The founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has again faulted the status of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) as the Nigeria’s representative in the Council of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders (FIATA) describing it as out of order.
Aniebonam who disclosed this in an interview with newsmen at the NAGAFF Headquarters in Lagos on Friday while positing that the membership of CRFFN in FIATA was wobbling as it were however disclosed that efforts were on to having a body of freight forwarders that would represent Nigeria in FIATA’s Council.
“Even as I am talking to you, the membership of CRFFN in FIATA is wobbling because you remember that we wrote a very strong letter to the extent that an appeal was made to us that Nigeria cannot miss out as such and we decided to keep quiet believing that we should be able to amend all these things and get back to FIATA. In other words, we are looking forwarding to having a body of freight forwarders that will represent Nigeria in the Council, the Council I mean here is FIATA”, he said.
While stating that the background of the CRFFN was known to everybody as it was established to take care of all the contending voices and brought them under one umbrella, he however blamed the current woes of CRFFN on the Nigerian Shippers’ Council under Captain Adamu Biu and others who he accused of bungling it as according to him, “they started the Council to fail as they were not really proactive in terms of the interpretative roles”, adding that even where they should have sought opinion for interpretative opinion.
Aniebonam who is also the National Chairman of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) while recalling that membership of the Council were in three categories namely; individual, corporate and associations contended that if one wanted to build the register of freight forwarders for the purpose of the maiden election, the licensing regulation of the customs under the relevant sections should not have come in.
According to him,” So, the freight forwarding is not customs licensing processes. So, that was where they got it wrong and accordingly, the election was rigged, added to the fact that a lot of forces who do not really want the CRFFN to come up. And so, for the obvious reasons, other than acting in accordance with the Act, the members of ANLCA who were in majority, about seven out of eight started managing and administering CRFFN as if it is the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents.
“Again, the Council membership supposed to be inclusive but rather it became exclusive and a lot of stakeholders including NAGAFF was not given a chance. So, the problem of the Council started there because they started it to fail. For the reason that NAGAFF is the pioneer organization that initiated that Act, we didn’t want to shut it down as such, we decided to play along knowing that the tenure is just four years, thereafter, we can do something else.
“But as events unfold, the leadership of the same Council started carrying themselves as if they were agents of the federal government without realizing that CRFFN is a quasi-government organization, that it is not comprehensively government agency and the facts were very clear that the Chairman of the Council must be a registered member from the register of freight forwarders and so, that shows clearly that it is private oriented and of course, that is the standard rule. If you really want to be part of the global freight forwarding profession which you know FIATA is the head, you will understand that the presence of the government will not give it the picture that it is global”.
He informed that while they continued to advice that CRFFN was not an agency of the government, the ANLCA members in the then Governing Council continued to drag themselves in a manner that was very worrisome, the complimentary card bearing the Coat of Arm, the vehicles give to them bearing Federal Government of Nigeria plate numbers.
“Then we knew that things were going wrong and that led to our going to court and so, having gone to court, it was surprising that the court ruled that CRFFN is an agency of the government and today we are speaking to you, we are in Appeal Court”, he declared.
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