The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has rejected a plan by the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, to refloat the Nigeria National Shipping Line (NNSL) 28 years after liquidation without fully settling previously disengaged seafarers.

The workers said it would be unkind to the union to hear any plan by the minister regarding a new NNSL without carrying along the previously disengaged seafarers concerning their unsettled entitlements.

A statement by the union’s Head of Media, John Ikemefuna, yesterday, said the refloating of a new NNSL would 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.

Noting that it would only amount to human injustice of the highest order, he said it would also be tantamount to placing the cart before the horse if such a proposition was in the pipeline without first thinking of the aged seafarers.

“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. Some of the aged seafarers have indeed 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.

He recalled when MWUN President-General, Adewale Adeyanju, engaged the minister during the commissioning of the Mission to Seafarers Centre in Apapa, on major issues confronting the maritime workers’ union, especially on the protracted unpaid entitlements and pensions of disengaged seafarers of the liquidated NNSL, stating that the NIC ruled in favour of the aged seafarers that they should be paid.

He lamented that the union now had 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.

According to him, the MWUN which its major challenges have not been resolved over the years with several Ministers of Transportation, as regards the settlement of the retiree aged seafarers and other issues confronting the blue economy which has not been given a clear-cut definition and mode of operation, is still worrisome to the union.

He also recalled that the former Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, set up a committee involving two ministries, the Ministry of Transportation and Labour Ministry respectively, charged with the responsibility of carrying out physical verification exercises of the aged seafarers, which the union thought would have brought some sort of succor, “but the story is still the same,” he said.

“It is 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 blue economy that is on the lips of every Nigerian today, emerged as a global concept in 2012. 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.

“So 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,” he said.