The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Nigeria has said that the representatives of the five accredited freight forwarding associations serving as members in the Governing Council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) should be blamed for the resistance shown by the freight forwarders in the ongoing collection of the Practitioners Operating Fee (POF) by the CRFFN.
The National Executive Director, CILT Nigeria, Mr. Paul Ndibe who made this submission in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos recalled that on the board of CRFFN, there were lots of representatives of the freight forwarding associations serving on the board even as he wondered what the difficulty was.
He said, “The representative of the freight forwarding associations in the CRFFN should quit their appointments in the CRFFN because they are not representing their organization well on the board of CRFFN.
“We have identified that many of these freight forwarding associations have their representation on the board of CRFFN and if it is what is handed out from the board, their representatives should be able to go and talk to their group and educate them, because they are representing these groups while the CRFFN has its own responsibility of educating virtually everybody. Why are you on the board? You are representing a group on the board, so, you go back to your group and educate them otherwise, you are not representing them well enough. Agitations shouldn’t have come from any of those associations that have members on the board.
“So, it is either they didn’t trust who apparently is representing them or they have issues to iron out with either the council or their representative. If their Presidents are actually the ones representing them and they voted their Presidents into office, they should be able to be decent enough. It is just lack of respect to the constituted authority. So, the best thing is, if you are not paying the fee, don’t practice. Let those who are ready to pay, even if it is one association; let the members of that particular association be the ones to operate.”
On other issues that may lead to practitioners resisting the collection, Ndibe equally posited that one group may be annoyed that a particular group was being represented on the board and not their group and in an attempt to exhibit such frustration, may just decide to agitate over an ordinary thing they should not have agitated.
When reminded that part of the reasons for the resistance was the absence of a duly constituted Governing Council for the CRFFN, he said, “This agitation against payment of the POF started from day one and who are to pay this? The freight forwarders. So, if they are agitated at that time and didn’t pay, the call to pay has not seized. So, each time that call is raised, there is still agitation, so they cannot have any claim of whether there was board representation or not, no! If they had started paying from the first time they were asked to pay, we wouldn’t be discussing it now but each time it is raised, they have one reason or the other to say they are not going to pay.”
He however pointed out that it had been a long time decision had been taken on POF collection so that one would be able to know who the freight forwarders were and if there were wrong professional services rendered by any of them, one would be able to identify the person through the record as according to him, “some perform wrong professional services without recourse to anything.”
“So, they want them to see themselves as professional and be able to justify that they are professionals by paying that professional fee. My advice is that if it is a government regulation, they should abide by it and not resist everything from the government and they should submit themselves to the constituted authority and do what is expected of them”, he submitted.
Photo: The National Executive Director, CILT Nigeria, Mr. Paul Ndibe.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @ptreporters and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
