The President, Ship owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), Engr. Greg Ogbeifun was yesterday re-elected in that capacity by the members of the association to lead them for the next two years in an election that saw him as the only presidential candidate.
Also, six other members were elected unopposed except for the position of the Vice President which was contested for by Dr. MkGeorge Onyung who beat Mr. Alfred Okoigun by one vote to be re-elected the Vice President of the association.
Other elected officers include Mr. Lucky Akhiwu, Chairman of the Technical Committee, Capt. Joseph Awodeha, Chairman of Training and Capacity Building Committee, Mr. Sunny Eja, Chairman of Ethics and Privileges Committee, Mr. Nnamdi Obiagwu, Chairman of Finance and Membership Committee and Mr. Eno Williams who was elected the Financial Secretary/Treasurer of the association.
However, it took the intervention of the Returning Officer for the election, Barr. Margaret Orakwusi to designate a non-existing position of the 2nd Vice President to accommodate Mr. Alfred Okoigun who lost in the election, development members accepted and acknowledged at the occasion.
In his acceptance speech, the re-elected President of SOAN, Enrgr. Greg Ogbeifun expressed his gratitude to God and all those that made the election a success adding that his joy was that the election was able to produce leaders without rancor and in a free, fair and transparent manner.
He disclosed that in this dispensation, that they were going to engage the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) positively to see that the agency facilitates the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) to their members who he described as being eminently qualified fund the fund.
According to him,” One of the first thing we are going to drive is to engage NIMASA on the issue of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund. NIMASA on their own cannot act on that fund, people need that fund, for them to release that fund. So we are going to engage NIMASA. A lot of our members are eminently qualified for that fund, almost all our members have contributed to that fund and we think that we need to be given an opportunity to grow our fleet.
“The second one is the collaboration that we are having with NNPC for the actualization of the Nigerian Crude Tanker fleet; we are going to drive that vigorously for the benefit of our nation. I want you to know that that will create a platform that we have been looking for to train our cadets in international trade.
“The third one is the cadetship scheme which we will not stop to talk about, without them there will be not ships; there will be no future of our maritime sector. We are to crystalize and articulate a strategy of bringing all our vessels for the training of our cadets working with NIMASA and working with the Maritime Academy, Oron and other maritime institutions in the country to see that the standard id maintained and it is global.
“I want to congratulate the members of the new executive, the Chairmen and all other elected executive, in fact the wisdom of the Returning Officer to create the position of the 2nd Vice President is most commendable because from my experience in the last two years, there are occasions where both me and the Vice had course to be away from town at critical moment but this time we now have a third person who will always help keep the leadership in focus. Mr. Alfred thank you very much for accepting that position and the constitution will obviously be amended to accommodate that”.
In a related development, Engr. Greg Ogbeifun has announced the appointment of a former Managing Director, Ship Manning Company of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Dr. Grant Akata as the Secretary-General of SOAN.
Ogebifun who made this announcement while addressing members of the association said Dr. Akata would see to the day to day running of the SOAN Secretariat alongside other Secretariat staff as most of the elected officers were businessmen and entrepreneurs who may not be on ground to administer the Secretariat as required.
He disclosed that while the new Secretary-General would soon be introduced to the maritime industry, he was already working with SOAN especially in the area of the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiation which he said was ongoing between the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC) and NIMASA.
“Going forward, SOAN has realized that the next two years is going to be very busy and very vibrant and we decided to restructure our secretariat and we put head on to identify a gentleman who we are going to employ as the Secretary-General of SOAN. He will be running the Secretariat with the Secretariat team on a day to day basis, driving some of the policies and initiative of the association. At the appropriate time, he will be formally introduced to the industry. He is somebody who retired from NLNG as a Managing Director of a Ship Manning company, may be some of you already know him. He has a vast experience, Dr. Grant Akata, some of you know him, in fact, he is already working for SOAN in the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiation that is going on with the NJIC and NIMASA at the moment. The essence of that is for him to add value. Most of us who are in the executive office are businessmen, we entrepreneurs. So, what we are doing will be taking us away but he and his team will be working full time, driving and actualizing most of the policies and programmes that we will coming out with”, he explained.
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