The calibre of personalities that turned out last week for the investiture of the Executive Director, Finance and Administration, NIMASA; Dr Bashir Jamoh as the President of Institute of Transport Administrators (IOTA) Nigeria, will remain a reference point in the history of the Oyingbo, Lagos-based institute.
Apart from the presence of rarely-seen-in public and former Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA); Chief Adebayo Sarumi, to the Guest Speaker; Professor Pat Utomi and to several industry big wigs, it will be apt to infer that the Institute has indeed caught a ‘big fish’ in Jamoh.
Those who are familiar with the history of IOTA Nigeria (yes, that is its name), will remember that, for many years it grappled with lack of quality leadership. At a point, it had to beg foremost licensed customs agent; Mr Lucky Eyis Amiwero to assume the leadership and rescue the institute from extinction. Amiwero’s tenure ended in a near catastrophe. That is a story for another day.
The investiture would have qualified as being successful, were it not for the lie that was reeled-out concerning the nomenclature of the Institute that Jamoh has been brought to ‘resurrect’.
For the avoidance of doubt, there is no Institute that is chartered in the Nigerian transport sector as at today. Of course, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) that one may point at, is London-Chartered, it is still pursuing its Nigerian Charter status.
How come the organisation we all know as ‘IOTA Nigeria’, suddenly changed to Chartered Institute of Transport Administrators (CIOTA) overnight for the sake of the investiture of its new President? It is sad that the Institute knows this and still went ahead to deceive its guest last week.
The IOTA Nigeria president said after his installation that: : "As of today, the Bill for chattering this institute is before the National Assembly and it has already passed the second reading. We intend before the end of March 2019, we would be ready to go for public hearing, you are all invited to come and add your weight for the successful passage of the bill during the public hearing"! So how did the new name come up, even before the charter!
This is shameful, to say the least. By his own admission, the Bill to Charter IOTA is still in the works at the National Assembly, yet it has taken on the name ‘Chartered Institute of Transport Administrators’! Does the institute and its leadership know that, even if the National Assembly passes the Bill, it still requires the President’s assent to make it an Act?
Jamoh himself admitted that the IOTA Nigeria is "faced with problems which include the chattering of this institute, it is going to be very difficult to continue receiving acceptance from the teeming public and government as well, if we are not chattered".
So Jamoh knew very well that his IOTA Nigeria is not yet chartered and he parades himself as the President of Chartered Institute of Transport Administrators!
If he does not know, his members know very well that apart from IOTA Nigeria, the duo of Nigerian Institute of Shipping and the Certified Institute of Shipping have been pushing for the Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria(CISN) Bill for a while now. Yet, they never fraudulently changed their names name to Chartered Institute of Shipping.
There is no institute known to law as Chartered Institute of Transport Administrators. We are surprised that he was sworn in as President of such, by a lawyer.
Discussion about this post