"Somebody will stand up and claim to belong to a group, but when it comes to customs operations, we have to work with the mother association".
"MAN for instance, we have no problem with them because we know who we are relating with, but when you now take an organisation which has a splinter, if the splinter group makes a case and the mother group makes a case, who do you pay attention to?"
"So, in our operations, this really creates problems for us and this is why I advise that they should try to be intact so that we as customs service could find it easier to collaborate and work with them in the course of our doing business."
"You want us to treat you the way others are treated, but once you create a faction, it becomes difficult for us to work with you, so the cooperation you are looking for will be difficult unless you return to the mother association".
These unambiguous words were those of the Comptroller General; Col Hameed Ali (rtd) when he addressed stakeholders penultimate week at an interactive forum on the review of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA).
In saying this, Col Ali was obviously uninformed about how the splinter associations came about. He was only told that the Association of Nigeria Licensed Agents (ANLCA) is the mother association from where others sprang up.
Once, it was only ANLCA that was, it pre-eminence was to be broken by the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents. This group has sadly also broken into two factions. A few years after the Council of Managing Directors came to be, a new group was also born. The policy-driven National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), which has been giving its ‘mother; ANLCA’ a run for its money since its conception by Dr Boniface Aniebonam, who until his dream to float his own association was the Chairman of ANLCA Customs Agents Relations Committee.
After these two, there have also been Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) and lately; International Federation of Freight Forwarding Association (IFFA), also widely known to be founded by a member of ANLCA Board of Trustees. There is also the National Association of Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC), which is mainly domiciled at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport from where it claims to represent a group of freight forwarders who handle airfreighted cargoes.
From all available facts, the birth of National Council was borne out of the exigency of that time, when there was mass revocation of licenses of custom agents on account of non-Import Duty Report (IDR) scam. After standing in the gap, it refused to fold up, even after the crisis was resolved.
As for NAGAFF, it took advantage of nomenclature of the meaning of ANLCA; that is an association that is meant for customs agents only. According to its founders, NAGAFF is for freight forwarders, which includes customs agents. We stand to be corrected, but there is no difference in what members of ANLCA and NAGAFF do; forget the nomenclatures of the two associations, they are all customs licensed agents!
The case of AREFFN is even more worrisome, it founders also got some members of both ANLCA and NAGAFF and fused them together to form yet another association.
Let us look at NAFFAC which operates from the airport. While to the best of pour knowledge, ANLCA is present at all international airports, NAFACC even though at the Lagos airport does not enjoy any recognition from government agencies and other operators there.
We take note of the comment s of NAGAFF leadership when the Police Area Commander in charge of Apapa port visited recently. The association surprisingly frowned at the activities of the newest addition to the bourgeoning body of freight forwarding associations in the port; the IFFA. It called on the Police chief to curb the activities of the IFFA in Apapa port!
The activities of the multitude of associations that are currently operating in the nation’s maritime industry, especially at the ports are certainly laughable and ridiculous.
While not in support of the Customs Comptroller General’s advice, we are of the opinion that they must be stopped from growing. Certainly, they amount to empire building.
We ask- what is NAGAFF doing, that ANLCA is not. What is AREFFN doing, that NAGAFF is not. What is the Council of Managing Directors doing, that ANLCA is not?
Those who float these bodies are only interested in personal gains. Otherwise, what has been their impact? What have NAFFAC, AREFFN, Council, IFFA done since coming on board as freight forwarding associations? We very much doubt if any of them have been close to or even any better than the duo of ANLCA and NAGAFF.
However, we do not stand with the Customs CG on his position. You can not decree association, and you can not force its membership on anyone.
It is the nature of the maritime industry, especially the ports that encourage empire-building. Sadly, what is happening in freight forwarding is happening in the maritime media. The reasons for proliferation are the same.
At the moment, there are about six maritime media practitioners associations in Nigeria, all claiming to be fighting the cause of members. At a time (until early 2000) there was also only one; MARAN.
If the Minister of Transportation failed to fuse the maritime media practitioners’ associations together, then we very much doubt if the CG of Customs can do it with freight forwarding associations.
They have come to stay, but its their members that will suffer, because there will no uniformity of purpose, every Emperor fighting for its own kingdom makes the various empires weak.
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