Ex-CRFFN Board Chairman, Hakeem Olanrewaju Condemns Tenure Elongation Through Back Door
By DAPO OLAWUNI
Immediate past Chairman of the Governing Board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju has condemned the incumbent board chairman and his members for seeking to elongate their tenure from 2years to 4years without due process.
Olanrewaju in a signed press statement sent to DAILY TREND NEWS noted that the tenure of the current CRFFN board has expired since July 2020 and that notice of fresh election into the council ought to have been rolled out by now.
The former CRFFN Chairman lamented that the Council has been hijacked by the government and that it is pitiable that its major focus now is how to collect the controvertial Practitioners Operating Fee (POF) from helpless and struggling freight forwarding practisioners.
He condemned CRFFN flyers in circulation, compelling practitioners to register themselves properly by
possessing the mandatory qualifications. According to him, this ought to have been done since 2018, and not at a time that the tenure of the board has expired.
“You recall that it was reported in the news , where the Governing Council were accused of plotting to extend their tenure by two additional years”
“To this moment, there is no official refutal to this report. One obvious fact, that must be stated and put straight, is that the Act 16,2007 is an extant laws of the Federation, as such pending the conclusion of the amendment process presently on going at the National Assembly relevant provisions are extant”
“Most importantly, the Council remains a professional council with a clear legislative intents and purposes.
Therefore, the governing council members are hereby encouraged not to truncate nor make mockery of the its two years statutory democratic elective succession as provided in the act, for mere parochialism” he warned
The CRFFN former chairman noted that practitioners were astonished and helpless when in 2018, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi hijacked the process of electing the Chairman and Vice, which was the provisional obligations and professional standards set by the first and second Governing Council.
According to him, the enabling provisions was sacked for government core
interests, as the Minister solely decided on who will be the Governing Council Chairman.
Going further, he said “I must state clearly, that, the present Council placed more emphasis on POF collection as an only options to reciprocate and correspondingly account for its yearly budgetary allocations, thereby closing its eyes from exploring other sources of professional revenue available in the industry”
“If the roles and interests of the
government will derail or defeat the intendments of the Act 16, 2007, then for professional sustainability and posterity sake, on behalf of the Nigeria Freight Forwarders, I wish to beg the government to please grant the freight forwarders their professional independence and let the forwarders alone
“So far, It is obvious
that your administrative programs of action toward us are not professionally and developmentally
driven”
He pleaded with the management of the Council to follow with diligence its duty to evolve a purposeful mandatory qualifications training in earnest.
“Withdraw the present noticed issues, rather issue a notice in relation seeking compliance to training and retraining programs in this regards. Take adequate care not to throw the industry into undue confusion.
“Do strategic consultation and communicate adequately, you are dealing with professional
and not civil servants. Stay away from any form of political permutations”
“Advise the Minister alright
and set up mercenaries for immediate elections. Avoid a repeat of what transpired in 2012 of the
last Council” he said
