31st March, 2017
Some pensioners of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Friday converged at the organisation`s staff club in Lagos to offer prayers for the success of the current management led by Ms Hadiza Usman.
The prayer session, which started around 10.00 a.m., lasted for about 50 minutes and was led by both Islamic and Christian clerics.
The pensioners particularly prayed for the good health of the managing director and God`s guidance in her efforts to reform the organisation to its old glory.
They also prayed that God should provide the management with all the means to be able to pay their pension arrears and entitlements as promised by the managing director.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the prayers, the spokesman for the `Concerned NPA Pensioners, Mr Ayo Binitie, said the prayers were due to the new-found understanding between them and the management.
He said they had, on March 15 staged a protest at the headquarters of the organisation to demand the payment of their 10-year pension increment arrears, but were impressed with the reception by the management.
Binitie said the sincerity of purpose of Usman and her promise to pay the arrears informed their decision to pray for the management and work with them to succeed.
“We staged the protest to ask for our entitlements in line with the constitution that pensions should be increased every five years; the normal arrears we have not been paid for 10 years.
“But interestingly enough, the management conceded to our request and they promised to take the appropriate action within three weeks.
“We believe this management, led by Usman, is showing some sincerity of purpose and that we need to support them and work with them to achieve their goals for the organisation.
“So, this prayer session is part of that show of support and we will continue to make ourselves available to the management for advice and inputs on how to move NPA forward,” he said.
Asked what the pensioners would do if the management failed to fulfill its promise to pay at the expiration of the three weeks, Binitie said it was not necessary to think otherwise.
He said he had no doubt that the management would honour the “gentleman’s agreement’’ it had with them and that all pensioners were anxiously waiting for that to happen.
Binitie commended Usman for the steps she had taken so far, saying it required a person of courage like her to clear the mess in the organisation.
“The port industry is our farmland and is also our cattle. If we must earn well and live well, we need to protect it.
“This is why we gathered here in the solemn assembly to pray for the leadership of this great country and the leadership of the port industry for divine protection,’’ he said.
Another Pensioner, Mr Bode Akinbote, said that the prayers were to reciprocate the open hands with which the management received them.
He said the pensioners trusted the ability of Usman to deliver, adding that they would offer any form of support for her to succeed.
Mr Anthony Ukunebi, a retiree from the Marine Engineering Department of NPA, urged the management to be focused in line with existing NPA regulations.
Ukunebi said that if management was not focused, it could lead to misappropriation of resources.
“When we were in operation before the concession, we had a lot of workforce, but activities of concessionaires had reduced the workforce in the marine department,’’ he said.