ANLCA BOT Position not for Mediocres, As New Progressives Surface
ANLCA logo
By DAPO OLAWUNI
As the Elections into the Board of Trustees (BOT) draws near, members of the Association are on high alert and careful in selecting leaders, in order to avoid the pitfalls which threw the biggest customs brokers association in Africa into a five years crisis during the Tony Iju Nwabunike administration.
As it stands, findings within the association has revealed that nine choice aspirants have emerged and they enjoy the blessings of most ANCA members.
These aspirants according to members of ANLCA, are credibe candidates that can help the association regain its position and stay afloat.
The association is desirous of a board of trustees that would bring value and color to the association and not jobbers and customs apologists.
The Board, going by previous antecedents, comprises of people of means, calibre and high integrity standards who have been successful overtime in the business.
So much so that, if there are policies of the Federal Government that needed to be influenced, these group of trustees wield so much influence to affect policies.
There are Federal Government policies which the customs service themselves cannot speak against such policiies of government, even when such policies affects their operations negatively.
The customs in most cases rely on the clearing agents to speak against such policies and advice the President, the Minister of Finance or the Lawmakers. The duty of customs is basically to implement.
One of such unfavourable policies is the fluctuating customs exchange rate for goods importation which currently has crossed the threshold of N1,600.
It behoves on a strong ANLCA BOT members to tell the Federal Government that, a benchmark of N800 for example, is needed for a period of six months so as to allow importers plan their importation and open Form M.
However, the association just survived a five years crisis, and is still finding its footing, hence, importation has suffered setbacks due to the unfriendly foreign exchange policy.
It is then incontrovertible, that if ANLCA fails to speak to government policies, other smaller associations are incapable of influencing the profession positively, rather, they engage in frivolities like writing of Petitions to the government.
ANLCA as an association consists of revenue earners who are respected by the Federal Government, they are the group of people who facilitates the Trillions of Naira in revenue that the Nigeria Customs Service is generating today.
Going by findings from different quarters and body language of prominent leaders in the association, there are indications of nine choice aspirants ready for the job ahead.
They are;
ANLCA BOT CHOICED ASPIRANTS
1. Sunday A Momoh
2. Demola Mumunney
3. Mohammed Sani Utai
4. Tunde Awonuga
5. Dayo Azeez
6. Taiwo Mustapha
7. Elochukwu Ernest
8. Dennis Okafor
9. Kingsley Offor
It is pertinent to note that seventeen candidates obtained forms for the BOT position, three of them failed to beat the deadline for forms submission by the Association Electoral Committee (ASECO). This leaves just fourteen candidates out of which the nine aspirants mentioned are now the choice of the members.
Four out of the aspirants; Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, Chief Dennis Okafor, Mr Dayo Azeez, Sir Earnest Elochukwu were part of the Restoration Team which stood their grounds during the 5-years crisis, to ensure that the ANLCA ship does not run aground.
These group of men actually deserve an award.
It has also come to the fore, that some of them had outrightly refused to contest the position again, for them to face their professional business.
It was learnt that Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, Kingsley Offor, and Dennis Okafor, were appealed to severally, to return to the board because the association must not be allowed the to be hijacked by apologists.
By constitution, the BoT is made up of nine members, but it is clear that any other aspirant that would want to substitute any of the aforementioned nine candidates, must pass integrity tests.
This is because, the BOT team comprises people of likeminds, not ones that would be pressurising chapter chairmen for weekly handouts, or that would seek vendetta and work at cross purposes with the National Executive Committee (NECOM)
It was also learnt that, it took certain eggheads within the association to convince the four new aspirants in the race; Sunday Momoh, Demola Mumunney, Mohammed Sani Utai, and Tunde Awonuga to join in salvaging what is left of the association.
A reliable source within the association confirmed that there are lots of “big boys” in the customs brokerage business who are very silent achievers and watching from the background.
An example of this is Dr Taiwo Afolabi, the Chairman of SIFAX Group who would have been a great asset to the association and make it attractive.
However, the SIFAX boss was toasted to come into the association at a time when there was crisis in the Tony Iju administration. He failed to commit himself becaude he would not allow his reputation to be tainted.
In our next articule, we shall be unveiling the personalities and profiles of these eight choice aspirants in the upcoming ANLCA BOT elections.
