31 years after NNSL shutdown, aged seafarers beg FG for unpaid pensions
Maureen Aguta
Thirty-one years after the liquidation of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), aged former seafarers have renewed their appeal to the Federal Government to pay their outstanding pensions and other entitlements.
The Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN), which has been championing the cause of the former sailors, said many of the pensioners have died while others are battling serious health challenges, poverty and homelessness without receiving the benefits due to them.
The union said the affected seafarers had undergone a verification exercise about three years ago at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Sports Centre, Bode Thomas, Surulere, Lagos, under the leadership of the union’s former President-General, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, and in collaboration with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
According to MWUN, the verification was intended to establish the identities and claims of the former NNSL workers and facilitate the payment of their long-outstanding entitlements.
However, the union lamented that despite the exercise and several interventions through NIMASA, the affected seafarers were still waiting for their pensions and other benefits.
The development, it said, had left many of the elderly former sailors struggling to survive, with some unable to afford basic medical treatment.
The union’s President-General, Comrade Francis Bunu Abi, has since assumed the responsibility of pursuing the matter with the relevant government authorities, assuring the pensioners that the union would not abandon their cause.
Bunu said it was unacceptable that Nigerians who had spent years serving aboard the country’s national shipping fleet should be subjected to hardship in old age after decades of service.
He said the union had continued to engage the Federal Government, ministries and other relevant authorities in Abuja in an effort to resolve the matter.
According to him, the aged seafarers frequently visit the union’s headquarters at Osho Drive, Olodi-Apapa, Lagos, where he personally receives them, provides updates on efforts to secure their entitlements and urges them to remain patient.
Bunu stressed that the union remained committed to ensuring that the former sailors received what was due to them.
MWUN appealed to the Federal Government to expedite action on the payment, warning that time was running out for the elderly beneficiaries.
The union said several of the former seafarers had already died, while others were reportedly living with blindness, stroke and other debilitating conditions. Some, it added, were confined to wheelchairs, homeless or dependent on others for their daily needs.
The union described the situation as unacceptable for people who had rendered years of service to the country’s maritime sector.
Bunu said retirement should offer former workers an opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labour rather than expose them to extreme hardship and uncertainty.
He therefore urged the Federal Government and all relevant agencies to resolve the decades-old issue and give the aged seafarers an opportunity to live their remaining years with dignity.
He appealed for urgent action, stressing that the continued delay could further reduce the number of surviving beneficiaries capable of receiving the long-awaited payments.
The MWUN Head of Media, Comrade John Kennedy Ikemefuna, signed the statement on behalf of the union.