal the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) ACT 1955 as amended by Act CAP 126 LFN 2004 and establish Nigerian Ports and Harbour Authority.

The bill seeks to further consolidate the gains of the 2006 ports concession programme which ceded terminal operations functions of the NPA to the private interests.

However, the bill which enjoyed accelerated hearing on the floor of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, was stalled and got stuck at the ninth National Assembly where it had passed through the third and final reading and waiting to be passed to the House of Representatives for concurrence before its transmission to the President for his assent.

The maritime labour under the aegis of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria( MWUN) had mobilised its massive membership across the maritime space to stall the passage of the bill.

The major reason for its opposition, according to Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, the President-General of the Union, is the fear of job loss for the teeming members of the union.

The position of the Maritime Workers union is quite understandable and in tandem with the modus operandi of all labour unions.

No matter the nobility and credibility of the objectives of any public service reform, if it conflicts with the interests of the members, the labour unions will fight it.

In as much as we sympathise with the position of maritime labour on the issue of the Ports and Harbour bill, its position against the passage of this noble bill, is at best, selfish and self–serving.

The Union has not controverted the public benefits which the bill, when passed into law, will bring to the Port operations in the country.

Such benefits as attracting more private sector funds to develop the maritime industry and fix the decaying port infrastructure, thus making our ports more attractive and competitive globally.

Over the years, the government has been overwhelmed with the demands to fund public infrastructures, hence its attraction to concessions, collaborations and partnerships with private sectors in order to get their funds for the development of some critical public infrastructures.

The worsening economy in the country has further placed a huge burden on the government so much so that it has started to falter in some of its financial obligations to these public infrastructures.

Further borrowing will sink the economy into a deeper mess as the country still wallows in the anguish of repaying its humongous debts.

So private participation such as the one being sought by the Port and Harbor Bill will save the nation’s sea ports from further decay due to the inability of the government to fund such a huge commitment.

For many years, the Nigerian Ports Authority has been going cap in hands to the multi- national finance companies to seek $800 million needed to rehabilitate the dilapidated ports infrastructures at Apapa, Tin Can, Onne and Calabar ports, an amount the Federal government could not afford.

Many stakeholders fear that the terms for such loans may not be too favourable to Nigeria as the lenders, in order to hedge against any risks, may hold the NPA to ransom, thus mortgaging our ports to foreign interests.

But with the passage of the contended bill, private sector funds will be readily available to carry out such remedial works without necessarily mortgaging our ports to the imperialist multi-national Finance corporations.

The labour union should rise above its selfish and parochial interests and look at the larger picture of the more developed and efficient port system under deregulated port operations.

The same opposition the Labor put up against the port concession programme of 2006 because of fear of job loss.

Yes, the programme recorded some casualties just as similar reform exercises, but the end eventually justified the means.

As widely acknowledged by the stakeholders, port concession, which ceded terminal operations to private interests, has resulted to massive infrastructural rebirth at the Nigerian Ports.

Terminal operations have become highly efficient, fast and safe which has led to a quicker rate of turnaround time of vessels.

The concessionaires have injected massive funds for the infrastructural development of the terminals.

While the concession programme shipped out redundant labourers, those who survived the purge now earn fatter salaries with mouth-watering remunerations and fantastic welfare packages which was not the case during the pre-concession era.

Comrade Adewale Adeniyi at one time attested to this change in the financial fortunes of his members who are working at the terminals.Working against the passage of the Ports and Harbour Bill will be tantamount to stagnating the progress of the ports and the retardation of the financial fortunes of the very workers the union is claiming to be fighting for.

We understand that there would be casualties just as in the port concession programme and other reforms exercises, but those who are left will enjoy the benefits of the reform.

We are not an advocate of job loss especially at this trying time of the economy when the unemployment market is congested but no surgery is carried out without pain.

No reform is without casualties but the end will certainly justify the means.

Rather than the labour union throw away the baby with the birth water and oppose the passage of the bill in its entirety, the leadership of the union led by the amiable and indefatigable Prince Adewale Adeyanju, should seek to sit with the government and find a common ground for mutual benefits.

No government would be as insensitive as to throw away its workers who have staked their lives and energies to build an entity without adequate compensation and reward.

Just as what happened during the negotiations over the workers’ fate at the concession exercise when the affected workers were given a soft landing, the labour Union could made a similar demand to give a soft landing for any casualty that may be recorded under the disputed bill.

But to outrightly ask the government to jettison the bill which the generality of stakeholders had described as a new dawn in the maritime industry would be the height of self-preservation and selfishness, thereby placing the interests of few persons over the general good of the industry.

We understand the frustration of Comrade Adewale Adeyanju and his team over their inability to access the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola yet, we advise the team should be more persistent and patient.

With patience and diplomacy, the Minister will grant them an audience.

The Union should desist from clothing its interests for opposing the bill in the garb of public interests as it sought to do when its leadership claimed that the bill will expose the port space to security risks, a claim that is not verifiable and an attempt to blackmail the government.

Comrade Adewale Adeyanju should not yield to the urge to disrupt port activities should the union not have its way over the bill as the industry has enjoyed an uncommon industrial peace and harmony since he ascended the leadership of the union, a feat that was largely attributed to his style of negotiation rooted in lobbying and dialogue.

Analyses

National Single Window: Paper on glass(6)

Monday Discourse with Nasiru Ibrahim

The deployment of digital software portals across Nigeria’s maritime gateways has created a dangerous sense of administrative accomplishment.

On paper, policy declarations boast of automated workflows and modern interfaces designed to ease the cost of doing business. On the ground, however, the reality remains stubbornly archaic.

If the presidency and the newly minted National Single Window team believe that true automation begins and ends with front-end digital software portals like the new B’Odogwu Customs System, they are falling for an expensive trap.

True technological transformation cannot simply mean scanning old bureaucracies onto a computer screen. Cosmetic digitization does not eradicate systemic corruption; it merely moves the extortion from the physical Port gate onto a digital dashboard.

The structural flaw undermining our current modernization drive is the “scanned paper” reality. Clearing agents are routinely forced to upload digital documents onto unified portals, only to face the absurdity of printing out those exact same files to present them physically at various Port commands.

This duplication completely defeats the purpose of an automated gateway.
True single window success requires the total legal abolition of physical paper documentation within the Port perimeter.

We must transition from an era of “paper-on-glass” to pure, untampered digital data flows. A digital portal is utterly useless if the data it processes is still manually verified, delayed, or altered by human gatekeepers behind the scenes.

To break this cycle, the system must shift from human discretion to algorithmic risk profiling. We must enforce a machine-driven risk engine that automatically routes cargo through green, yellow, or red channels based entirely on hard data and compliance history.

Under this framework, once a container profile passes automated risk evaluation, an individual officer should not possess the arbitrary power to flag it for a manual “re-examination.”

Unauthorized human interventions on automated system routing must be treated as institutional sabotage and criminalized accordingly. Removing human delays from the logistics chain requires stripping human actors of the capacity to stall.

Furthermore, we must aggressively implement a single wallet mandate to clean up the financial architecture of our Ports. A true single window platform must consolidate all customs duties, agency fees, and terminal charges into one single electronic transaction.

This eradication of multi-layered payment checkpoints will instantly dry up the illicit cash demands that fuel the multi-billion-naira demurrage trap.

By deploying automated escrow systems, the central portal can instantly distribute revenues to the respective agency accounts—be it the Nigeria Customs Service, NPA, or NIMASA—only after automated cargo release metrics are met.

The ultimate structural shift, however, requires moving the entire national Port philosophy beyond the physical gate.

Top-tier maritime capitals like Singapore and Rotterdam do not stall their economies by interrogating cargo at the wharf; they rely on Post-Clearance Audits (PCA).

Nigeria must transition to a system where cargo is released instantly within a guaranteed 24-hour window based on automated risk profiles, while reserving heavy verification for robust, off-site corporate audits later.

Until we replace cosmetic upgrades with this level of raw process re-engineering, our software portals remain empty promises. True automation is not a software purchase; it is an uncompromising institutional discipline.

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

Analyses

The National Single Window Illusion: Why phase two cannot succeed on paper

Monday Discourse with Nasiru Ibrahim

The official rollout of Phase One of the National Single Window (NSW) was heralded as a monumental leap toward a paperless, automated trade ecosystem.

On paper and within executive dashboards, the achievements are clear: the serialization of Licenses, Certificates, and Permits (LCPO), streamlined electronic manifest transmissions, and integrated risk management for primary regulators like SON and NAFDAC.

Yet, as the steering committee aggressively prepares for the imminent deployment of Phase Two, a severe operational reality check is required.

The claim that the Single Window has successfully “taken off” remains a purely administrative illusion when measured against the brutal, manual friction remaining at our terminal gates.

The core vulnerability of the current transition is the absolute failure to align digital front-end clearances with physical back-end enforcement.

Importers are successfully navigating the centralized National Single Window Portal, obtaining official electronic green lights, only to watch their consignments get trapped by manual human greed the moment the cargo hits the access roads.

Phase Two promises end-to-end electronic customs clearance, full payment digitization, and automated interoperability with the Nigeria Customs Service’s new B’Odogwu Unified Customs Management System.

However, if the federal administration continues to pour billions into software updates while leaving parallel manual check-points unpunished, Phase Two will simply become a highly expensive digital facade masking an archaic extortion regime.

True trade facilitation is not a technological achievement; it is a direct function of political will.

The integration of advanced platforms like B’Odogwu across major commands like Apapa and Tin Can proves that our regulatory arms possess the technical capability to automate. The problem is cultural and financial.

Entrenched administrative empires are deliberately preserving parallel manual structures because documentation loops, artificial delays, and manufactured compliance flags remain incredibly lucrative.

For the National Single Window to transition from a policy delusion into a genuine economic catalyst, the state must move past cosmetic celebrations.

The presidency must deploy the executive power required to completely outlaw physical interventions outside the approved digital framework and enforce severe punitive consequences for any agency chief who authorizes parallel verification processes.

Until the gate complies with the portal, the National Single Window project remains grounded.

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

Analyses

The National Single Window illusion: Why phase two is dead on arrival

Chief Nasiru Ibrahim

Tomorrow on Monday Discourse with Nasiru Ibrahim, I am dropping part three of my maritime audit, ‘The Single Window Illusion: Why Phase Two is Already Grounded.

For months, our regulatory class has hidden behind the glossy public relations of automated portals, celebrating the ‘take-off’ of Phase One.

But a cold look at the raw data reveals a terrifying truth: we are running a digitised facade over a broken, manual rent-seeking ecosystem.

Tomorrow , I shall be exposing the massive operational disconnect between the new B’Odogwu Customs System and the brutal, manual greed at the terminal gates.

You cannot claim to master trade velocity when parallel checkpoints, erratic human intervention, and bridge shakedowns are hardcoded into the Apapa corridor.

Tomorrow, we strip away the illusions and confront the structural arithmetic holding our supply chains hostage.

Lock your dials on this platform. The clock is ticking.