The Federal Ministry of Transportation has given the freight forwarders in the country two weeks to determine the modalities for the election of freight forwarders into the Governing Board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) and get back to it so that it can go on and conclude the ongoing process.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani who gave the directive at a stakeholders’ meeting with freight forwarders in Lagos on Wednesday maintained that “two weeks is enough for you to fight, to jeer, to disagree, to agree and then, you send us your communiqué and I have thrown it open as much as we can be”, adding that that “I have tried to guide you by the Act, the guideline for eligibility is well spelt out.”
Setting the tone for discussion on the election, the National President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Iju Tony Nwabunike, on behalf of the five accredited freight forwarding associations submitted a position paper where they demanded that the five accredited association be allowed to nominate candidates for the election as they had agreed to a sharing formula amongst themselves so that the election would not be hijacked by non-freight forwarders.
He went on to inform the Permanent Secretary that the five accredited associations had met, discussed and agreed to share the fifteen seats allocated to the freight forwarders among them according to their strength and spread. He went on to say that while ANLCA and NAGAFF presumed to be the biggest associations take six slots each, the other three associations namely; AREFFN, NAFFAC and NCMDLCA take one slot each.
The ANLCA President’s position was further buttressed by the duo of the founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam and the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Dr. Rafiu Oladipo who claimed that “we have agreed and that is where all these signatures were made voluntarily, nobody is coerced and that was how the election was done last two years, there was no issue.”
However, the Permanent Secretary pointed out that she observed from the position paper presented to her that the representative of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria (AREFFN) did not endorse the document and called on him to come up and sign the document or raise his objection if any. It was at this juncture that the National President of AREFFN, Alhaji Bala Daura stood up to say that he refused to sign the document because his association did not agree with one slot allotted to them adding that “Obi will not remain a boy every year”, as according to him, his association had grown beyond having one slot in the past three years.
He further cited the decision of the freight forwarders in the Eastern Zone as one of the reasons his association was not endorsing the document even as he argued that people who have bought forms should be allowed to contest the election based on merit and if they win, so be it.
Some others like the President, African Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Otunba Frank Ogunojemite and former National President of NAGAFF, Dr. Eugene Nweke amongst others kicked against the sharing formula as proposed by the accredited associations describing it as an effort to gag qualified candidates from trying their luck. They jointly canvassed for individuals to contest the election as independent candidates as the Act recognized individual member as a freight forwarder. It was in line with this development that contributors made their submissions either in support or against the three propositions on ground.
Responding, the Permanent Secretary said, “Thank you very much, we have listened to you, we have the communiqué that the five accredited associations with CRFFN have presented but with a dissenting voice saying that they do not agree to the figures of positions in terms of 6:6:1:1:1. We have also listened to the last speaker and I hear him say election should be decentralized so election should actually happen simultaneously in the three zones and the Act provides that the fifteen freight forwarders that should be in the Council have to be equally represented by their zones. So, five from each of the three zones and we are going to stick to the Act.
“We have also listened to freight forwarders who do not belong to the associations making a case that they should be allowed to contest the election. The Act does not stop them from contesting the election. CRFFN has registered individuals, corporate and associations as freight forwarders. The Ministry has presented the guidelines for eligibility to vote and eligibility to be voted and if we are in a system of democracy, we will need to respect that.
“So, there are some things that we may not be able to consent to, the guideline you had in 2018 was based on a consensual agreement at a stakeholders’ forum like this. Three years down the line, a lot of things have happened. A review and evaluation of how the last Council fared, at least I took a look at that and all the challenges we are facing today speaks for itself. I am not condemning the last Council neither am I praising them but I inherited a CRFFN, in fact, that is the worst, Registrar with all due respect, I have eight agencies in Transportation, that is the agency that I see that a lot needs to be done and it is just a regulating Council and so, we need to get some things straight from the beginning and that is why I decided let me listened to you, let us also put your suggestions against the Act that regulates parties. And we are going to follow the Act as much as possible.
“I was asking the Registrar when somebody alluded to the fact that we are registering non-freight forwarders as potential voters and I said; don’t you have ID Cards for registered freight forwarders? Because you need to identify yourself if you want to vote, so, it is not enough for you to be given voter’s card, there has to be a form of identification of who this voter is and my Director slipped into my hand the voter’s screening form and the candidate’s screening form and I can see that there is a provision for the name of the voter, the registration number with the CRFFN, the evidence of your payment of your annual subscriptions for at least two years because that will make you really a practicing freight forwarder, address of your freight forwarding business and the zone you belong to whether it is Eastern, Western, Airport or whatsoever.
“And for candidates too, we have similar criteria to be used to screen them and just like you said, you have a stake in this. At the end of the day, we want a Council that will move the freight forwarding in Nigeria forward and position you to be at with international best practices.
“There is also need for us to allow the young to grow, there is room for mentoring and I guess that is why you want that to happen through the associations. There is also freedom of association and therefore, some registered freight forwarders have chosen not to be part of the five accredited associations. Somebody mentioned Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria, so, they do have associations that are not yet accredited by the Council. So, as far as we are concerned, they are not registered association, so, they stand as independent, other group.
“And for the sake of fair play, Ministry is not going to make any pronouncement now but we are going to advise you as freight forwarders to please, seek for peace. That is the first thing, two, come up with your agreement on how you want to spread your fifteen representatives but the Act is sacrosanct, it has to be five representatives from each zone. But who those five are going to be is going to come from you and we must remember that there is freedom of association. The Act does not stop a potential contestant who is not registered with any association not to vote.
“Flowing from this conversation, what I can say clearly is that our timetable and our timeline may not work because you need to go back and do some more talking amongst yourselves and when you do that, we can now go to election.
“Please, I want to plead with our parents here, when I say parents, in the course of the conversation, there are people who have been in this profession for more than 30 years and so, they have the wealth of experience but let us also look at the fact that nobody is going to be here forever and so, we need to start talking about succession plan and in talking about succession plan, you need to start looking at the younger generation of freight forwarders that you are grooming. I don’t want the big associations to believe, yes, you have the number but leadership may not lie in the number. Good governance may not lie in the numbers neither does it lie in age. I say this because I bleed for my country. We have followed that path, we can see that there are obviously problems and yet, we still want to continue in that path. There has to be a change and change comes by election and so, some of your colleagues here have said we are dissatisfied with what is going on, we need to have a change.
“So, in the choice of your candidate, let us look more at people who are pragmatic, who have sound knowledge of the industry who will contribute. The Council should not be for just anybody because it is your Council that will be advising the Ministry on things that concerns freight forwarders but when I picked the files and I looked at some decisions, I said, who were the members of this Governing Council? And I don’t think I want to ask that question after this election and the new Board is in place.
“And so, let us look at a Council that is going to advise us in the right direction, a Council that is going to bring momentum to the freight forwarding industry in the country and we are going to place Nigeria first and not ourselves or the benefit therein. We are also not going to look at the fact that I have this quantum of money and so, I can buy everybody and everything to become a member of the Council, if you do that, it is not possible that you will give good leadership and good governance.
“Like I said, the ball is still in your court.
“We will, please give you two weeks for you to come back with your modalities so that we can go on and conclude our election process. So, two weeks is enough for you to fight, to jeer, to disagree, to agree and then, you send us your communiqué and I have thrown it open as much as we can be. I have tried to guide you by the Act, the guideline for eligibility is well spelt out and I want to say thank you very much for honouring this invitation at such very notice and we will reassure you that we have also taken back what you have said, we are taking it with us and we will look at decentralizing the election.
“Yes, logistics is important; COVID is there, so, if people in their various zones can do that, it is better for us. Please, the integrity of that election is not going to be compromised. If I get a clue that you have recruited mercenaries and we can establish it and prove it, we can cancel your own zone. So, let us, please do what is right to keep the good integrity of this election process.”
On his part, the Registrar of CRFFN, Barr. Samuel Nwakohu said, “When I welcomed you all, I said, we are about to start a conversation and that conversation has started. You have not disappointed me today because the quality of the conversation is beyond my expectation. What I meant was that you people spoke very well and you spoke with reasons.
“So, this conversation has started, we have passed the ball back to you. Definitely, I am of the view that this ball be played back into your court. Go, sit down and have more conversation with yourselves.”
Photo: Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation.
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.
