… Vows not to allow anybody from the street get into the Council
The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has described the move by the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to organize the election of freight forwarders into the Governing Council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) as a welcomed development.
It will be recalled that the Minister through the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, A.D. Suleiman has last week Thursday released the timetable for the election of freight forwarders into the CRFFN Governing Council in which he pegged the date for the election to be October 9, 2021, a development which many stakeholders have since reacted to.
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Monday, the National Secretary of ANLCA, Alhaji Abdulazeez Babatunde Mukaila said that the association was ready and would participate in the election.
He noted that the public notice which issued the timetable for the coming election had laid to rest the issue of whether the tenure of the immediate past Governing Council has elapsed or not adding that the coast was now clear for the election.
While stating that they had seen the guidelines and were studying them, Mukaila however said that “If the purpose of CRFFN is to regulate freight forwarders and then, license associations, of course, we deserve to have an input into whatever guidelines they are bringing to elect people that will govern us or regulate or pilot the affairs of CRFFN.”
“In a very nutshell, we have seen the guidelines, we are understudying it but the most important thing I have to say is that we have nothing against CRFFN. This present NECOM has nothing against CRFFN and we will participate in the election. But if we have any reservation, we will let the powers that be know because you don’t throw issue like that open in the streets and ask everybody to throw their hat into the ring.
“Having said that, we will participate in that election without any reservation. This is not the first time that the CRFFN will come up with guidelines, even the last Governing Council election, we made some observations and they have a listening ear and we believe they will listen this time around”, he added.
Asked whether the Minister had the power to set up the electoral committee unilaterally without the input of the Governing Council and in the absence of any subsisting Governing Council, the associations cum stakeholders, he said, “On my personal opinion, I think he does not and that is why ANLCA is understudying the protocols and the guidelines and if the association deems it fit to make an input, we will do that for the benefit of our members that the CRFFN is supposed to regulate.”
The National Secretary denied knowledge of the alleged moved to return all the elected freight forwarders who served in the immediate past Council saying “I have asked every member to be ready to participate fully, I am not aware of that.”
On the choice of Abuja as the venue for the election, he said, “Of course, Abuja is in Nigeria and the capital of Nigeria. The Federal Ministry of Transport that has oversight in all the protocols is in Abuja. If you insist the venue must be in Lagos, what happens to the freight forwarders from Port-Harcourt and Calabar? What happens to the freight forwarders at the Aminu Kano Airport? What happens to the freight forwarders at Seme, Idiroko, jibiya? So, if they decide to go to the FCT, of course, why not?”
He however assured that ANLCA would secure more than six seats in the incoming Governing Council as against the last one adding that it has the might and the character to make that happen.
“We are law abiding, we will follow them, they are coming to regulate us, we are not going to allow anybody from the street to get into that Council to regulate us. Whatever it is, we have nothing against CRFFN as I said but we will not allow anybody from the street to go into that Council and then, turn around to regulate us. Let us follow the protocols. We have the character and the might and we will do it”, he stated.
Photo: Alhaji Abdulazeez Babatunde Mukaila, National Secretary, ANLCA.
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