ACADEMIA Letters Examining the impact of shore-based welfare facilities and services provision on seafarers’ wellbeng in Nigerian seaports, pre and post Maritime Labour Convention 2006 as amended and Coronavirus Disease,2019. Amos Kuje This article examines the impact of shore-based welfare facilities and service provision on seafarers wellbeing as shaped by two events of MLC,2006, as amended-an international regulation; and the current pestilence occasioned by the COVID-19 in foreign seaports such as in Nigeria. Since the global entry into force of the MLC, 2006, as amended convention in August 20, 2013, awareness about shore-based welfare services and facilities for seafarers has been on the increase and tends towards collective provision as against the long charity based tradition. Also, the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic could be described as one of the emergency developments that has redefined the availability and accessibility of shore-based welfare facilities and services to seafarers in a changing condition and situation within the maritime industry. Seafarers Welfare provision pre the MLC, 2006, as amended regime The attempts at providing shore-based welfare services and facilities to seafarers in Nigerian seaports predate the Country’s independence in the 1960s by missions based on charity while seaports development was mainly for economic reasons as against shore based welfare for seafarers by the Nigerian Authority. The long time tradition of charity practised by the missionaries drives the concept of providing the shore-based welfare facilities and services to seafarers under normalcy. Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Amos Kuje, amosea.kj@gmail.com Citation: Kuje, A. (2022). Examining the impact of shore-based welfare facilities and services provision on seafarers’ wellbeng in Nigerian seaports, pre and post Maritime Labour Convention 2006 as amended and Coronavirus Disease,2019. Academia Letters, Article 4787. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4787. 1 For example, a one-time British port chaplain who served in Apapa port, Lagos Nigeria revealed that a mission work on the welfare of seafarers in Nigeria started in 1907, when Rt Rev.Herbert Tugwell, a Bishop of Western Equatorial Africa acquired a site from the German Consulate in Marina in Lagos Nigeria. At the site, welfare services such as spiritual, physical and moral well-being were provided to seafarers irrespective of their nationalities, religion, creed and race. According to Reverend Andrew(2015),[1] the site acquisition has also helped in the construction of a Lagos Sailors’ Institute opened in 1914 and later resold in 1953. The port chaplain further states that in 1934, the St. Saviour’s Church in Lagos took advantage of the development in Apapa Wharf to form the Apapa Sailors’ Institute Trust. It was followed by the establishment of a “Wharf Inn” behind berth 3 in the present day Nigerian Port Authority(NPA)[2] commissioned since 1956 by Queen Elizabeth II. Subsequently, the trend was followed by the amalgamation of Sailors Institute Trust and the Wharf Inn because of the increasing need for shore-based welfare facilities and services by seafarers. After that, the Mission to Seamen took over the responsibility of ministering to seafarers in the Port and renamed the Wharf Inn after the Rt Rev.Herbert as “Tug-well House” in 1959. However, in 1970, the tug well house gave way to Apapa Port expansion while a Seafarers Club opened in 1978 at Mission to Seamen of the Anglican church at No 29 Marine Road, Apapa was in conjunction with the Apostleship of the Sea, an arm of the Roman Catholic Church. Another account based on a feasibility study report carried out by the National Seafarers Welfare Board of Nigeria (NSWB)[3] in 2008, after three decades showed a drastic change of approach and time to shore-based welfare facilities and services provision to seafarers as compare to“Tug-well House” regime where religious ministration, game of Scrabbles and films watched by sailors are provided in addition to liberty the managers had to invite local musical bands to entertain seafarers and to organise football competitions. The above narrative presents cleary, that the provision of shore-based welfare services and facilities for seafarers in Nigeria by Christian missionaries on spiritual wellbeing also connect with their physical and moral well-being. In addition, the feasibility studies conducted for the NSWB in 2008 further attests to seaports changes, a trend that connect with contemporary findings that seafarers today in seaports preferred to have access to shore-based welfare facilities and services such as the internets, restaurants, transportation, hospitality, telephone services, newspaper, televisions, radio, and videos whenever they are in seaports. The development showed that the port led economic expansion agenda as against the provision of shore-based welfare facilities and services that drove welfare centres further away from seafarers’ has implication on their wellbeing. However the changes brought about by MLC,2006 and Covid-19 pandemic by altering the way seafarers’ access available shore-based welfare Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Amos Kuje, amosea.kj@gmail.com Citation: Kuje, A. (2022). Examining the impact of shore-based welfare facilities and services provision on seafarers’ wellbeng in Nigerian seaports, pre and post Maritime Labour Convention 2006 as amended and Coronavirus Disease,2019. Academia Letters, Article 4787. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4787. 2 facilities and services in seaports is a challenge to policy and implementation in the context of regulation and emergencies. Provision of welfare in the post-MLC, 2006, as amended regime and of the COVID-19 pandemic The developments in seaports and eventual entry into force of the MLC, 2006 shaped the way welfare are currently provided to seafarers onboard and ashore. The restructure and privatisation of the ports have been able to increase vessels traffic, efficiency in seaports, and the number of seafarers on board ships that visit the seaports. Furthermore, seaports and terminals under the private concessioners, have been reinforced in line with the 2004 International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code on Port facilities to improve security[4]. The development is with the increasing needs for shore-based welfare services and facilities to serve seafarers of different nationalities in seaports better. On this account, some of the visiting seafarers expressed challenge with long isolation from families, limited time in seaports, confinement to the shipboard environment due to COVID19 pandemic, unfriendly ports, increase in the number of piracy and sea robbery and is with no respite to improving their state of wellbeing. Regulation 4.4 of MLC, 2006 as amended on access to shore based welfare facilities states that providing welfare facilities and services is aimed at ensuring that seafarers working on board ships have access to shore-based welfare facilities and services to secure their health and well-being[5]. The above objective requires members of the ILO to ensure that shorebased welfare facilities, where they exist are readily available and are expected to promote the development of welfare facilities[6]. Paragraph B4.4.2.2 of title 4.4 of the convention, specifically lists organisations including public authorities, ship owners, seafarers concern in the collective agreement and voluntary organisations that are expected to provide or facilitate welfare services and facilities provided to seafarers. In the Nigerian context, the National Seafarers Welfare Board of Nigeria(NSWB) currently performed the coordinating role and had in its member organisations from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA), Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association , Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Apostleship of the Sea and Shipping Association of Nigeria. Although shore-based welfare services and facilities are, in some cases, inadequate in Nigerian seaports, and the complaint by seafarers for the lack of access to internet and transport vehicles in 2008 in Apapa ports especially, have in one instance, had an adverse impact Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Amos Kuje, amosea.kj@gmail.com Citation: Kuje, A. (2022). Examining the impact of shore-based welfare facilities and services provision on seafarers’ wellbeng in Nigerian seaports, pre and post Maritime Labour Convention 2006 as amended and Coronavirus Disease,2019. Academia Letters, Article 4787. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4787. 3 on the physiological and psychological well-being of the seafarers in the seaport[7]. This very basic anomaly questions the role and responsibility of maritime stakeholders to seafarers in the context of welfare provisions to seafarers in seaports and that of the employers’ terms of engagement of seafarers on board. Questions based on welfare gaps in seaports have indeed had impacts on quality of shipping service, the lives of seafarers in the ports and the image of Nigeria. Another findings from a study on Nigerian seaports[8] was that a significant relationship exists between the availability and accessibility of welfare services and facilities for seafarers in all four of the seaports the study was conducted. It further revealed that, where ports’ and ships’ situations change from a normal to an emergency footing, accessibility and availability alter with effects on the well-being of seafarers. This suggests the need to factor into policy and practice situations that alter availability and accessibility to welfare; it also suggests the need for further research on such situations to sustain seafarers’ state of well-being in the ports and shipboard environment. Conclusion The provision of shore-based welfare welfare facilities and services before and after the entry into force, the MLC,2006 and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic impact on wellbeing of seafarers’. The active involvement of missionaries in providing welfare to seafarers before the Nigerian independence has had positive impact on their spiritual, physical and moral wellbeing.The era immediately after the entry into force of the MLC,2006 in Nigeria, encourages supports from a broad-based organised National Seafarers Welfare Board with a tripartite stakeholders(Public organisations, Employers of Seafarers and Seafarers representatives) representation in the ports. The ports developments and of the COVID -19 pandemic has alter from the normalcy, the provision of shore-based welfare and accessibility to welfare facilities by seafarers in seaports. Therefore, the provision of shore based welfare services and facilities to safeguarding seafarers health and well-being onboard under the MLC,2006 regime and of the COVID-19 pandemic remain crucial going by the increasing need to improve and sustain the economic viability of seaports and indeed, the quality of shipping service. References [1] Reverend Andrew H, was at a time, a Chaplain at the Mission to Seamen in Lagos, Nigeria. Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Amos Kuje, amosea.kj@gmail.com Citation: Kuje, A. (2022). Examining the impact of shore-based welfare facilities and services provision on seafarers’ wellbeng in Nigerian seaports, pre and post Maritime Labour Convention 2006 as amended and Coronavirus Disease,2019. Academia Letters, Article 4787. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4787. 4 [2] NPA – Nigerian Port Authority is the gateway to the nation economy. [3] A feasibility study of seafarers’ welfare needs in Apapa port facilitated by the National Seafarers Welfare Board of Nigeria (NSWB). [4] Obi,O(2015) MSc disertisation on Maritime Security threat and ISPS Code implementation in TINCAN Island Port, University of Greenwich. [5] MLC,2006, p.72. [6] MLC,2006, p.72. [7] Ibrahim(2008), Feasibility Study Report on Seafarers Welfare Needs and Services: National Seafarers Welfare Board of Nigeria: Lagos. Lagos. [8] Kuje, A(2019) Unpublished PhD thesis on Assessing Seafarers Welfare Services in West African Seaports: A focus on the impact of Onboard and Port based Welfare Services on Seafarers in Nigeria. Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Amos Kuje, amosea.kj@gmail.com Citation: Kuje, A. (2022). Examining the impact of shore-based welfare facilities and services provision on seafarers’ wellbeng in Nigerian seaports, pre and post Maritime Labour Convention 2006 as amended and Coronavirus Disease,2019. Academia Letters, Article 4787. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4787. 5