The history of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) actually started in 2000, from the two-room office of its founder, who became its pioneer president and later its pioneer chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT); Dr Boniface Aniebonam.
History will forever remember him for fighting all odds (including frequent visitation to the Police stations and subsequent humiliation and harassment) to ensure that the NAGAFF dream did not die.
The history of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) actually started in 2000, from the two-room office of its founder, who became its pioneer president and later its pioneer chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT); Dr Boniface Aniebonam.
History will forever remember him for fighting all odds (including frequent visitation to the Police stations and subsequent humiliation and harassment) to ensure that the NAGAFF dream did not die.
The story of NAGAFF can not be separated from the sojourn of its founder in the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), where he served, first as chairman of customs agents’ relations committee of the Apapa chapter of association of ANLCA, under the then- chairman; Mr Onyebuchi Katsina Uzor.
He was later to be elevated; albeit in the same position at the national level of ANLCA by the then- national president; Alhaji Sani Kamba.
It was from ANLCA that NAGAFF sprang out.
It can be argued that the birth of NAGAFF gave ‘its mother’; the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents enough reasons to buckle up. Were it not for NAGAFF and the challenges it gave, ANLCA would probably have been a dead association by now.
Those early years, when NAGAFF, through the robust propaganda and public relations instrumentality of its founder was enjoying soaring prominence, ANLCA was being erased from prominence.
Without mentioning names, some of those who took over the rein of power in ANLCA were obviously never really prepared for it or were not quite competent for it. Otherwise, how does one explain the fact that the NAGAFF enjoyed more prominence and commanded more recognition that ANLCA in its immediate years of birth.
Perhaps, because of the circumstances of its birth, which necessitated it’s being ran like a private estate, NAGAFF was synonymous with the persona of its founder; Dr Aniebonam.
It’s on record that Dr Aniebonam acquired the now-famous NAGAFF village and made it a rallying point for different stakeholders in the maritime industry. The NAGAFF village is always a beehive of activities; always home to dozens of young freight forwarders in search of livelihood.
Without equivocation, NAGAFF has since metamorphosed from being a ‘Lagos-only’ association into a bigger body, with representation in different parts of the country.
It has also matured into an emerging democracy, organizing elections into its chapters in Lagos and eastern ports as well as border stations.
The association is currently making arrangements for what can be referred to as its first all-inclusive elections into all its chapters.
The NAGAFF has never held a general election for its national leaders; they have always emerged through processes that may not pass the test of democracy.
But, from what we can see, the association has dropped the toga of selectocracy, by virtue of the on-going arrangement for the elections.
As a maritime media outfit, we however believe very strongly that, for the association to continue to be seen as truly democratized, it must ensure that elections are conducted for all its positions, at both the chapter levels and the national executive council level.
Importantly, those so elected should be allowed to serve their terms fully, unless there is a clear case of violation of the constitution of the association.
We think that, while the influence of its Founder; Dr Aniebonam can not be wished away, he has also strategically distanced himself from the day-to-day running of the association, preferring that the national president and the association’s board of trustees chair should handle such issues.
More of this statesmanship is expected of him as NAGAFF matches to limelight as an association that is bound by the tenets of democracy.
By and large, we foresee a far better NAGAFF as a result of its new found love for democracy, which by its simplest and most common definition is, ‘government of the people by the people and for the people’. Hence, majority of NAGAFF members (and not one or few individuals) should be allowed to run the association. This is the only way it can continue to give hope to its teaming population of young and practitioners, as well as its crop of educated, but largely untrained practitioners.
Its romance with the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), which has in-turn culminated in its insistence that all electorates in its coming elections must be registered members of CRFFN is perhaps one of the most commendable decisions it has taken in recent times.
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