In response to a publication recently by Primetime Reporters quoting the Congregation of Registered Freight Forwarding Practitioners of Nigeria (CREFFPON) as alleging, in a letter to the Minister of Transportation, of the existence of a Governing Council Chairman before the election of freight forwarders into the Council, the immediate past Chairman of the Governing Board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni has said that he is not begging for anybody to give him Chairman.
It will be recalled that CREFFPON, in a petition signed by its Desk Officer, Comrade Edwin Chukwudire Obi and made available to our correspondent on Sunday 19th September, 2021 observed that the Ministry appeared to have appointed a sitting Governing Council Chairman as according to it, “the immediate past Governing Council Chairman who incidentally was reappointed to represent the North West region was seen still cruising the CRFFN branded vehicles bequeathed to the office of the Governing Council Chairman thereby invariably parading himself as the Governing Council Chairman.”
CREFFPON noted that the concerns expressed by the practitioners was that, if the paraphernalia of the office attached to the office of a Governing Council Chairman was presently at official use and convenience of an appointed politician who made his way to emerge as the Governing Council Chairman in 2018 during the internal election of the CRFFN Governing Council members, it meant that a Governing Council Chairman had been determined beforehand whereby the election of the practicing freight forwarders into the Governing Council was a mere formality.
“Going by the ideal administrative provisions, at the end of each tenure of the Governing Council , official vehicles allotted or assigned to designated members of the Governing Council are to be returned officially to the management team but this is not the case as both the immediate past Governing Council Chairman and designated council members still use their branded vehicles at their convenience, implying that their earlier insistence on a 4 years tenure and their open objections to the court ruling of 2 years tenure prevails even as the soft copies of the re-election posters trends virally in the industry social media platforms, even campaigning with impunity ahead of the candidates screening and publications of qualified candidates list by the electoral committee.
“To state the obvious, in the eyes of the practitioners, the transparency of this electoral committee and the election itself is suspicious, judging from the above scenario, where the same ministry that constituted the electoral committee failed to administer or direct the needful. Here again, the implication of early appointment of the geopolitical representatives into the Governing Council prior to the conduct of an election of the freight forwarders into the Governing Council, negatively plays out itself”, the group said.
However, in a telephone conversation yesterday with Primetime Reporters, Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni insisted that he was not begging to be made the Chairman of the CRFFN Governing Council by anybody adding that he did not see any benefit attached to the seat in the last two years that he served as the Chairman.
While passionately begging those who were making such allegation to leave him alone, he noted that as a grass root politician that he is, he could start from anywhere and reach to any height politically adding that he could even be the next Minister of Transportation.
His words, “Kindly help me beg them to leave me alone. I am not begging for anybody to give me Chairman. I was a Chairman then for two years; I didn’t see what I benefited there. So, I didn’t see any reason why they keep writing all these nonsense. They should please leave me alone, I am not begging for Chairman from anybody.
“I am a grass root politician; I can start from anywhere and reach to anything I want to. So, it is not that I don’t have anything to do. I can even be the Minister of Transport next time. Let them leave me alone. They should go and check my background; I am a grass root politician at home. They should stop talking about me completely.”
Photo: Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni, immediate past Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Governing Council.
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