ANLCA ELECTIONS FACE-OFF

• Elections To Hold This Month

In what appeared as a sign of what will play out in a few weeks to come, the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) was yesterday forced to bow to the pressure mounted on it by most chairmen of the chapters of the association.
Venue of the high wired politicking was the association’s new permanent secretariat, where an emergency meeting was called by the board for the sole aim of pushing elections date forward and also allegedly to dissolve the association’s electoral committee.
However, events took a dramatic twist shortly after the commencement of the meeting and when the alleged plans of the board members became manifest.
Even though journalist were barred from the meeting, sources who were part of the heated discussion told Shipping Position Daily that after several hours of heated arguments, the Board of Trustees (BoT) finally gave the nod for the national executive committee of the association, headed by Prince Olayiwola Shittu to conduct its election as at when due.
Our correspondent, who was at the meeting venue throughout, was told authouritatively that majority of the members kicked against the intention of the Board members to clandestinely extend the tenure of the present national executive council.

Those who led the campaign in favour of incumbent president Shittu included; the Chairman of Tin Can Port chapter, Kayode Oyinlola, the Airport Chapter Chairman, Alloy Nze Igwe, the Apapa chapter Chairman, Olumide Fakanlu and the former chairman of Apapa Chapter, Sir. John Oforbike.

Midway into the meeting, the legal adviser of ANLCA; Barrister Chekube Osonwa called attention of members to the provisions of section 22 subsection 1 of the ANLCA’s constitution which states that there must be an emergency or controversy before NECOM election can be extended.

To pave the way for its plans, the Coordinator of the BoT, Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, had earlier argued that for the board to conduct a credible election, its members must be given enough time to settle down and prepare for the election. Secondly, he also argued that the time for interested parties to campaign for the election is too short.

Sensing ulterior motives, majority of the members at the meeting however argued that the role of the BoT is not to conduct the election, but merely to supervise the process.

But, the final masterstroke was played when the chairman of the electoral committee (ASECO) of ANLCA; Alhaji Babatunde Mukaila also told members that the body was ready to conduct the elections. He said ASECO has already met the provisions of the constitution as a build-up to the election, part of which was the lifting of ban on electioneering activities and the publication of voters list. According to him, all documents have been forwarded to the BoT.

And, apparently sensing that the board had lost grounds on its plans, the President ( Shittu) called for a division. At the end, those who wanted the election to be conducted were 42, while only four supported the board’s position.

After the division and the voting, the meeting agreed unanimously that the election should come up at the last NEC meeting of the present executive which will come up in April 2014.

However, when he was approached by Shipping Position Daily, the ANLCA President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu refused to comment on the outcome of the meeting.

But, speaking with our correspondent however, Coordinator of the BOT, Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha said that the Board was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.

"It was a collective decision binding on me, so I am okay with it"

Philosophically confirming the defeat of the board’s position, he told our correspondent that:"Sometimes in a family, a father may have a decision over certain issues and the children and the mother may reject the position, so the father is bound to change his position if he wants to behave as the leader of the family, we are looking at ourselves as leaders of the association"

"Our position should not be dictatorial, we are not here to dictate, we are only here with our decision after consultations and deliberations over it, but if the house in general and the majority feel we should do it the other way round, then we are bound to agree" he said.

According to him, the election has to come up in the next two weeks and the time table will be rolled out soon.

Mustapha however ruled out the possibility of the BoT electing a chairman for now.

"The issue of chairmanship of the BoT is ruled out for now, the coordinator is coordinating the BoT and that is all we have for now" he said.