Editor's Choice
Adeyanju Sounds Alarm Over Dying, Impoverished Retired Seafarers as Pension Backlog Festers
Adeyanju Sounds Alarm Over Dying, Impoverished Retired Seafarers as Pension Backlog Festers
By Emetena Ikuku | Waterways News
Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, Deputy President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and former President-General of the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN), has raised a fresh and urgent alarm over the prolonged failure to pay pension benefits and outstanding entitlements owed to retired Nigerian seafarers, warning that the delay has become a matter of life and death.
Speaking on the occasion of the 2026 Day of the Seafarer, Adeyanju said that many of the beneficiaries who participated in a verification exercise conducted at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) quarters in Bode Thomas, Lagos — nearly four years ago, under his own tenure as MWUN President-General — have since died waiting for their money. Others, he said, are gravely ill and incapacitated, while survivors continue to endure conditions of abject poverty. He made an impassioned appeal to the federal government to honour its obligations without further delay, stressing the moral imperative of restoring dignity to men and women who dedicated their working lives to serving the nation at sea.
Adeyanju used the occasion to acknowledge the broader global context in which this year’s seafarer commemoration falls. Aligning his remarks with the International Maritime Organisation’s 2026 theme — “Carrying World Trade. Carrying The Risks” — he noted that this year has proven exceptionally dangerous for seafarers, with armed conflicts, particularly those disrupting the Strait of Hormuz shipping corridor, exposing mariners to unprecedented hazards. He praised their courage and continued commitment to keeping global trade moving despite those elevated risks.
On domestic maritime policy, Adeyanju commended the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy for ongoing port transformation efforts, but called for the reinstatement of onboard gangway men on berthed vessels at Nigerian ports. He described gangway men as the “eagle eyes” guarding ships at quay aprons, playing a critical role in deterring theft and economic sabotage — a function he said cannot be allowed to lapse.
He also turned his attention to the Nigerian Maritime Academy, Oron, which he characterised as “a vehicle without an engine,” expressing deep concern that graduates are leaving the institution without proper certification and with little or no access to sea time — the practical shipboard experience essential for career progression under international standards. He called on the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to intervene decisively to ensure that MAN Oron graduates are fully certificated and employment-ready upon completion of their programmes.
Adeyanju concluded his remarks by acknowledging the resilience of maritime employers and practitioners navigating difficult operating conditions, and expressing cautious optimism for the sector’s future.
NIGERIA WATCH
Analysis and commentary for Nigerian maritime stakeholders
Adeyanju’s intervention on Day of the Seafarer 2026 lands with uncomfortable force precisely because it implicates the state in an avoidable human catastrophe. The verification exercise at Bode Thomas was not a spontaneous event — it was a structured, government-sanctioned process designed to identify and clear outstanding pension obligations. That nearly four years have elapsed since that exercise, with beneficiaries dying and deteriorating in the interim, reflects a systemic failure that sits well beyond administrative inconvenience.
The unresolved pension crisis must be situated within Nigeria’s wider Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) compliance obligations. NIMASA has in recent months invested considerable energy in positioning Nigeria as an MLC-compliant flag and port State, including through its Malta ship registry partnership and its formal inspections of foreign-flagged vessels calling at Nigerian ports. Yet the MLC’s core premise is the protection of seafarers’ welfare — including their entitlements upon retirement. A Nigeria that enforces MLC standards on visiting ships while allowing its own retired mariners to die in penury sends a deeply contradictory signal to the international maritime community.
The MAN Oron challenge is equally symptomatic. Nigeria has long articulated ambitions to grow its domestic seafarer base and reduce dependence on foreign crew — ambitions embedded in the Cabotage regime and the CVFF framework. But those ambitions are hollow if the country’s premier maritime training institution produces graduates who cannot obtain internationally recognised STCW certification or accumulate the sea time required for career advancement. NIMASA’s mandate under the Merchant Shipping Act explicitly includes oversight of maritime training standards; the agency cannot credibly claim to be developing Nigeria’s seafarer pipeline while Oron’s certification bottleneck persists.
Adeyanju’s call to reinstate gangway men touches on a quieter but commercially significant issue. Port security and cargo integrity are areas where Nigeria’s port operators, particularly terminal concessionaires at Apapa and Tin Can Island, have long flagged concerns about losses at berth. Gangway supervision is a low-cost, high-impact control measure; its erosion should concern NPA, the port terminals, and cargo owners alike.
What this Day of the Seafarer statement ultimately demands is not sentiment but settlement — of pension arrears, of certification barriers, of security gaps. The federal government and the relevant agencies have the frameworks, the mandates, and in several instances the prior commitments. What has been missing is execution.
Nigeria’s Port Boom Is Outpacing Its Capacity, Dantsoho Tells World Ports Conference
Dantsoho Pitches Nigeria’s Ports to Global Investors in London, Says Lekki’s Capacity Is Exhausted
By Emamuzou Akatugba | Waterways News | London
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, has told global port investors that Nigeria’s fast-growing cargo volumes make the country’s ports one of Africa’s most compelling investment opportunities. He said the Tinubu administration has put investor-friendly policies in place.
Dantsoho spoke on Tuesday at the IAPH World Ports Conference in London, which runs from November 3 to 6 at Olympia. He addressed a select group of maritime investors. He is Vice-President of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) and Chairman of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA).
He said Nigeria’s population, rapid urbanisation and infrastructure gaps are what make the opportunity attractive. He argued that governments across Africa cannot alone fund bigger and deeper seaports, so private investment must move in quickly.
“The investment needed in ports to meet this expansion and growth can only happen if the requisite private investment is attracted and retained,” he said. He added that President Tinubu “has created the enabling atmosphere” for this
Dantsoho said Nigeria’s population has grown from about 45 million at independence in 1960 to over 260 million. In his words, the country needs capacity to receive bigger import vessels and to move higher export volumes.
His strongest example was the Lekki Deep Sea Port. It was funded with Chinese backing and built by China Harbour at a cost of $1.6 billion. He said it was commissioned only about three years ago, yet its capacity “has been exhausted”.
“Clearly, we need more capacity to be able to contain the volumes,” he said. He added that the NPA is pleased to be capturing more cargo, since rising volumes are what lift port revenue.
He also said most cargo arriving in West Africa, largely from China, ends up in the Nigerian market. He compared Nigeria’s population with Ghana (34 million), Côte d’Ivoire (32 million), Benin Republic (14 million) and Togo (9 million).
Other reports from the conference quote Dantsoho saying federal reforms have lifted Nigeria’s exports by about 25 per cent in two years, across oil and non-oil goods. He reportedly also cited two Nigerian ports in the World Bank’s top 20 global rankings, and a Single Window system the NPA developed in 2025 with a Singaporean firm.
NIGERIA WATCH
Capacity is now the story. A $1.6bn flagship port that is already full is the clearest sign yet that Nigeria’s problem has moved from attracting ships to handling them. It strengthens the case for the new deep seaport approvals (Badagry, Olokola, Ibom, Bakassi and Bonny) that have so far been announced faster than they have been built. Investors in London will want timelines, not just approvals.
Retaining investors is harder than attracting them. Dantsoho himself used the phrase “attracted and retained”. Concession renewal anxieties, regulatory overlap among agencies, and the Strait of Hormuz crisis’s effect on freight rates and war-risk insurance all weigh on retention. These are the questions investors will ask after the speech.
Where do the small operators fit? The pitch is about big terminals and big capital. Informal inland waterway operators, represented by WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, remain absent from the conversation.
Waterways News will keep asking how port-led growth and the NPA’s assessment of inland dry ports will translate into jetties, safety and livelihoods for the informal inland waterway operators.
Nigeria Unveils Home-Built ADX-Barra 200 Autonomous Vessel at AFRIDEX 2026
Arridex, DICON joint venture Helagon delivers country’s first indigenously developed unmanned surface vessels%
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
Nigeria has unveiled its first indigenously developed autonomous surface vessel, the ADX-Barra 200. Arridex Group, formerly RusselSmith Group, built it through Helagon, its defence joint venture with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON).
The vessel was unveiled on 26 October at the inaugural Africa International Defence Exhibition (AFRIDEX 2026) at Eko Atlantic, Lagos. The exhibition ran from 26 to 29 October.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio. He said the administration prioritises defence industry growth because a nation is more secure when it can build and maintain its own capability. He described the vessel as that capability taking shape, designed and built by local engineers in partnership with DICON, and said it deserves government support and the confidence of the armed forces.
ADX-Barra 200
Arridex Group CEO Kayode Adeleke presented the vessel. He said Helagon was set up to design autonomous systems and that the ADX-Barra 200 is the result. For the forces that will use it, he called it a force multiplier.
The ADX-Barra 200 is one of two platforms in the ADX-Barra series launched at the exhibition. The other is the ADX-Barra 100. Arridex says both were designed, built and integrated in Nigeria by its engineers.
Adeleke tied the platforms to Gulf of Guinea security. He said the region’s waters carry its trade, support its coastal communities and hold much of its energy wealth, and that protecting them calls for capability the region can build, sustain and improve itself. He invited the armed services and other stakeholders to arrange demonstrations and to help shape later generations of the vessels.
Others at the unveiling included Lagos State Deputy Governor Dr Obafemi Hamzat and the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Matawalle. DICON Director-General Major General Babatunde Ibrahim Alaya, Helagon Chief Operating Officer Engr. Precious Omo-Agege and Arridex senior management were also present.
Arridex has not published the vessel’s technical specifications, including its length, endurance, payload and sensors. Both vessels remained on display at the exhibition.
NIGERIA WATCH
A home-built answer to a long-standing maritime problem: Nigeria’s waters have long needed more patrol capacity than its platforms and budgets can supply. A locally designed vessel that “can be supported, adapted and improved by the team that made it,” as Arridex puts it, addresses one persistent weakness. Imported hulls and systems often sit idle for want of spares, support and trained hands.
The questions that matter next: Unveilings are not deployments. The Navy, NIMASA’s Deep Blue Project and other agencies will want to know the vessel’s range, endurance, sensors and sea-state limits. They will also want to know whether it can work in the Gulf of Guinea. Until Arridex publishes specifications and arranges trials, the “game-changing” claim remains the company’s own.
Beyond defence: Waterways News readers should watch whether this technology filters into civil uses such as inland waterway surveillance, anti-vandalism patrols and search and rescue. The country’s inland operators, including those represented by WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, face insecurity and safety gaps that policy announcements have not closed. Local manufacturing capacity matters to them only if it eventually reaches the waterways where they work.
The accountability test: The industrial-policy argument is sound. It is build locally and maintain locally. It will be judged by procurement, deployment and sustained operation, not by launch-day speeches.
Editor's Choice
Australia Bars Repeat-Offender Bulk Carrier for 90 Days Over Falsified Crew Rest Records
Australia Bars Repeat-Offender Bulk Carrier for 90 Days Over Falsified Crew Rest Records
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Australian maritime authorities have banned the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Wooyang Venus from its ports and waters for 90 days. Inspectors found that the ship’s crew work and rest-hour records had been deliberately falsified to hide excessive working hours.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) boarded the vessel at the Port of Newcastle on 29 October after a complaint under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC). Its port state control inspection found that the records did not match the hours the crew actually worked. The ship left Newcastle on 31 October for Korea, and the ban took effect afterwards.
This is the vessel’s third brush with Australian enforcement in under three years. AMSA detained it in August 2026 when crew hours were neither properly recorded nor monitored. It was first detained in December 2023, after a complaint from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).
That inspection found falsified hours records, poor food provisions and an allegation that the master had assaulted a crew member. AMSA’s annual MLC report says the operator then submitted a corrective action plan covering repatriation, better provisions and training on rest-hour compliance. The latest findings suggest those measures did not take hold.
AMSA Executive Director for Maritime Safety and Environmental Compliance, Greg Witherall, said falsifying records meant to protect seafarers undermines both crew welfare and ship safety. He warned that fatigue dulls judgement and slows reaction times, raising the risk of collisions, groundings and injuries, particularly during navigation and watchkeeping.
The ban was imposed under Section 246 of Australia’s Navigation Act 2012. AMSA cited the deliberate falsification, the repeated breaches and doubts over the effectiveness of the owner’s and operator’s safety management systems.
Nigeria Watch
The case matters for Nigeria for three reasons:
Records are the enforcement tool. Fatigue rules only work if rest-hour logs can be trusted. Australia treated falsification as a safety-system failure, not a paperwork lapse, and banned the ship rather than detaining it again.
Repeat offenders need escalating penalties. Two detentions and a corrective plan did not change this operator’s behaviour. Nigerian port state control should ask whether its own follow-up on repeat deficiencies has real consequences.
Seafarer welfare is a Nigerian issue. Nigerian seafarers serve on foreign-flagged ships, and those working boats and ferries on domestic waters face fatigue and welfare gaps too, often with no records at all.
The MLC regime Australia is enforcing shows what accountability looks like. It is the benchmark NIMASA and the inland regulators should be measured against, and one this publication will keep pressing.
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