… Urges her to checkmate excesses of accredited associations
… Says accredited associations only unite for election sharing formula, POF proceeds
A former Chairman, Governing Council of the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju has, on behalf of the well-meaning practicing freight forwarders in the country, expressed his profound gratitude to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani for “her prompt intervention aimed at not just saving the freight forwarding profession from potential anarchy but salvaging it from professional ridicules which self-centered and greedy leaders were deliberately poised to inflict on it.”
Olanrewaju who expressed his gratitude in a press release he issued in Lagos on Friday stated that having listened to the Permanent Secretary speak on the reasons that prompted her official postponement of the inadequately structured electioneering processes for electing the 15 practicing freight forwarders into the CRFFN Governing Council, namely; “to the series of online news reports that trailed the election notice and on the discovery that there was no formal stakeholders’ engagements or interactive session before rolling out the electoral guidelines and time table”, he came to conclude that “indeed there is a proof that you are a seasoned and listening administrator per excellence.”
According to him, “Your further words of admonitions to the leadership of the accredited associations and by extension the stakeholders in attendance at the meeting, especially upholding to the intents and provisions of the Act 16 2007 and the solemn advice that the freight forwarders , especially the gladiators within should consider the interest of the profession over and above other interests, is very apt. Sure, it is a rare demonstration of the relevance of a mother in a daisy situation as the one the freight forwarding subsector is engulfed in.
“In all of this, we wish to register our big thank you ma and pray God for more wisdom in your overall service to the fatherland.
“As a rider to your closing remarks to the leadership of the accredited associations cum stakeholders in the meeting hall, that, ‘ I leave the ball in your court, you people should go back, put your house in order and come back in two weeks with suggestions on how you want us to conduct this election… Bearing in mind that, the provisions of the enabling Act…. And I hope after this election, I would not come back to ask the same questions I asked regarding the past governing council members on the level of professional inputs in advancing the profession..’, we want to offer the following obvious advise and positions for your attention and considerations.”
He recalled that “In the first governing council, following the advice of Barrister Mrs. Mfon Usoro (the consultant and co-promoter of the bill, now Act 16, 2007, the appointments of geopolitical zones into the governing council was made from within the practitioners with respect to the intent and a true reflection of a professional regulatory governing council and not an advisory board in the order of the other agencies under the transportation ministry. The appointed government agencies’ nominees were picked from each agency and department related with freight & logistics concerns, this made room for balanced and ease of regulation making processes.
“Madam, you are right at observing the abysmal performance that trailed the past governing council, apart from presenting or fielding practitioners with less interest and commitments towards the development of the profession, a major impediment stems from the number of the appointed politicians representing the geopolitical zones, then added to the other appointed government agencies’ nominees making it 17 board members way surpassing the 15 elected freight forwarders into the governing council totally 32 governing council members.
“In this case, the mindsets of the politicians (budgetary interests) and the mindsets of the elected professionals (presumably, professionals issues, but were carried away by quest for affluence) were never at par, hence, other than formulating regulatory objectives, scrambling and partitioning set in. Subsequently, the politicians had their way and the elected practitioners fall prey and management team were divided into camps.
“Madam, in order not to pass same remarks on the governing council members that will emerge after the election under consideration, please look at this existing misgivings and be resolute with your earlier position that credible freight forwarders should be allow to contest professional election with or without accredited professional association inclination or membership.”
Olanrewaju went on to posit that one of the administrative challenges the first and second governing council contended with was the subtle moves to take over regulatory powers from the Governing Council members and the management team adding that the governing council and management team had to stick to its regulatory posture to resist the movement of a regulatee deciding and subtly regulating the regulator.
He continued, “After the first and second governing council rolled out its regulations 2010 (duly an extant regulation), it was in the strength of the regulation 2010 that the governing council organized the first Freight Forwarders Summit at the UNILAG, thereby concluding the accreditation of the 5 freight forwarding associations, binding them over through their respective Presidents to an oath of allegiance to the CRFFN and subsequently, the CRFFN Flag was handed over to them as a symbol of authority representing the CRFFN in their headquarters, mostly for regulatory loyalty and professional consciousness.
The regulation 2011 was duly rectified for onward transmission and legislative attention. Among other unique ingredients contained in the 2011 regulations were the statutory and categorization of accredited association and their corresponding annual subscription fees. Another ingredient was the standard trading conditions (STC) and the professional scale of charges. This regulation was pending before the tenure expiration in 2012. However, suffice to note here that beyond the 2012, the former Presidents of ANLCA and NAGAFF paid their membership registration fees of N500,000 (five hundred thousand) each to the CRFFN purse but not in the picture if they had paid their annual subscription fees.
“The import and point of emphasis being that, it is an act of injustice and negation to regulatory principles where the Act recognizes three (3) types of membership (individual membership, corporate membership and associations membership), ideally both category of members are prone to the payment of registration and annual subscription fees regulatory provision and processes.
“Sadly, in the realism of regulatory compliance and enforcement wise, only the corporate and individual membership pay both membership registration and annual subscription fees to the CRFFN while the accredited association stays aloof in its comfort zone to teleguide the administration of the Governing Council, for instance, they are insisting and joining issues with the management on their percentage from the POF collection.
“At this point, you can now ask what the accredited associations bring to the CRFFN table of professional advancement other than fielding candidates that will oppose ideas that portend to change the status and continually joining issues with the management team, always posturing as above regulations. Ideally accredited associations are meant to serve as a professional pool of the CRFFN but rather it tend to equal itself with the CRFFN and even tussling power with the CRFFN. Against this background, you can appreciate the better reasons behind the so called sharing formula of 6:6:1:1:1.
“For reference sake, I will leave the burden of professional integrity on the doors of the pioneer governing council chairman, now a national president but suddenly turn to be a promoter of the election sharing formula to convince us that if such sharing formula of 6:6:1:1:1 was in place in 2008, would he have won an election into Governing Council in absentia? Madam, the interests of the profession should be cardinal.”
The former CRFFN boss concluded, however, regrettably, that the concerned freight forwarders were watching with interest, especially with the latest unprofessional ambushing perfected by the accredited associations sharing formula of 6:6:1:1:1.
“It is on record that with the introduction in 2018, following the spate of unpreparedness by the practitioners then and also the orchestrated arm twists witnessed then, this idea was launched from the backdoor. Since then till date, the promoters of the unholy alliance have never seen any need to use their alliance to tackle numerous professional operational challenges facing the practitioners, but as soon as another election was announced, the boastful among them now resorts to realignment for an unprofessional election processes. So, they can only agree when it comes to election sharing formula and the POF sharing percentages.
“Madam, you have our total support towards organizing an all-inclusive, transparent, free, fair and most credible CRFFN freight forwarding professional election 2021”, he concluded.
Photo: Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju, former Chairman, CRFFN Governing Council.
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