Strike: Congestion rocks Lagos ports as vessels fail to berth

Following the strike action embarked upon by the three major labour unions comprising of the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, Trade Union Congress TUC, and the United Labour Congress ULC, investigations have revealed that as at the close of work last Friday, the nation’s seaports, especially the Lagos Ports Complex and Tin-Can Island Ports Complex, both in Apapa, which are the two busiest cargo seaports accounting for over 85 per cent of all container traffic that come to Nigeria; are currently congested since both have remained under lock and key for two consecutive days. This is even as vessels have failed to berth at any ports in the country due to inability of the Berthing Committee to meet as a result of the labour strike.

Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively over the weekend, a staff of one of the terminal operators who begged not to have his name in print, explained that the whole yard is filled with uncleared cargoes.

According to our source, “Remember that just about a month ago, truckers went on strike, causing congestion to affect many of the ports terminals. The truck drivers had protested then due to the failure of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) call-up system to clear the Apapa traffic gridlock.

“We are yet to recover fully from that truckers strike before the labour unions announced their strike action last Thursday. The truckers strike alone led to congestion in the ports. Many containers litter the ports uncleared.

*We were in the middle of tidying the backlog of containers that got trapped in the ports due to the truckers strike when the labour unions announced their strike action.

“The whole terminals are congested. No trucks has been allowed into the ports, neither has none been allowed to exit the ports. The situation is pathetic. Its important that government and the labour unions resolve the issues that led to this strike. We cannot continue in this manner.”

When asked if vessels have been berthing, our source explained that, “For vessels to berth, there is a committee that allocates berths to them. The meeting of that committee is called the Berthing Committee Meeting, which holds daily, Mondays to Fridays to allocate berths to vessels arriving the nation’s ports.

“However, due to the labour strike, that committee meeting has also failed to meet for the two days the strike has lasted, and this has made it very difficult for vessels to berth at any of the seaports.”

It will be recalled that the Senior Staff Association SSA of the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria MWUN, last Thursday directed its members to stay away from the port locations in order to ensure 100 per cent compliance with the directive on the strike by the three labour bodies.