…Urges him to offer meaningful advice to move Council forward
…Seeks stakeholders support
The Chairman, Governing Council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni has expressed sadness over comments made by the founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam alluding that the Council is broke and indebted to some organizations.
Tsanni who made his displeasure over the comment in an interview with newsmen on the sidelines of the 2nd Transport Leadership Lecture held in Lagos on Tuesday by Kings Communications Limited, Publishers of MMS Plus newspaper, described Aniebonam as one who had nothing to say.
In his words,” I read in the media when somebody was saying that it was lack of fund that is hindering us from moving ahead, there are lots of changes because changes cannot come with a lot of luxury. Somebody who doesn’t have anything to say yesterday said CRFFN is broke and indebted to some organizations, I just look at that one as somebody who doesn’t have anything to say because everybody knows CRFFN is broke because for a long time, it is not functioning because there is no Board. Now that the Board has come, instead of these our stakeholders to come and advise us and tell us what to do, they will just sit down and be making funny comments. I don’t think that will lead us to anywhere more especially, considering the person that is saying it.
“He has six of his people in this CRFFN, instead of that person to go and sit down and advise us on way forward, he will just continue sending messages which is not good to us. If you did not believe in it, definitely, you cannot send your people to that place. So, why are you spoiling what you believe in? It is just like you putting your money in an investment and you go back spoiling that thing which you want to sell. How will you sell it?
“So, to him and to our stakeholders in the industry, it is not yet time to judge us, it is not yet time for them to criticize us. Let them advise us, let them push us forward and see what we can achieve.”
He however called for support from both the media and the stakeholders saying that that was what the Council needed at this time.
“The press in the maritime industry, what we always need from you is the support especially we the young ones that just come into the system. We are new in the Board, what we need is whatever you want to publish, don’t criticize, judge us with what you see first, what we are doing, what we are trying to do. Recall that for a long time, the Board has no Board members, for a long time, the council did not exist. So, what we are expecting from you is as we come in, you teach us, you go with us and you support us to see that we succeed.
On what the Governing Council had achieved in the last eight months of assumption of duty, the Council Chairman observed that “We are making a lot of efforts to start with our collection of POF especially, we have to go through long process – documentation, getting approval from the Federal Executive Council, putting things in order, for instance, we are working with NPA, Shippers’ Council and NCAA to make sure that they integrate us in their websites. So, we are making a lot of efforts within these six months.”
Responding to a question on when the collection of the Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) would commence, Tsanni pointed out that the Council was still in the process as it had to go through a lot of documentations “but we are now integrated with NPA, by God’s grace we will finish it.”
On the retreat embarked upon in Dubai by members of the Governing Council as well as the Management, he said,” Anybody can say whatever he decides to say. To start with, we did not use any government money to go there and then, it is the wish of somebody, just like if someone will tell you, I want to train you, you have no option of choosing where you want to go for the training. Anywhere he feels comfortable to take you to, it is left for him but it is not government money that we used and then the training we went, it taught us a lot and we learnt a lot and we appreciate their effort.”
It will be recalled that Dr. Aniebonam had in an interview recently with this medium alleged that the CRFFN was broke at the moment and was indebted to some organizations among which was the Rockview Hotels, Apapa even as he said that he was aware that the Chairman of the Governing Council, Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni was using his private money to run the Council presently.
Photo: CRFFN Governing Council Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni.
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