…Solicits for votes from lovers of quality service delivery
Apparently to pacify those who felt they were not consulted before he picked form to contest for a seat in the Board of Trustees, BoT of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, the immediate past Sole Administrator of ANLCA, Otunba Abdulazeez Babatunde Mukaila has come out to disclose the circumstances surrounding his declaration of interest in the election.
Mukaila who gave the details in a chat with newsmen in Lagos recently, stated that his decision to pick form for the election came at a very last minute after a long engagement with his family following a lot of pressure on him by members of the association.
Hear him, “Yes, I picked form, as I said, my decision to pick form came at a very last minute. I have to engage my family after a lot of pressure on me. Initially, my family said no, ‘you have left so many things undone and focused on ANLCA. You almost got killed four times’ and I told them to stop. It will surprise you that only one girl among my children requested that I should tell them why they should trust me to go back to those people again, having served out my time and this their compensation of their coming with guns, deflating my tyres and all what not.
“At the end of the day, I said, well, ANLCA Board is not a full time thing. Under Section 21, ANLCA Board ought to meet three times a year and I read it to my children. So, this one is three times in a year, therefore, I can be anywhere in the world and just note a date for BoT meeting and make sure I attend because the constitution stipulates that a Board member who failed to attend meeting twice is liable to suspension from office.
“So, I am going into the Board not to give all my time as I did when I was the National Secretary because I don’t want to be in the same stead with the President or NECOM. Their job is to govern, they are to decide and to move us forward. We only meet periodically to discuss the progress. It took me up to on the 14th July to convince my family and the collection of forms is closing on the 15th July, I just have to quickly pick the form because I know the rule and I started that day to reach out to all the powers that be.”
Mukaila who is also the immediate past National Secretary of ANLCA, however, expressed undying confidence on the ability of the Association Electoral Committee, ASECO to conduct an open, transparent and credible BoT election noting that there was no reason for anyone to manipulate the election.
According to him, “During my time as ASECO Chairman, I still hold the record as the longest serving ASECO Chairman in the history of this association and that gave me the capability to really put a lot of structure in place. At some instances, we made some mistake and we keep correcting them. Coming to that, it’s very simple and I am running, they know I am running, I want to assure you that there won’t be manipulation. Anybody that is going to win this election is going to win fit and square.
“Why would anyone manipulate this election? Customs issues licenses, if you say you have license, it’s verifiable and if you say you are a member of ANLCA, it’s equally verifiable. When you join ANLCA, it’s very simple thing to know because we left a good record behind and I can tell you for free that it is going to be very difficult for anybody to manipulate this election.”
On the controversy around the number of licenses that would vote in the forthcoming BoT election, he said, “The constitution under Section 22 allows ASECO to, in collaboration with the Board, have the power to fix the date and timetable. So, they shall have power to screen, reject, disqualify, suspend or cause to be suspended a candidate and then formulate its procedure for the election.
“By the time I was leaving office (as National Secretary), ANLCA has close to three thousand members. So, if it is just nine hundred that is coming for the election, so when I said we opened a register, I don’t think it should be an issue going back to those registers and say, okay nine hundred out of over three thousand, what is the big deal? Is this the first time we are having AGM?
“What anybody will just need to do, because your membership is very clear, get the license and check if the license is a current one and to know if he has paid his dues. I don’t see any issue there.”
Photo: Otunba Abdulazeez Babatunde, immediate past Sole Administrator and ANLCA BoT candidate (middle, front row) and Hajia Bola Muse, National Treasurer, ANLCA in a group photograph with supporters of Mukaila after interaction with the media recently.
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