Former Chairman of CRFFN Knocks ANLCA President, Tony Iju for Promoting “Sharing Formula” for Council Elections

…Advises FMOT Against Appointing Politicians Into Council

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The former Chairman of Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju has queried the professional integrity of the National President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Hon Tony Iju Nwabunike who was pioneer Chairman of CRFFN for promoting the controvertial 6.6.1.1.1 election sharing formula into the Council.

He also advised the Federal Ministry of Transportation to scrutinise the regular appointment of 17-politicians into the Council to join 15-elected freight forwarders, saying that this is one of the bane of the body.

In an appreciation letter to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs Magdalene Ajani, Aare Olanrewaju noted with concern that the government appointees from geopolitical zones into the governing council are only after their pockets, and not the interest of developing freight forwarding sector.

Speaking on Tony Iju’s support for the sharing formula and the unholy alliance formed by the various freight forwarding associations, Aare Olanrewaju said “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 if he would have won an election into Governing Council in absentia?

The former CRFFN Chairman said it is regrettable that the freight forwarding associations are never united to tackle numerous professional operational challenges facing the practitioners, but are quick to form an unholy alliance when it comes to election sharing formula and the POF sharing percentages.

Speaking on government appointees into the Council, he said “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 ( presummably professionals issues, but were carried away by quest for affluence) were never at par, hence, other than regulatory formulation objectives, scrambling and partition set in, subsequently, the politicians had their way and the elected fell prey and management team were divided into camps”

“Madam, in other 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” he said

Aare Olanrewaju also knocked some of the freight forwarding associations, insinuating that many of them are indebted to CRFFN in terms of their financial commitments and subscriptions.

According to him, the Council has three categories of membership; individuals, corporate and associations, but so far only the first two categories are up to date in their payments.

He said that despite their lack of tangible commitments to the CRFFN, some of the associations are so arrogant and want to hijack the CRFFN and be dictating what goes on in the governing board.

“It is an act of injustice and a 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 a regulatory compliance and enforcement wise, only the Corporate and Individual Membership pays both Membership Registration and Annual Subscription Fees to the CRFFN, while the Accredited Association stays aloof in its comfort zones to teleguide the administration of the Governing Council, for instance, they are insisting and joining issues with the management on their due percentage from the POF collection.

“At this point, you can now ask what does the Accredited Associations brings to the CRFFN table of professional advancment 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 terms to equal itself with the CRFFN and even tussling power with the CRFFN, against this backgrounds, you can appreciate the better reasons behind the so called sharing formula of 6:6:1:1:1”