The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) yesterday kick started a two-day retreat and leadership training programme for its newly-elected chapter executives, sequel to their inauguration into office.
The retreat held at the Centre for Management Development (CMD) at Magodo, Lagos.
The recently-elected chapter chairmen of the association however used the medium to call on the national leadership for a review of its constitution. According to them, there is no specification of duties for chapter executives.
The members who took turns to pour out their minds also expressed concern at the way officers are appointed into certain offices by the national executives without recourse to the association's constitution.
Facilitator of the programme and lead speakers at the training, Mr. Joe Okonmah also charged NAGAFF members to redirect their mindset against the 'one man' syndrome of NAGAFF held by many.
According to Okonmah, NAGAFF must be made a 'Pan Nigeria' association instead of 'Pan Igbo' association. He also noted that there is a wide communication gap between the chapter executives and the National President.
Okonmah who was delivering a lecture titled "Overview of NAGAFF Constitution: Role of Officers", also noted with concern that the NAGAFF constitution had no specification of roles for elected officers at the chapter level.
"There is no need to assume that people know their roles, it must be spelt out, and the idea of somebody losing elections at the chapter level and thereafter being appointed into another office at the National must be discouraged", he advised.
On his part, the National President of NAGAFF, Chief Eugene Nweke who declared the retreat open, charged the participants to keep an open mind to acquire skills on how to deliver quality leadership at their various chapters.
Nweke pointed out that, government policies in the maritime industry is changing everyday and that freight forwarders cannot afford to be stagnant. He said that the retreat and training will hold yearly.
Our correspondent who was at the programme however noted that the retreat was snubbed by some of the new executives.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily at the end of the lecture however, the NAGAFF President said that the elected officers who were absent at the retreat will not be inaugurated and their position will be declared vacant.
According to him, at a management meeting held on Tuesday, it was agreed that anyone not present at the retreat has contravene goals and objective of the association.
"If we call for and you are not here, sanction will be for us to declare such position vacant, it shows that you are a security risk, because you don't want to fall into our vision and you are not fit to carry our mantle" he said.
Nweke further stressed the essence of the programme, saying that, "The idea is to position them for optimal performance, the essential word is service delivery, and for you to get officers to fit into this vision, you need to take them back to the class room so that they will be able to propagate the gospel"
However, one of the issues placed on the front burners at the event was the reviewing of the NAGAFF constitution.
Speaking to our correspondent, PTML chapter Secretary, Mr. Gozie Orji noted that when the NAGAFF constitution was made, NAGAFF was not what it is today, "now that we are many and we have learned people, the constitution should be reviewed"
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