By Rosemary Ugiomoh
Comrade Buchi, representing the Seafarers Unit of the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN), was the lone Nigerian voice at the recent International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) Youth Regional Conference in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania. He rubbed shoulders with other African delegates, including Comrade Mohamed Kaneh (Sierra Leone), Comrade Sahada Al Hassan (Ghana), and Comrade Victoria Michongwo (Malawi).
The conference brought together young leaders from various African countries to discuss key issues in the transport industry. Comrade Olumba Maduabuchukwu’s presence showcased MWUN’s commitment to regional collaboration and youth empowerment.
The International Transport Workers Federation workshop was held at the Ramada Wyndham Hotel, Dar Es Salam, Tanzania. It was reported that amongst all the participants of the Maritme Regional Young Workers’ workshop, the sole representative of the Maritme Workers’ Union of Nigeria came out in flying colours at the end of the conference on evaluation.
On Olumba’s return from Dar Es Salam, he was warmly received by the leadership of the Union under the aegis of the Union’s President-General, Comrade Francis Bunu Abi, who said young Comrades in the Union should be exposed to such trainings as that would be the real target of leaving a better Union for the upcoming generation Union leaders. He further explained that similar trainings for our young Comrades will be a continuum; in fact an exercise that has come stay in the Maritme Workers’ Union of Nigeria.
The trained Maritme Administrator, Labour Activist and Veteran Sailor says the only way we can leave a better legacy behind is by engaging the youthful comrades in the Union with strategic courses, trainings, workshops and conferences of various dimensions such as the recently concluded workshop in Tanzania.
Comrade Olumba Maduabuchukwu thanked the leadership of the Union for the opportunity given him to attend the workshop in Tanzania; saying that the conference was indeed an eye opener to the new knowledge he just acquired, aside meeting with other intelligent young African Comrades making waves in their various Unions across Africa.
Comrade Maduabuchukwu also described the Facilitators as wonderful, stressing that the Facilitators who took them during the period of the workshop were excellent, instructive, intelligent, educative and morally sound. The young Comrade Charles from MWUN in Nigeria also said that he learned a lot from the Facilitators believing that the lessons assimilated from the conference would remain indelible in his life time and would help him in advancing his cause as Maritme Labour leader.
