Blue Economy
MWUN to Oyetola: Restore Tally Clerks, Gangway Guards or Risk Port Security Collapse
MWUN to Oyetola: Restore Tally Clerks, Gangway Guards or Risk Port Security Collapse
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News Correspondent, Lagos
The Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria has urged the Federal Government to urgently reinstate tally clerks and gangway security personnel across the country’s seaports and jetties, warning that their continued absence is fuelling cargo under-declaration, contraband smuggling, and a creeping breakdown of port labour discipline.
In a petition addressed to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, MWUN Secretary-General Oniha Erazua described the situation as a critical challenge confronting Nigeria’s maritime sector — one with serious consequences for both national revenue and port security.
Operators Flouting Labour Laws
The union’s petition flagged the absence of tally clerks and gangway security men as the entry point for a wider compliance crisis. According to MWUN, the vacuum has allowed some terminal operators to sidestep the Stevedoring Regulations 2014 by deploying unregistered dockworkers — a practice the union says undermines the legal frameworks governing maritime labour.
The union warned that without tally clerks physically counting and verifying cargo manifests at berth, under-declaration of goods has become routine, resulting in substantial revenue losses to the Federal Government
Arms, Contraband Moving Freely
On the security front, MWUN’s alarm is equally stark. The petition states that the absence of gangway security personnel — whose role is to control vessel access and monitor crew and visitor movement — has enabled the unchecked flow of arms and contraband through port gates and vessel gangways.
The union disclosed that no fewer than 243 operational jetties across Nigeria are currently running without adequate supervision from either the Nigerian Ports Authority or the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency — a figure that points to systemic regulatory failure well beyond the major commercial ports at Apapa and Tin Can.
A Central Labour Pool Under NIMASA
MWUN’s recommendations are specific. The union is calling on Minister Oyetola to initiate executive action for the immediate restoration of the affected workers across all ports and to establish a central labour pool — to be managed by NIMASA — for the structured engagement and deployment of tally clerks and gangway guards.
It also wants both NIMASA and NPA directed to recruit and deploy dedicated monitoring officers to enforce compliance across ports, dry ports, bonded terminals, and jetties nationwide.
Third Appeal in Four Years
The petition is not MWUN’s first. The union noted that similar representations were made in 2021 and 2023 through stakeholder memoranda and formal correspondences, but said the issue remains unresolved. The union expressed cautious optimism that the current minister would act where his predecessors have not.
Nigeria Watch (Maritime & Blue Economy Implications)
For port operators, terminal concessionaires, and freight forwarders, the MWUN petition puts a number — 243 unsupervised jetties — on what the industry has long known anecdotally: regulatory presence at Nigeria’s secondary and riverine ports is thin to nonexistent.
The tally clerk question is particularly consequential for cargo interests. Tally clerks serve as an independent check on vessel manifests, providing a human audit layer that customs declarations and electronic cargo tracking systems alone cannot replicate. Their absence creates conditions in which short-landing — the gap between what is manifested and what is physically delivered — goes undetected, with losses borne by importers, consignees, and ultimately the government’s import duty receipts.
For NIMASA, the call to manage a central labour pool represents both an opportunity and a test. The agency has been under sustained pressure to demonstrate operational relevance beyond regulatory enforcement. Taking on the coordination of a pooled workforce of tally clerks and gangway guards would expand its port-level footprint — but would require funding, administrative capacity, and political will that have historically been in short supply.
The gangway security dimension also intersects directly with NPA’s port access control mandate and with NIMASA’s obligations under the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. If arms and contraband are moving through gangways at Nigerian ports with the frequency MWUN implies, the liability exposure — reputational and regulatory — extends beyond labour relations into Nigeria’s international maritime compliance standing.
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