SENIOR workers of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) under the aegis of the Senior Staff Association of Communication Transportation and Corporation (SSACTAC) has raised the alarm that workers no longer go on training.
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune exclusively in Lagos, President of SSACTAC, NPA branch, Comrades Benson Adegbeyeni explained that workers no longer embark on months training, aside one or two days workshops.
According to him, “I have always told successive NPA management to do the needful for workers. If the workers, who are my members are happy, then I will be happy.
“Is training not a process to boost a workers knowledge based on what he or she is doing in the organisation? All those two, three days trips workers are sent to, do you call that training? What will the workers gain in three days? That is not training.
“If they ask workers to embark on two or three months training on what is relevant to their jobs at NPA, that is what I call training. Not a two or three day seminar somewhere in Abuja. That is not training. And that is what is most prevalent in NPA now.
“I have told the management, if there is going to be training, let’s have the training. If its 10 or 20 workers that are going to go for the training, let’s start the process. Not sending one or two NPA personnel on two or three days seminars or workshops that are not relevant to what they are doing in the NPA, and management says workers have been trained. No, that is not training.”
When asked if the workers association has brought this observation to the Managing Directors attention, Comrade Adegbeyeni explained that the MD is willing to do, but is not getting enough cooperation from within.
In his words, “The MD, to be candid to her, is willing to do; but what will she do when she minutes letters to appropriate quarters within the agency for feedbacks, and such expected feedbacks is not forthcoming.
“The MD is willing to do, to be fair to her. If we write letters to the MD, she minutes it down to appropriate quarters for feedbacks. But if those feedbacks don’t come, what will she do. She cannot do it alone.
“When people that are expected to minute back letters to the MD fail to do so, what will MD do? Hadiza Bala Usman cannot do it all alone. She cannot be everywhere. There are people assigned to her to help her do her job.
“When you write severally, and no response. You go to management and talk, and they assure you they will do, and they don’t do, what will you do?”
When asked if top senior management workers of the NPA are members of SSACTAC, he explained that, “No, they are not. If MD minutes down letters, it comes down to the Executive Director, General Managers or Assistant General Managers.
“This are the management staffs, and they are not members of SSACTAC. If the letters are not minuted back to the MD, she has her hands filled, and won’t wait for one letter before she does her job.
“I won’t say there is a cabal in the NPA because there are cabals everywhere. I will only advise the MD that when trees fall on trees, you remove the one’s at the top.”
Efforts to get the Spokesman of the NPA, Effiong Nduonoft comment on the issue failed as he did not respond to calls and text messages put across to his mobile phone.