MWUN: Comrade Bunu Projects Improved Welfare, Manpower Development, Signing of Mouthwatering CBA’s for Workers in 2026

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The President-General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) Comrade Francis Bunu Abi has given his projections for the year 2026, even as he urged the workers to expect improved welfare, a lot of trainings and manpower development programmes, as well as signing of more CBA’s (Collective Bargaining Agreement) to increase workers remuneration.
In this interview conducted on the sidelines of the union’s 2025 end of year party held recently, Comrade Bunu took stock of the year 2025, saying that the union has had a good year so far.

Congratulations for a successful 2025, you came into the saddle as President General this year, how would you rate the performance of the maritime sector this year?

First and foremost, I would say that the year 2025 was a good year for the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria. In an organisation where there are four branches that comes together to make up a single union, and also, this is our year of transitioning from one government to another, you can imagine that we did the National election this year, we have also done all the branch elections, and district elections across board.
So, for us, 2025 has been a very fruitful year, it is a year that we would always remember because we have made tremendous improvements in the area of industrial peace and harmony, if there is no peace in the industry, there is nothing that we can achieve, there would be no investor, but if there is peace, business would continue to thrive, this is what we have achieved and we give kudos to other players in the maritime industry, especially the government agencies who joined hands with the union to make sure that the industry remained calm for others to benefit from. I am talking about the likes of NIMASA which spearhead the issue of seafarers and dockworkers, NPA which is the owners of the Port, Shippers Council who are the economic regulators, as well as NIWA.
We commend them all for ensuring that there is peace in the industry for 2025.

What are your projections for the year 2026?

We have already said that in 2026, we are expecting massive growth, improvement of workers welfare which is the primary assignment of any trade union, anything outside this are all secondary, in 2026 we are expecting massive growth, a lot of trainings are going to take place, there would be alignments and collaborations. We are also very sure that with the Category C seat on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which the Federal government has secured, we are confident that the maritime sector would experience a boost. As far as the union is concerned, we are in the heart of the Maritime sector, if the sector is going to experience a boost, it means all would fall on us, as far as I am concerned, the workers should expect massive growth in 2026 and signing of more CBA across board, both dockworkers, seafarers, NPA and Shipping.
Others things would also follow, including manpower development among staff.

Recently, you raised concerns that some companies have refused their workers to be unionised, especially Crown Flower Mills, has this been resolved?

It has not been resolved, we are still finding a way to resolve it, and we have scheduled a meeting for the first week of next year, so that we can clear out the gray areas, they have already accepted that there is no way they can run away from maritime because maritime is their landlord, so no matter the challenges, they have no choice than to carry us along.
There are other companies that are within and outside the union that we have told that it is not going to be business as usual again come 2026, some of them even agree with us that there is no way some set of workers should be benefitting than others in a company because they don’t have anyone to speak out for them.
As a trade union, we also take some of the blame, we have not been doing what we are expected to do, humans would always be humans, you cannot keep them stagnant, if you cannot come to their rescue, they would look for alternative help elsewhere, this is what is happening in the industry, but we have told them now that we are fully onboard, they should forget about the past, and we are going to carry everyone along now.

There is an upsurge in importation of drugs through Nigerian ports, what level of sensitization are you giving to the dockworkers to ensure they are not caught in the mix?

For me, the federal government and the security agencies are doing the opposite of what they should be doing, a vessel would leave Brazil and come to Nigeria with drugs, the question is who loaded that vessel? How did it leave Brazilian Port? Before a vessel would leave a port, don’t they get clearance? So, why won’t Nigerian government take a step of meeting with these countries who are importing these drugs into our country. There are people who have loaded these vessels from destination, our own work here is just to offload, so it goes beyond dealing with our dockworkers or Nigerians, there is a source where these things are coming from, why do you allow them to keep coming? If a vessel is caught in the actualization, what punishment do you give to that vessel? To what extent is their investigation carried out? If you don’t dish out adequate punishment, these countries would continue bringing these drugs and we would be discovering it at this point ,so Nigerian government should go beyond the shores of the country and sign bilateral agreements with these countries to ensure that vessels coming from their country to ours must be clean.
The government must understand that it goes beyond just arresting the vessels or crew, at the end of the day, they are allowed to go free without prosecution.

We see you hosting an end of the year party to mark end of year 2025, this has never happened before, can you tell us the idea behind it?

It is very simple, if you don’t motivate people who have worked for you throughout the year and let them understand that the organisation belongs to all of you, if the association goes down, we all go down, there is no other place we can go and look for jobs because nobody can employ some of us as we are again, so therefore, we have to keep our job serious, and we that we are managers, we have to keep encouraging the staff.
What you are seeing today is like we giving back to the workers and letting them know they have done very well.
When you commend them for doing well, you encourage them to do more, especially the lower level staff, in any environment you entered that is clean like this, you must understand that some people are doing the job while you are asleep in your house.
This has come to stay, it would be an every year celebration going forward, we even gave awards to the workers in different categories.