‘’For four years anything I did I must consult that book, which is the ANLCA constitution ‘’

In this concluding part of the interaction with the national president of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, he sheds light on the pre-election face-off with the association’s board of trustees. He also addressed other sundry issues. Roland Ekama was one of the journalists who spoke with him.

Tell us about the issue you had with the former president of the association?
I really don't want to address that but because we have kept quiet for so long about the issue, people may not understand what is happening. What we had was a disagreement and that disagreement was an unnecessary one because it is not normal for anybody whether in ANLCA, whether in government house, whether in town union for a president after one term to come back; knowing definitely that is an uphill task and that is why people are saying that he is using incumbent power of which we are also accused of. I will tell you that since you mention the former president which I am going to use as a reference point and it is not meant to gain any necessary advantage, but it is part of history. Now the former president came in 2004 and his tenure expired in 2008 and he went through what we went through – disagreement overdose, argument that this person has done four years why must he stay again when he has not being able to do anything, he should go. But the man felt ‘look at people that I am serving they are giving so much headache, thus they should take their presidency’ and he took a walk and 2008 and by 2010 based on our constitution, the Board Of Trustee administered the association and the BOT does not have executive capability based on our constitution because the board members are scattered all over the federation , there was no central place to be able to lead ANLCA, that was why before we came into office there was nothing on ground to show for and you know we were transiting from one office to another and ones the rent is due, we go to another place to continue. Meanwhile other associations were waxing stronger but within his tenure there was a constitution that was reversed and adopted at the end of his tenure and what we did when we came in because it is the constitution with which we were sworn in and there is no way that once you are sworn in with a constitution and rather you are supposed to defend the constitution. People took time to read the constitution; some misinterpreted what is in the provision while others say ‘no this is the constitution’ and that is why I call it disagreement. Since the inception of ANLCA unification; you know ANLCA grew from difference customs associations in different forms and it was during the time of Kamba that we unified and that was when all of us came together, Kamba became the second president after the NFF supporters club who is Dr Rauf Oladipo and from that time after Kamba you also know what happened some of you in the industry then you know the story with Kamba some of which were quarrel, fight etc until finally Peter Okocha was elected. Peter Okocha’s election which I was a member of was done in Port Harcourt by collegiate system and the system of our constitution is that we have chapters and as at today we have 17 chapters in existence and each chapter has seven executive members; they have their roles on how to administer their chapters and from this chapter executives by our constitution should emerge a national executives, also of these seven plus coordinators and legal advisers to make it 14. Peter okocha was elected by that collegiate system. I just want to let you know what collegiate system means in ANLCA and when he resigned after six months, his deputy Alhaji Aare Sanni Shittu was affirmed as president at a collegiate meeting ; I just want to understand and follow what we mean by collegiate. After Alhaji Sani Shittu, inua Mohammed came up and was affirmed president by collegiate. After him, the immediate president; Chief Ernest Elochukwu was elected; in fact that was one of the best democratic elections we did without any rancor and he was elected by collegiate. Then after that constitution was adopted in 2003, by 2010, we were elected by collegiate. I hope you are seeing the precedent? So how come now that we want to do another election, people suddenly said it shouldn't be collegiate that it should be annual general meeting.

What actually brought up the dispute?
The constitution that was adopted in 2003 was specific that elections into the Board of Trustee must be at a meeting of general members of the association specifically called for that purpose; which means that anybody who want to partake in the elections into the board must go round the country seeking for vote because it is a general meeting specifically called and you know what it takes to stand for an election, but when we are doing the election in February the process of our election in March and April had already started in January; so they came in February and they saw that the electoral body had a programme because the constitution says that election must be 90 days before the tenure of any administration and what they did outside the provisional constitution was to direct ASECO( our electoral body) to halt all processes at the BoT level and we said no because BoT does not have that executive power in the constitution and I was made to defend the constitution until the end of my tenure that we should continue. So it was like who had the authority, but the constitution says the national president shall be the chief executive officer of the association with various powers; maybe I will give you a copy before you leave to understand better. We decided to exercise those powers and we directed ASECO to go ahead. But people took it too far because there are some people no matter how good you are maybe out of envy or hatred they will not identify with anything you do at all and those were the people who also helped to sponsor those who won the election into the board with a proviso; which means when you get there, this is what we want to do, but unfortunately for the sponsor themselves they are not conversant with the provision of the law and you know Nigerians don't read. For four years anything I do I must consult that book, which is the ANLCA constitution .There was misunderstanding of who is right or wrong, they sought legal opinion and you know lawyers once you pay them you tell them what to write, so they wrote for them, but still emphasize that anything done after the 16th when our tenure will expire will be null and void. They know that anything they do that body is ready to offer us extension of tenure because there is provision of extension of tenure in our constitution, but it states that extension of tenure can only apply when election cannot be held due to crises or emergency for example if Nigeria is in flame will we be doing election? That was what we were foresaw. The detractors outside now wanted to create crisis to warrant the take-over knowing that our tenure will end on the 16th. They were lobbying, we were not quarrelling before our election was held on the 16th, but by AGM even at a time we are almost giving in saying if AGM will be the problem, let us do what they like but again at that time, no one was coming up to contest against me . They will continue to tell me that we don't have problem with you we will vote for you but let us use AGM but the trap was if we would have agreed on that AGM, ‘Alaba’ boys would have shown up,’ Idumota’ boys would have shown up claiming that they are members, creating confusion then police will thwart that effort and by the following date; 17th our tenure would have expired, they will now takeover to administer the association. There are some people who are so resolute that said that we cannot continue like this every time, ANLCA has built a reputation what will people say – if this executives in four year is doing something wrong by now you would have heard people saying we are no longer member of ANLCA, rather people of other associations will say we are back to ANLCA. And at the end of the day, election was conducted on the 14th not minding that the BoT as a body went to the press to take a full page in Sun newspaper to disown and even threaten their own members; which gave us the picture that the motive was not in the interest of the association, but probably those that were beating the drums to say that they want to dance more but we were resolute. They sought court injunction. And from that February till we did the election by April, they have gone to see where they can get an injunction and you know our judiciary has changed, they don't just give injunction again, they want to hear from the other party. Because they couldn't get an injunction, police could not stop the process of election and that was why the election had to hold. But at the end of the day elections have come and gone, mandate has been given. And in order to affirm the validity of the election, the highest organ of our association is the National Executive Council which comprises of four members of executives in the chapters in all of the federation, members of NECOM of which we are all board members and all members of the committees that are stated in the constitution, the board requested for emergency NEC meeting to sell the idea of the AGM and sell the idea of extension. And everybody at the NEC meeting said no, in fact they got so furious that electing you as the board just some few days ago is not for you to come and truncate the system we are going through, therefore there should be no extension, therefore there must be election, therefore it will not be by AGM and it should be the way we have been doing it and anybody who is not happy with it should go to court. Because the clause they are talking about is under section 22 but they didn't go to read section 21. You don't read constitution in an isolation and for those of us who are conversant we have a legal adviser who is also a licensed customs agents of 23 years experience, therefore which lawyer do we need outside again, but because people outside the board were full of mischief . Sometime some people will just look at you as president they will say why you? It is not that you have done anything wrong. They even come to say that Shittu if it is you, we don't have problem, but the people that surround, you we don't want them.

Who determines who you want?
How would Shittu succeed without the people around him? That is why I say it is a disagreement. We are still talking amongst ourselves ; in fact what is so funny about it all that many people don't understand is that the BoT as it is composed today they were duly elected, but our constitution says you are not an elected board member, until you are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and that was to be the first thing to do rather than going into the shallow boxing over election, because it is the president that will do that registration on behalf of the board, it is a requirement of law and among the nine of them the constitution didn't recognise that there should be chairman or secretary amongst member of the board, but you know that where two or three people gather one person must lead even up till now we cannot find a chairman of the BoT because among themselves they are polarised into different factions; this is among nine people and is not good for our association. Why I reframe since that time from talking is because we don't want to deepen issues, but rather we have been reaching out to each other and some of them call me and still refer to me as president. That alone is against what you see on paper. Some will say you people do not respect us etc. But respect is earned, it is never forced and if they see that I am the issue; what they should have done is quietly call me and tell me that they can’t work with me. After the first tenure people will still call me former president and if I do two terms they will put ‘ex’ in front of the president, because it is still the same thing, so what are we dragging. All we are looking at is to look for people in line with what we are planning. But be that as it may, I know we will resolve it eventually, there is no election that is perfect even Obama election in a very beautiful society where there have been at peace for 200 years, they also had problems in his second term. So we used the Obama style, by fast forward whatever we want to do and here we are.

As the leader of ANLCA, wouldn’t you rather explore political solution more than legal?
Those who went to court are not the board members; it is the mischief makers that went to court. But, until that board is register with CAC they can’t even sue and be sued; that is a lacuna that is hanging on the case and by May 16th the case will come up and we are going there because the facts of the case are there, they are ones that is pursuing that letter and you cannot tell a man not to go to court because the person believes he has the right. My Vice President is a very humourous person, he said when you see a child who wants to cry, as soon as you step on his leg the next thing you hear will be an outburst and the only way to placate that child is to allow him to cry, then when you are ready for him you let him know that things are not done like that. I know eventually reasons will prevail and after the first hearing, they are people that will make a u turn and no matter how sincere the lawyer is , if he knows he is going to lose a case , he will even tell his client to settle out court.