…Warns against emergency powers of President
A former National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Sir Ernest Elochukwu has that it is imperative that the newly elected executive of the association understand from the word go that the shoes they are wearing are not only those of honour and prestige but more importantly, it goes with responsibilities and service hence the need to spell out some certain things.
Speaking during the inauguration of the newly elected chapter executive of the association in Lagos recently, Sir Elochukwu maintained that the Chairman of each chapter, as the head of the chapters, should endeavor to give direction to the members of the association in the chapters.
Elochukwu, a member of the Board of Trustees, BoT of ANLCA, reminded them that every chapter executive had a duty as spelt out in Section 12 of the ANLCA Supreme Constitution which he described as a follow up to the duties specified for the national officers in Section 7 of the same constitution.
According to him, “When you want to read Section 12, go and read Section 7 first because whatever you are in the chapter, there’s one who is in that same position in the national committee and so, you see details of your responsibility from Section 7 because in Section 12, it gave just a summary of it.
“The executive committee of a chapter must be operating as a team in order to deliver on their mandate. The chapter Chairman must not see or present himself as the boss or the owner of the association because he’s is not the owner of the association. The real owners of the association are the members. And so, every action should be addressed towards satisfying the owners of the association. You as an executive is merely working for the owners and the owners are the members.
“All the executive of the chapter must endeavor to work with the chapter Chairman. The leadership of the association will not tolerate a situation where someone becomes a dog in the manger. In other words, somebody who can make the association not to move forward either because he wants to do his own thing. It must be a team work and the Chairman must be the one directing.”
Elochukwu equally reminded them that as executive, there were some specific obligations which they owe the members noting that that would be the basis upon which the national leadership would judge their performance.
Listing the obligations, he said, “Maintaining the association content: Every action that the executive must be taking must be geared towards tackling our collective challenges. We can say that tackling operational problems is actually the reason for the formation of ANLCA unless anybody can dispute that. It is to enable us to be able to operate better as freight forwarders to be able to operate better. That is the reason the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA news formed in 1954. So, those that had the vision and formed it were only moving on their footsteps.
“Availability: The national leadership of ANLCA shall no longer tolerate the situation of the past where people scramble to become executive in the chapters, print cards and are hardly available at the operational bases of their members.
“Some people believed that once they can form task forces and committees, that they are not to be there. No! You as the chapter Chairman and chapter executive are supposed to be there because you are the persons elected. The task forces were not elected, so, they don’t have responsibilities.
“When they are working for you, you should be there to make sure that they work well and you should be there at the appropriate time to take those things that even the task forces cannot take because that’s why you were elected.
“Loyalty to Members: We have always encountered a situation where a member has operational problem and you see a chapter executive coming there, say at customs, and he looks at it and the next thing is that you see the executive blaming his member by telling him ‘you should have done the correct thing’, that is an act of disloyalty.
“When a member has a problem, when you go there as an executive, your duty is to see how it can be solved and after you have solved it, you can come in-house and admonish the member not to do that kind of thing. But for you to sit there and tell him ‘go and settle them now’ or ‘go and do this’, it is an act of disloyalty and I am speaking on this as an authority.
“Your duty is to protect him first. If there are things he or she didn’t do well, try to solve it and then, you get back in-house and say please don’t do this kind of documentation again.
“Regular meetings: At a particular point in time, it became like it’s no longer fashionable for chapter executive to call for regular meetings, all they do is just to run on. The only way you can get feedback from your members is through regular meetings.
“So, the national leadership will also assess your performance through checking whatever it is, in case they are auditing you, they want to know how many times you have called for chapter meetings because that is the basis for you to have a good connection with your members.”
He continued, “Financial obligations: Like the President said, there was a time in recent time, because of the problem we went through, registration was done at the national headquarters. Ordinarily, the membership of the association starts with the chapters and it is at the chapter level that you are going to get registered.
“Maybe, at the appropriate time, they will give directive on how the chapters will resume registration of members because members are to be registered at the chapter level and then, be forwarded to national secretariat, not the other way round.
“We know that when you register, you collect subscription fee which will be disbursed as follows: the chapter – 40%; Zonal – 10%; national secretariat – 40% and the BoT – 10%. In other words, this is like if you don’t do it, it is like you have stolen somebody’s money and the person you stole his money can do anything to you.
“So, for those who collect money and pocket it, and it says ‘all monies’, it didn’t say some money. So, whether it is the official or unofficial one, when you collect it, you disburse it as well. We need to emphasize this because we have had a situation, it is the duty and obligation of every chapter executive to ensure that this financial obligations are met.
“Let it be known, like those who contested the election, some of them had to pay the outstanding dues that their chapters were owing, and something interesting happened in Port-Harcourt Area 1. When we discovered that all the people were also contesting, but the Chairman was not contesting, we now said no problem, our money we must get. So, we looked at those who are contesting and we shared what they were owing and everybody paid. The money came out.
“So, for you as an executive in the chapter, all you need to do is to be sure that you don’t allow the Chairman or the Treasurer or the Financial Secretary, those who are controlling money to owe because if you allow them to owe, if tomorrow you are contesting for any position, you will pay.”
Reminded them of Section 30 of the association’s constitution which provided for the emergency powers of the President, he warned that, “The National President alongside the Board of Trustees have the right to suspend any executive that is not living up to its obligations and these obligations included all these things that we have talked about.”
“Again, let me also say something, every chapter Chairman, like the President has said, should also try to ensure that there’s harmony and peace in his chapter because when complains are received from members, not even members of your executive, that you are not doing it right, it can lead to investigation, it can lead to suspension and it can lead to a whole lot of things. And that is where the emergency powers of the President comes in. Let everybody know in advance what it is so you can’t fall victim”, he added.
Photo: Sir Ernest Elochukwu, former National President and BoT Member of ANLCA.
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