Mr. Chidi Anthony Opara is a former National Secretary of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria(ARFFN). In this interview with Anozie Egole he speaks on various industry issues, and why he resigned from ARFFN
Can you do a comparison between port operations in Port Harcourt and Lagos?
When you take cognizance of the Apapa traffic problem, you will say that Port Harcourt is better because there are no such traffic issues there. But in terms of volume of movement of goods, Lagos records higher traffic than Port Harcourt. When you come to Customs operations, I think the officers in Lagos seem to be more efficient because the freight forwarders in Lagos have a way of agitating against infractions and inefficiency on the part of the security agents. So I think the Port Harcourt freight forwarders are a little bit relaxed, you can’t compare what goes on in Lagos in terms of volume of traffic and then freight forwarders in Lagos are more active in terms of demanding for their rights. And then the focus is more on Lagos. I will give you an example. During the lockdown in Lagos, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) did a lot of things to provide palliatives and provide a conducive working environment during the lockdown. But when there was a lockdown at Onne, I called the Registrar who referred me to the Director of Enforcement; we were having discussions, but I couldn’t get documentation that will make it easier for me to go and do my job at Onne, but this was what they did to those in Lagos; they provided vehicles to carry the freight forwarders and all that. But nothing was done when it happened to Onne and the port was lockdown for more than two weeks and nothing was done. So most of the time the focus of the maritime enforcement agencies is in Lagos. I don’t think that some of those agencies also remember that there is freight forwarding in the north. So, coming to your question, I will say that freight forwarding is more efficiently done in Lagos because of some of these factors that I have mentioned to you.
What do you think is the business prospects of the biggest vessel ever; Maerskline Stardelhorn that berthed at Onne Port last week end?
Well, I read about it and the issue of biggest ship berthing anywhere; whether in Onne or any other place, I will say is good. But we also have to look at it from this end, what is it carrying. If for instance the ship was carrying a substantial number of containerised cargoes belonging to traders, you can say that there will be a rise in the volume of trade. But if that large ship was carrying oil well equipment and all the rest of them probably belonging to government agencies, you will discover that some of these foreign firms are also going to do the freight forwarding. And what they do here is not really freight forwarding, they will have a way of using barges to carry the cargoes to their various Island and then discharge the cargoes there. So what I am trying to say is that you probably will not have a situation where the cargoes in the large ship will be handled among Nigerian freight forwarders. You may even discover that it is just two or three firms that are clearing the bulk cargoes and all that, if it has cargoes for government agencies and parastatals. Even when they use companies that seem to be Nigerian companies, some of those companies are affiliated companies or subsidiaries of their partners. And what you have in that type of situation is probably two or three companies bringing barges to come and remove those oil well equipment. But if it is carrying a substantial number of container cargoes including oil well, you may now say that there will be a boom in business in the eastern axis. You will see a lot of freight forwarders moving around clearing cargoes and then helping the federal government to generate revenue. So the big vessels that berthed in Onne port might not really translate to business boom in the area.
What is the state of the Onne port at the moment?
At Onne port, the customs are doing their best; generating revenue but then there are so many bad eggs around who see the agency as their personal enterprise where they can come and make money for themselves. There are also freight forwarders who think that because they know people in high places they will always find one way to connive with the bad eggs in customs and substantial part of what is supposed to be government revenue goes into private pockets. The major issue now is that these petrochemical engineers, handling trailers they don’t have a park, most of their trucks have now blocked the access roads, we are even talking about bad roads in the area, but these trucks have taken a substantial part of the road. So when we talk of bad roads we also take cognizance of the people who run the companies, when they are loading the cargoes, they block almost the whole road and the remaining will now be used by motorists and you know that the traffic flow in Onne is very high, that is the situation at the moment. A distance of about 5km in Onne; now you may have to spend two hours.
What is your reaction on the proposed amendment of CRFFN Act?
Actually, there shouldn’t have been any problem with amending an Act that was formulated in 2007, if you check between 2007 and now, it is a couple of years gone and I think the amendment is due. But the motive behind the amendment is what we are now talking about. The way and manner they are going about the amendment is what is causing some concern in the industry. First and foremost, the motive for the amendment was done out of the fact that some people in the CRFFN governing council are not really satisfied with the two years’ tenure they were elected to run. Now they want to stay for four years for reasons best known to them. But then if you want to run for four years when you were elected and inaugurated for two years’ tenure, you will have to run for another election post-amendment. After the amendment has been done and signed into law you will have to run for another election and if you win and inaugurated you have to spend four years; that is if the amendment is done and the tenure now becomes four years. Because, even if it is done now there has to be an election and that election when you win and you are inaugurated, that is when you enjoy the amendment. Secondly the way they are going about the amendment is not open; amendments are not done that way, it is done in a way that you take opinion from stakeholders and you fill it in the amendment. But then the amendment also must not have tenure extension; two years is enough for any governing council to formulate policies to be actualized, so two years is enough. And then, let me also tell you something, the CRFFN can manage within a substantial period of time without the governing council, the governing council only does policies and the CRFFN actualizes it. So the policies that have been formulated can always be actualized, CRFFN has existed without the governing council. So amendment is good but it has to be done the way it should be done, it has to be open. If the tenure is amended, the people that will enjoy the new tenure will be the new people that would be elected and inaugurated after the amendment.
The CRFFN said it will not register more associations, what is your position on that?
They don’t even have to register or accredit more associations, they don’t need to and they also have to look into the ones that they have already accredited. Apart from ANLCA and NAGAFF, some of the associations are not even supposed to be accredited. I was the national secretary of Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (ARFFN) and I knew what happened, I knew what I went through, I knew why I wanted to be the secretary of the association, because I wanted to make the association a national association. But there are elements within the ARFFN even within the Board of Trustee (BoT) of the association that were not interested in making the association a national association, they were only interested in using the name of the association to further their business interests. We started a programme of expanding ARFFN; making sure it has offices where it is supposed to have, but now how much of these have been actualized, no one. So would say for instance that ARFFN is a national association that should be accredited, of course the answer is No; other associations are like that, apart from ANLCA and NAGAFF. But then let me also tell you something, by regulation the CRFFN established Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum (FFCF) which is supposed to be an umbrella for all the freight forwarders. And then in the body, the governing council, management and all the association’s presidents and national secretaries are supposed to be members. Now, the CRFFN governing council’s vice chairman is supposed to be the chairman of the platform, why can’t they make use of that platform, the reason they can’t make use of the platform is because of selfish interest. Now they are saying that they will bring all the agents together which is fine; if they are going to bring them under the auspices of FFCF, it is good but if they are not going to bring them under that umbrella, then there is going to be a problem. The problem of legality is there, are you going to proscribe every association and go to Corporate Affairs Commission to register other ones and ask these people to come in. If you are going to do that, you don’t need to coerce these people to come in, you do it by dialogue and you also have to do it by bringing together both the accredited and non-accredited associations. You will bring them together and dialogue with them which will be moderated by CRFFN.
What is your position of the 100% compliance team and task force formed by NAGAFF and ANLCA respectively?
We have to be careful when we talk about this ANLCA and NAGAFF team, we have to be careful because we cannot define what happened solely on the basis of legality. The two associations are pressure groups and one of the systems that pressure groups use to drive their claims are through picketing, they can take their members to somewhere and picket the place which may lead to a shutdown, I don’t see anything wrong with that. And if they have to do that within the port premises, remember these people were registered by CAC and by the nature of what they do, they do it within port areas and if they put pressure by picketing a warehouse and as a result it was shut down, you can’t say it is illegal. What you should be looking out for is, when they are doing this picketing did anything wrong happen, were they burning things and all that and if they didn’t do that, then they have not committed any crime. But if what they did is probably – they said this warehouse is doing something wrong and going against the law and they now went to picket the place, what you need to do is to negotiate with them, ask them their grievances and you do something about their complaints. Then NAGAFF and ANLCA can’t be talking of illegality happening and they are against illegality and non-compliance with the law, where as in Port Harcourt port, they are using cargo handling platform to collect levy from importers and exporters. They used to collect levy in Onne through WACT they collect N1000 per 20ft container and N2000 per 40ft container, it is not POF this has been happening. But now NAGAFF has stopped it, because they are angry that they are not giving them what they are supposed to be getting. When they say they are collecting practicing fee, the concept of practicing fee is that you have to collect the percentage of the earning of your members as practicing fee. You don’t collect practicing fee on imports and exports especially in federal government territory, you collect in your office and it doesn’t have to be on import and export.
Are you a member of any association at the moment?
No. I am not and I don’t have to be, I am disappointed with the way they operate in Nigeria; the objectives are not being met. I have worked in so many associations like in ANLCA but the objectives were not met, because of characters like Chief Henry Njoku who has always found himself in leadership positions in ANLCA and that is what he is now bringing to CRFFN. However, I went to ARFFN wanting to make it a national association, but I also discovered that some persons want to use ARFFN also for their business interest and each time they do these things and you try to confront them, it looks like you are always attacking them. So the best thing for me was to leave. Anyway, I don’t have to be a member of any association to be a registered freight forwarder.
What brought up the issues between you and your former association; ARFFN?
I can say that, when I was elected as the national secretary of ARFFN and the association being accredited by CRFFN, I automatically became a member of FFCF and my president; Bala Lawan was also a member. When the forum was inaugurated, I discovered that the chairman, Chief Henry Njoku, I thought he was making a mistake by not following the laid down rules, I didn’t know that it was not a mistake, it is just his own way of being in control. I called my president that the way Njoku is handling this FFCF is wrong, let us do this thing the right way, but incidentally for reasons best known to them; maybe they are not used to doing things the right way, they now started feeling that I am a thorn in their flesh. And when I noticed that situation, I tendered my resignation, I resigned my membership of ARFFN because that was what they wanted. As an experienced person in the industry, if I leave just like that, it is going to look like a scandal they now have to pressurize the BoT to make a statement that I was queried. But they made a mistake by announcing that they queried me on the 16th of May, how can you query someone who had left on the 11th of May, is it right? anyway I didn’t want to talk about that. How can you query someone for an issue that didn’t start in the association? You cannot query me for what was not an ARFFN affair. The reason I left was because of what I think that was wrong that is being done at the FFCF.
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