MWUN boss Bunu applauds seafarers, suggest better welfare regime
By Uzor Odigbo
The President General of the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Francis Bunu Abi, celebrates Seafarers to mark June 26, 2026, “Day Of The Seafarers”, which is an annual event across the world.
This year’s Day of Seafarers reminds Seafarers that Mariners must not be victims or pawns of geographical conflict.
However, the theme for the year 2026, “Carrying World Trade. Carrying The Risks” identifies with the heightened geopolitical tensions, including the evolving situation in the Strait of Hormuz, the Black Sea and, the Sea of Asov and the Red Sea region, which have caused great tension and increasing complexity.
Therefore, there’s no gainsaying that each year of the Seafarers Day, provides an opportunity to recognize the essential roles of Seafarers in global trade and the risks there in, which Seafarers bear sustaining it.
It’s therefore very necessary to put into serious consideration the plight and challenges Seafarers face navigating through regions affected by conflict and insecurity.
This includes the risks they take as well as the resilience they showcase in moving world trade under difficult situations.
In view of these circumstances, which Seafarers face in the course of their job on the sea, the theme of this year 2026 serves as a reminder that Seafarers must not become collateral victims of geopolitical conflicts.
Comrade Bunu, an astute Seafarer, a Maritime Expert and Labour Activist in this year’s event thanked the Nigerian Seafarers and across the globe for their resilience, discipline, commitment and loyalty in the face of hardship and uncertainty that has engulfed international seas across the globe.
The labour icon expressed his worries over the state of the Maritime Academy in Oron, where graduants are turned out yearly with no adequate certifications to compete favourably with their counterparts across the West Africa sub-eegion and beyond, hence, getting employment becomes cumbersome; hence, very many of them are roaming all over the place without job. A situation which calls for a very serious concern.
The PG of the Union also noted with dismay the non availability of national carriers just like back in the days when Nigeria had the defunct Nigeria National Shipping Line (NNSL), which of course was the pride of Nigerian Seafarers. Hitherto, various governments have come and gone, the situation of the country’s shipping line had remained the same; and it is not a good development for a country like Nigeria considering our Maritime potential.
Comrade Bunu however, called on the federal government and the minister of marine and blue economy to use his office to bring back the good of the past days, where Nigerian Seafarers.
