…Advises Chairman to be wary of some Council members
…Dubai retreat a private arrangement – Njoku
The founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has questioned the interest of the firm, SW Global in sponsoring members of the Governing Council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to a retreat in Dubai recently.
It will be recalled that members of the CRFFN Governing Council alongside its Management went on a weeklong retreat in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE), a development that has raised questions in some quarters especially when the bulk of the resource persons were Nigerians and have their businesses resident here in the country.
However, speaking in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos recently, Aniebonam admitted that he was unaware of the rationale behind the choice of Dubai for the retreat especially when it was not clear where the source of funding for that lavish trip came from.
He said,” I understand it was SW Global that sponsored them. Is it our money? Is SW Global a charitable organization? Even in the Council itself, as am talking to you, in that trip, some went on Business Class, some went on Economy, same Council members and this particular Chairman is managing the situation not to explode still some people within the Council are there to destroy the Council and that is where I hope the Chairman will look clearly and listen because I am convinced that there are still some people that are in that council now that their job there is to destroy the Council from inside. So, I hope the Chairman should be circumspect for the good of the Council.”
He averred that there were over ten thousand young freight forwarders operating at the nation’s ports yearning for direction vis-à-vis training adding “that is why the Council is self-sustaining; the major function of the Council is to develop capacity.”
He continued,” The Council has to work, if it doesn’t work, we continue until it works. So, some of them who are planning, from my vantage position, to interdict one or two members of NAGAFF cannot do that because they will either interdict the six NAGAFF members or leave the six or do the right thing. The Council has an object clause and it is for the good of the nation for the economy.
“These freight forwarders need to be trained so that they can add value to government reforms. I don’t know how people are seeing the Council; the Council is building professionalism in the act of freight forwarding profession in Nigeria so that we can compete with other parts of the world. One thing you cannot take away from anybody is choice; they have made the choice to go to Dubai.”
On his part, the Vice Chairman of the CRFFN Governing Council, Chief Henry Njoku said that the Dubai retreat by members of the Governing Council and Management of CRFFN was a private arrangement by SW Global, a firm contracted to collect the Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) on behalf of the Council.
He submitted that the firm deemed it necessary to train the officials of the Council on what their roles would be before the eventual take off of the POF collection adding that government had no hand in the trip to Dubai.
In his words,” That was not a government arrangement; it was SW Global that arranged that. So, it was not a government affair. They decided on their own that they want to do the retreat. So, it was a private arrangement, it was SW Global that arranged it and offering to train us, we cannot reject it.”
On what the interest of the firm in the Council was since it is not a charitable organization, he said, “SW Global is the firm responsible for the collection of the POF and then, they said before they take off, they want to train people to let everybody be aware of their role.”
Speaking on the alleged plans to interdict one or two members of NAGAFF from the Council, Njoku who is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) had this to say,” There is nothing like that, we don’t have any crisis. Nobody is interdicting anybody, not to my knowledge, I am not aware.”
Photo: The founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam.
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