The Association of Igbo Maritime Practitioners of Nigeria has called for an immediate review of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Act so as to enable that agency of government which has been comatose over the years to run.
The Chairman of the association at the PTML chapter, Mr. Uchechukwu Aniezechukwu who made this call in Lagos in a chat with Primetime Reporters stated that the Ministry of Transportation had no business waiting for the stakeholders to make peace for that organ of government to run.
Aniezechukwu who said that the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was getting it right by trying to institute peace in the maritime industry as he said that the maritime industry as a gateway of the Nigerian economy would not thrive if there was strife and rancor however argued that Minister should do better especially as it concerned the CRFFN and the freight forwarders.
According to him,” I am of the opinion that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria is a government agency and indeed every government agency has the power to run all the policies of government. CRFFN should be empowered, I am not saying encouraged, it should be empowered totally to run the policy of the government.
“We know that the board of the CRFFN is the issue on ground, the Act says that CRFFN cannot function without a board and the Act named people that should constitute the board and part of the people to occupy the board membership of CRFFN are the clog in the wheel of progress of the CRFFN. In as much as I appreciate the gesture he (Amaechi) has given to the stakeholders, I want to see a situation where he also put in place an alternative that will override the current situation if the stakeholders are not ready for peace”.
When reminded that the Minister only has a direction of general character and so his powers may not be absolute as was the case with other government agencies, he said,” Of course I see it but I see also the doctrine of necessity coming to play in this situation. The framers of that Act did not perceive a situation where the stakeholders will not be at peace and their insubordination, I may not initially intend to use this word, should be a clog in the wheel of progress of the CRFFN. Now that we have seen that necessity, the doctrine of necessity should set in”.
He maintained that the Minister of Transportation as a Minister that oversees the affairs of the Ministry was in a better position to get things done the right way as far as CRFFN is concerned saying,” I am calling for a total of review of that Act because we have seen that the Act has become a clog in the wheel of CRFFN and it cannot continue like that”.
The association’s boss continued,” People like us have seen that a group of brigandage cannot hold us, people like us are advocating that we cannot remain at a particular point for so long, we have been on this issue for so many years, it is not as if it started today. How is it that other professional bodies are working and working well? How come that the only one that is not working is the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria? We should re-frame that Act”.
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