He may well be what the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), Nigeria requires at this trying period. For a once-highly rated body like CILT, the last few years have been rough. The body found itself tumbling head long from a towering height to a level where it had to fight for continued relevance. But, since the new governing council came on board and especially since the emergence of Mr Francis Ehiguese as the new national executive director, things have started changing for the better. At the body’s new elite national secretariat in Ikoyi, Lagos where this interview took place, the head of CILT Nigeria secretariat spoke on lots of sundry issues. There is certainly something in this interaction for everyone who is either a ‘transportant’ or who operates in the transport industry.
Some people have argued that we have too many maritime training institutions in the country, do you agree?
I would not say yes, we have too many; that will be a wrong assumption to say we have too many, but I think the major problem we have in the transport industry (not just the maritime industry) is the inability of practitioners and professionals in the transport industry to come up with a body, one that we can all accept as a professional body. When you say there are too many, how many are they? Well, the ones I know: we have the IOTA that is of course in the transport industry, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) which also covers the entire modes of transport, we have sub modes or modal institutes like the Nigerian Institute of Shipping, the Certified Institute of Shipping and then the Institute of Freight Forwarders of Nigeria. Don’t forget, Nigeria has a population of over 140 million people and transport is a major sector of the economy, we have also a lot of industries and you know, transport being a liberal professions we find other professions in transportation. Is it engineering, is it medicine, name them they are there, the traders, you find them in the transport industry, even the importers and exporters they make use of transport, by and large they find themselves in the transport industry. We also have freight forwarders; the ones we call clearing and forwarding in Nigeria; they are all part of the transport industry. Let us look at the other aspects like the public sector, the Customs use transport because they are supposed to know a number of issues that have to do with transportation, so I won’t say that they are many I think that we have even not met the number of institutions we should have but I want to warn here that it is not fragmentation that will help us. We should make way together and come up with one professional body like what we have in the Nigeria Society of Engineers.
Are you suggesting that all the institutions should come under one umbrella?
Yes, it is important, if it is possible. Well, if not the Nigerian factor where you see everybody wanting to be a king in his own house. Whether we like it or not consortium orientation is going on in the world, everybody is embracing it, we can see that united we stand divided we fall. Look People are pulling their resources and energy together in the world today, the global trend is no longer “I alone”. No, today, the in-thing is pulling resources and ideas together to win otherwise; there will be no win- win. What has disabled the developing world is that each person wants to hold his own kingdom and there is nothing in that kingdom, look at that kingdom that they are trying to hold on to its not even up to a one per cent of some other major aspect of the economy. I want to say that in Nigeria, the earlier we know or we come up with or let it be open that we need to come together to safe the transport industry, the better for all. This fragmentation in itself has not helped us, that’s why we are where we are today. I want to align with you that it seems we have too many of them, I don’t know if we have too many of them, its just that we don’t have quality training institutions particularly in the maritime mode of transportation.
I want to be specific about the CILT. There was a time it was making waves and well respected. Suddenly, the noise went down. What happened?
Well, you see, Sesan, CILT is an international body, Nigeria is just a branch. I know we have not less that between 35 and 40 countries of the world where CILT is represented. Again, the Nigerian factor has militated against the continuous development of CILT in Nigeria. We have had problems of mal-administration, we have had problems of not complying with standards and the world have been watching us and even some Nigerians who are credible have been watching us, we have not given out information the way it should be. This institute is supposed to be an information reservoir, this institute is supposed to champion advocacy on behalf of its members, this institute I believe is supposed to champion the cause of industry efficiency, this institute is supposed to proffer solutions to problems of the industry. The problem is that we have not done that in the past and for so many years and this industry is looking for a problem solver, the industry is not looking for somebody that will come and compound their problems or somebody who is not there to come up with what will solve their problems, so that has been the issue.
What plans do you have to turn things around?
We are doing a lot, first we are lunching a product called the one we call CILT industry connect, this product that we are lunching warehouses a number of issues. One, it warehouses knowledge and skill acquisition which has to do with what we call proficiency certification programme. What do we mean by this; we have so many members holding CILT certificate, how many of them are really experts? That programme under CILT industry connect is a three months programme which is going to teach people how to really do it, that is, the skill to do. We want experts, we want people holding our certificate that we can really refer to as experts that the industry can depend upon. We also have the Proficiency Certification Programme (PCP). This is a program that we expect that the industry will come to us looking for experts among the pool of those whom we are going to develop with these specific skills. This CILT industry connect is also going to come up with information dissemination, its going to come up with advocacy program, Now, there is another product that we are selling within that CILT industry connect, it is called CILT financial institution initiative. That is a programme that we are putting together in conjunction with financial institutions in Nigeria, we want to ensure that people that we take loan as far as transportation is concerned go through this program and when they go through this program, they are no longer going to operate like ignorant people, so the bank will be safe, the bank will be safe from the usual hazards associated with giving out loans. You know that the bank has given you loan and before you know it the money is no longer there, we will teach them the skill of managing those small scale enterprises at that micro level. So you see, Sesan, the CILT industry connect is going to come up with a number of industry- friendly programmes. Finally I want to say that we still have our own traditional training programmes, CILT has accredited six training institutions for its normal programmes and these normal programmes: are national certificate in logistics and transport, the international certificate in logistics and transport, the international diploma in logistics and transport and advanced diploma in logistics and transport We also expect that after you are through with these programmes, you also attend our Continuing Professional Development Programme. That will give you courage that you are not going to be one of those docile professional that after acquiring the certificate, you will not just go and keep it under your pillow and forget it. So, these are some of the things, like I said, we have a number of training institutions accredited by CILT international in conjunction with the Nigerian branch. They are : Lagos State University, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ladoke Akintola University of Science and Technology, we also have Ibadan Polytechnic, we have the Maritime Academy in Oron and the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology. All these institutions have just been accredited and I am sure that within the next couple of weeks the training will kick off.
What is the position of CILT on the proposed National Transport Commission?
You may not believe it Sesan. I did a paper on this. It is going to be a national workshop. The theme of that workshop is ‘economic regulation in the logistic and transport sector’. I try to look at the configuration of the transport commission, initially it was said to midwife between the ministry of transportation and the transport industry, but I then ask, midwife what? I don’t subscribe to elongating the bureaucratic process, it is there already and we should try to shorten it. So the concept of that commission, if it is to midwife, then we should not start it at all. But if it’s going to be for economic regulation in the transport sector like what we have in the communication sector, we don’t have that in the transport sector. The transport commission should be saddled with that responsibility. Today you don’t know how much you pay to Kaduna, transport fares change at will. Nobody is looking at the consumer, even at times when the supplier of service is also crying the consumer does not understand it. Government is bastardised and abused today, people say that government is not doing this, it is not doing that; all because you can not tell me that today they have a tracking system that will be sustained for a particular period. So, you cannot really do the prediction that between this year and that year, I have learned that my vessel is going to operate for so and so time, this is the amount I am going to get, the consumer will say that with this price stability that is on that I can predict that if I come I will pay so and so on marine transport, pay so and so on air, on road or rail, its not there and it’s a major problem. So if the transport commission will come and do that, it is good. But, if the transport commission is the one that will come and midwife between the parastatals and the supervising ministry i.e. the federal ministry of transport, No, I don’t subscribe to it. But I have also heard that it is going to have a professional aspect which has to do across the transport industry were the professional bodies in Nigeria will have a stake meaning that the certificate of those professional bodies will be accredited by the transport commission and they will now give them some recognition. I dare say since when government have become a professional body, professional bodies are bodies set up using the orientation of board of trustees, individuals come together and so the thing we can do is to professionalize the industry, its not government business so I think in the transport industry no body should deceive any so don’t come and tell me that transport commission will resolve the function or what is meant for the private sector again we are going to bugle it, it is better now that’s why am asking that all of us come together and look at it that what do we need to do with the transport sector as professional and come up with a body that of course we will all be proud of.
Some people have been angling for the Nigerian Shippers Council to transmute to the commission
What they (Shippers’ Council) are doing now, to me, mainly is a private sector driven function. Well, I look at Nigerian Shippers Council as the brain of the industry, that is what I think but their function is a bit narrow and if you say that is why they want more responsibilities, the question is: look at the human capacity, the knowledge acquisition, the skills necessary to actually start a body like the National Transport Commission, let me ask you Sesan you are here, do you even see the commission coming into fruition to the detriment of the government and the people? We should stop coming up with policies that will consume us, you know retrogression has been on the high side in the transport sector, you know it’s only in the transport industry that everybody claims to know it all, the historian will tell you I know it, the English person who read English in the university will tell you I know it, but the act and science of transport are there and they need to be studied and if you don’t study them you are just on your own That is why the transport sub sector of Nigerian economy has been in comatose for years, let me tell you, the vice president of CILT international came here and said to us “your transport system is the worst all over the world.
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