Francis Bunu, a leading contender for President General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria says he will ensure increased harmony between government, employers and the maritime workers in the country
Excerpts
How do you view the flood of endorsements from past leaders, present leaders, subordinates and your contemporaries?
First and foremost, I give thanks to God for the opportunity. Secondly, I want to sincerely appreciate my boss Comrade Adewale Adeyanju. There are two ways an incumbent President General can handover power to his successor.
One is if the incumbent is doing well, you will see lot of support coming the way of his successor, my case is a case of which an incumbent has done very well. For example, if you are a governor or a president, who has preformed well in office, at the end of your tenure,people owe you the duty to respect you because you did a great job while you were the president and they want to see your dreams actualised . That is what people are seeing right now
When you see these endorsements everywhere from past leaders, stakeholders, seafarers, dockwalkers, NPA, shipping companies etc it is because my boss has performed excellently well in office. Let’s assume opposite was the case I wouldn’t be receiving lot of endorsements and nods right now.
Looking at the forthcoming election, people would like to know what Comrade Francis Bunu Abi is bringing to the table. People would also like to know whether you can sustain the tempo.
In an atmosphere like this for some of us who have worked closely with our leaders, we know what our leader have done and we leant the rope. One thing that every leader would like to see is his or her successor doing very well, so that their reign can always continue.
Let me narrow it down to me as a person, what do I bring to the table? One thing that i know for sure as a seafarer who is also now in the trade union is that i should be able to fill in the gap between the workers and the managers, employers and be able to give them that sense of belonging as a father, and as a leader.
I should be able to face challenges and solve them with dialogue and take the right decision about it. I am also coming with honestly which is not based on tribalism, godfatherism, or familiarity . I hope to take over a working system and keep it working perfectly
You know right now this union has gone global and we are getting a lot of international recognition so it’s left for us to be able to keep that flag flying and we must make sure that the employers should know that it is the union every of our member is proud of.
it’s time for the employers, employees, trade union, the government to come together to discuss and be fair with ourselves on what we want as a nation and as workers in the industry.
As far as I’m concerned, what i am bringing to the table is transparency, love and upholding the dignity of every maritime worker. Let the workers have value and a sense of belonging. Because without the industry, there will be no trade union and without the union , the sector won’t exist. So as a leader, you must have that in mind that. You must also know that the industry must stay afloat so as to enhance productivity.
For me, it’s a very simple and straightforward thing. NPA is a straightforward agency they have one management. For workers affairs, we will stand for them.
What do they need? For dockworkers, they have a different management and every management have their own style, peculiarities and we must study all of that and be able to balance everything. Seafarer, that is where i came from and my home is to improve on what we’ve already started and also build on it.
The same thing applies to shipping where my my boss has already made impact now we will create more avenue for everybody to benefit so that there will be peace, harmony, equity and justice in the martime industry.
Now, looking at means of income and sustainability for the union, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju worked on looking beyond check off dues so the union should have investment and additional streams of income like being in haulage and all of that. Do you intend to pursue that aspect to make the union self-sustaining?
Truely it is overdue for this union to have investments. The only way any organization can grow is for them to have investments to enable them take care of the needs of the union. Without investment, this union cannot move forward. Every other avenue that my boss has created to bring food to the table of a common man and to the union will be improved upon
We will also look at another avenue of investments that this union can venture into so as to make more money for the union and for the entire workforce. Because if we don’t invest, as you said how do we grow? We must have different streams of income. It’s our top priority and its not negotiable. We are going to apply a deliberately approach towards it. We can’t stop the union dues because union dues is for the union. But only the union dues can not carry this union because the union has gone global.
Amongst all the contestants, you are the only candidate that we have seen the past president general and other past leaders. There seems to be a bridge between you, the past and even those behind. How did you arrive at this strategy?
It’s not a day’s work. I started my career as a seafarer in River State. I have worked in vessels for sometime so i looked at it from that angle that this sector is a very lucrative sector but when i asked who were the people speaking for us? I was told it’s the MWUN. The passion i have for the maritime sector didn’t start today. I’ve always had the burning desire to be the voice of the people in the sector.
As a seafarer i became a member of union as a floor member and i was elected as an Ex-officio. From that position i was elected again as a unit chairman. After serving as a union chairman i was elected as a district chairman and i have also served as a branch president. After serving as a branch president I got elected to become the Deputy President General
I have passed through all the cadres. I did not jump any. I started my union career from the scratch. I have been looking at my leaders, I’ve have seen (names) i have seen Tony. I have seen my boss Adeyanju and I’ve I looked at the way they do things.
When you have a boss who has interest in you, have done very well and has a relationship with all our past leaders they will equally extend that to you as their son because it’s is like a family.
This baton will be handed over to another person who has followed the good footsteps. If you take a critical look at it every leader that has emerged as a president general have done something for the union. Whether we like it or not the union has kept on growing so i can boldly say all our past leaders have done very well until the moment that my boss took over the baton from Tony.
So, if he is introducing me to the former leaders of the union they know that he has done very well. Therefore they all accepted anybody he endorsed.
The truth behind it is that we have a very good relationship with our leaders. I also have a very good relationship with all them because I’ve worked with them. It is only(name) that I did not work with but i was a loyal member. I have never defaulted as a member of the union and other members, past leaders can attest to that
All of them have worked with me directly and indirectly so they know the kind of person they are dealing with and my aim is to carry everybody along. The industry and Nigeria at large is for us to build together.
