Gani Adeola (Former PRO, ANLCA at PTML)
My advice is for the CRFFN Registrar to go and conduct elections into the governing board of the Council. As it is, if anybody is representing any office in the Council right now it is illegal, they cannot continue to deceive us. Let us have the board on ground first and bring in new executives, by so doing, when the executives are speaking, we would know that government is talking. The fear of many people concerning the CRFFN board election is that ANLCA members would dominate the board, this is normal because we have the largest number of licenses in the industry. The problems of the CRFFN are synonymous to the ones we have in the country today, whereby government just handpicked one or two friends or relations to occupy positions.
Ada Akpunonu (Former Vice Chair, ANLCA Tin Can Port)
The problem about the POF right now is that the government has declared the money should be paid to the declarant and the associations are not happy with this, come to think of it, we have our yearly subscription already, do we still need to start taxing ourselves everyday? For example, should a lawyer be paying everyday to the NBA any day he goes to court? This is what ANLCA is saying and this POF should be scrapped. The Ministry is giving CRFFN allocation every year, they also get our annual subscription, so what are they doing with all these money? Now they want to collect the POF and share with the declarant from each association, in order words, if I am not in any association I won't get the money, this is totally wrong, you cannot force somebody to join any association, you have right to choose anywhere you want to be, you are free to associate or not associate. I am not in support of the collection of this money because it is adding more burden to the practitioners. There are issues in the industry and yet the associations and CRFFN are doing nothing about it, the terminal operators and shipping companies’ charges are increased and nobody is talking.
Michael Imonitie Ovien (Maritime lawyer)
The questions we should first ask is- who are the people to collect this POF? Is the fee supposed to be a daily or yearly fee? Most organisations’ subscriptions are paid yearly, the fee which we pay to the customs is annually, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) collects its fees annually among others. But now, when you say you want to collect Practitioners Operations Fee (POF) everyday, tell me, into which coffers will it be going? How can we be regulating an association or a freight forwarder body in this dispensation like this? We should toe the line of foreign countries whereby practising fees for freight forwarders are paid annually, I still insist that ANLCA should stand on its point and kick against the daily payment of POF; it should be an annual thing.
Rasheed Ojewuyi (stakeholder)
The problem right now is that the CRFFN is only concentrating on how to collect the POF from ANLCA members, the way out of the crisis between the Council and ANLCA is for government to scrap the collection of this POF, the mere talk of it has done a lot of damage to the CRFFN. Again, let the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, if he is really sincere about the freight forwarding sector of the industry, he should assist the CRFFN to ensure elections are conducted into the governing board of the Council; this is the only time that people would respect their decisions. The only way out I see here is for the POF to be cancelled.
Festus Ukwu {NCMDLCA}
There is need to resolve issues concerning CRFFN and ANLCA over POF collection. Truth be told, I don’t think the industry needs any form of court injunction because it will affect so many businesses and processes. The court case between the association and the regulator is not palatable and I want the ANLCA President to also look inward on how to address the issue with CRFFN, because what is on ground is affecting freight forwarding practice in the country.
Pius Davies {Stakeholder}
From my own opinion, I think the best way out of the lingering crisis between CRFFN and ANLCA is for both parties to call for a roundtable meeting ,then negotiations will follow in that regards. The two entities have separate functions which have to do with the practice of professionalism, but my suggestion is that POF should not be an issue for the two bodies because the court case will continue to linger if not withdrawn. Therefore, I will advise Sir Mike Jukwe and Prince Shittu to have a closed door meeting on how to resolve the matter.
Eniola Odulaja {Stakeholder}
Since the matter is in court, there will continue to be problem for CRFFN as the regulator, because there will be limitation on whatever they are supposed to execute. Anything that has to do with court proceedings will definitely after operations and activities of both individuals and organisation, therefore the best way out is for the parties involved to settle out of court, then find a way out on the collection of the POF. NAGAFF, AREFFN and others need to be involved in the process as well.
Stanley Ezenga (NAGAFF)
ANLCA should be reasonable for CRFFN to collect the POF, because the fund goes a long way in training practitioners. The lingering court case between the two parties has made the practitioners to suffer. However, if ANLCA is saying that they are the largest group considering the number, what about the area of training? Is it not important for their members to get trained? thus I will advised that out of court settlement will move the process forward.
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