NPA Senior Staff Assoc spoils for war with BPE
… Over plans to concession marine services @ ports
Workers under the aegis of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Branch of the Senior Staff Association of Communication, Transport and Corporation (SSACTAC) have threatened a showdown with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), if the BPE goes ahead with plans to concession marine services at the ports currently being undertaken by the NPA.
President of SSACTAC – NPA Branch, Comrade Jimoh Umar, during a press conference at the association’s secretariat in Apapa, Lagos yesterday, said that the planned concession will further impoverish workers of the Authority and lead to further job losses.
He said that the 8,000 victims of the mass sack of 2006 are still suffering the agony of the port reform programme midwifed by the BPE.
Umar said that concessioning the marine functions of NPA after the organisation has lost its terminal operations functions to private operators six years ago will translate to it becoming an idle organisation.
He querrried: “What else is NPA going to be doing after they take away marine services which is the only thing left for it at present?”
He criticised the port concession programme, which, he claimed, had reduced the fortunes of NPA and has jerked up the cost of doing business at the ports.
He questioned the rationale behind concessioning the ports to private organisations and urged the workers to put in their best to safe the ports from total collapse.
Umar described ports as a treasure base for Nigeria that must be protected.
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