As the tenure of the incumbent executive of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) gradually winds up, the association has zoned the position of the National President to the South Eastern part of the country.
The National Publicity Secretary of the association, Dr. Kayode Farinto disclosed this in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos where he reacted to rumours that the Igbos were being marginalized in ANLCA by the Yorubas.
According to Farinto, ANLCA had an internal arrangement which he said was very beautiful adding that whoever insinuated that the Yorubas were trying to subdue the Igbos in ANLCA was up ti cause disaffection among members of the association.
“Augustine, don’t bother yourself because by the grace of God, by January 2018, we will be having our national elections producing another President who will be succeeding the present President and that person will be an Igbo. You see, we have an internal arrangement in ANLCA which is very beautiful. So, I don’t know where you are hearing this one from. What about the time the Igbos were at the helm of affairs in all our chapters? Why didn’t the Yorubas complain? So, where are you hearing all this ones from? I am not aware of it.
“So, if the Igbos have done their work very well, they will be elected. There was a time in Apapa, for 16 years, the Igbos were the Chairman. In Tincan, I served under Prince Ozo Chukwurah who is an Igbo man as a Chairman if Tincan and that time, we have Igbo man in Apapa, Igbo man in Tincan. So, whoever is insinuating that is one of those people who are lazy politicians because as a politician in ANLCA, you must work, you must be seen to be acceptable across board, either to the Igbos or to the Yorubas”.
When asked if he was nursing any ambition of becoming ANLCA President in the forthcoming election, he replied,” I would have loved to come out for the presidency of ANLCA but for now, it is not possible for me. I told you we have an internal arrangement in ANLCA, the Yoruba man has been President for eight years, it will be injustice for a Yoruba man to succeed him and there is no rationale now in Yoruba man coming up to say he wants to be the President of ANLCA. However, if the Igbos are unable to give us a credible candidate, Kayode Farinto will come up as a Presidential candidate”.
He however informed that until now, nobody among the Igbos had shown interest to contest the presidency of ANLCA save for Prince Ozo Chukwurah who had mentioned it to him adding that all he heard were rumours of people nursing interest but none had called him to declare interest.
On the number of ANLCA members joining the International Freight Forwarders Association (IFFA) which many interpret to mean a crack in the wall of ANLCA, the NPS denied existence of any internal wrangling in the association saying that whatever perceived internal wrangling was negligible.
According to him,” I think whatever is the internal wrangling in ANLCA which is not known to me, is none existent because when something is too negligible, it is inexistent. To the extent that IFFA has been there before now and the beautiful thing about ANLCA is that you see some of our people who are either members of BOT or just members belonging to other associations. It is now that ANLCA may look seriously at this issue because I know some of ANLCA members who are members of NAGAFF, some ANLCA members who are members of IFFA. We have never seen it as a serious issue until now.
It will be recalled that the National President of IFFA, Dr. Sam Onyemelukwe who until now is a frontline ANLCA member among other members, during the inauguration of one of the IFFA chapters in Lagos boasted that they will beat members of ANLCA and NAGAFF to clinch all the seats in the Governing Council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) whenever the election is to be conducted, a development many interpreted to mean a crack in the wall of ANLCA.
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