Charles Ubah (Clearing Agent)
The last 10 years of the CRFFN has been filled with ups and downs, they have not really achieved anything, because of internal bickering and politics. The council has not achieved anything because of internal politics and government interference. Another factor that has made the CRFFN to fail is the proliferation of associations, the problems started when the council registered more than two associations.
If the Government wants to hijack the Council, let them go ahead, but they must go and look for their members because our members are for us. The government trying to take over the council would spell doom, it would not work. The CRFFN is our council, it cannot be taken over by government, is it possible for government to takeover ICAN or COREN? The council is just like these two professional bodies.
Dikke Kalu (Secretary, Tin Can Chapter, NAGAFF)
The initiative for establishment of the CRFFN started from NAGAFF, it was not designed to be a government thing, it was supposed to be a neutral body belonging to upcoming freight forwarders. But during the first election into the Council, people who do not know what the council was all about hijacked the council. In the past 10 years, personality clash has made the CRFFN not to operate at optimal level. But the leaders have now seen a shake-up coming from somewhere, they are now running every where, what they ought to have done then is now what they are trying to do, they are the real cause of the problems. Now the lawmakers are planning to amend the CRFFN Act, but I can tell you that it is not possible, it cannot work. It is the operators on the field who have used the Act, they have used it and they know where amendment should come, without carrying the operators along, the Bill will not work, because from the word ‘go’, government interference was supposed not to come into the CRFFN at all.
Nzeribe Ebere (Secretary, ANLCA Tin Can)
My assessment of the CRFFN is that when they started initially, they were doing well, they were trying to harmonise all the freight forwarding bodies into one, but for sometime now, nobody has heard anything about them, if truly they are still existing, then it means they are lagging behind. At the inaugural stage, they were everywhere, people started feeling their impact, but right now, they have become a shadow of themselves.
My advice is for government to leave CRFFN alone, they should allow the system to oversee the activities of CRFFN, government can only make input when necessary, maritime is a business, and government has no business being in business, they should allow those who have knowledge to pilot the affairs of the CRFFN..
Barr. Ada Akpunonu (Clearing Agent)
Does the CRFFN still exist? The problems of the Council started when they started fighting for collection of the Practitioners Operations Fee despite the fact that we pay our annual subscriptions to the Council. What the associations should do now is to sponsor people or lawyers to go and remove the POF collection from the CRFFN amendment bill, they brought the POF hoping that associations would collect and now start sharing. It is better for the government to take over the Council, we have had proliferation of associations due to collection of POF, so I believe it is good for the government and take over to restore sanity.
Dele Iboma (Member, ANLCA)
For the past 10 years, the foundation was good, but somewhere along the line, the leadership went wrong. It is supposed to be a private concern but somewhere along the line they made it a parastatal which was not in the original plan. Therefore the bill before the National Assembly to take it over is good. We at ANLCA believe that something is wrong somewhere and very soon we will come together as a body and plan on the way forward. I am totally against the government coming into that because it is not a government parastatal, it is a private entity and should be allowed to be run privately. If the government takes over now, they will be using it as a revenue generation and that was not the initial idea.
Dr. Frank Ukor (President, AREFFN)
Even though CRFFN had so many challenges, the fact that it is still floating means that it is successful and has come to be. After the amendment of Act 17 of 2007, I am confident that it will bounce back. It had registered members, it had made regulations, it had accredited five associations and will accredit more, it has successfully brought freight forwarding to international light by registering it with some international bodies. Very soon, the Board will be inaugurated after the election that will take place soon.
Mr. Paul Ndibe (Acting National Executive Director of CILT)
The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has been beautiful in the sense that before the last five years in the CRFFN act, there were some elements of regulation, training and professional service. They now look at it from the professional service and you know one thing with the transport sector is that you can not offer a bad professional service twice. So if you are a licensed freight forwarder in that sector and you know what you are doing you can not afford to offer a bad professional service as we had it before the enactment of the CRFFN act.
Mr. Milton Ofobrukweta (Maritime Consultant)
The body called CRFFN has not performed at all; they have not created any impact in the industry. They have been busy quarrelling with people instead of carrying on with their mandate. People have not felt their impact in the past 10 years. I will advise them to wake up to their mandate.
Adeniyi Adelapo (Member ANLCA)
They have been trying a little but the problem is that when they started initially they were doing very well, but as time goes they forgot their mandate. As it is now, they do not have a register, no election have been conducted it is only one man that have been controlling the affairs of the body for a long time now. How can one person control such a body? I will advise them to go for election; people should be elected to man the affairs of the body. I support the government taking over the affairs of the body.
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