Perhaps it is right to start this perspective taking a cue from a similar one written in September 2020. The Comment was titled: “Are There No Elders in ANLCA or Are They All Snoring?
In that comment, we asked a rhetorical question: “Has someone cast a spell on the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents? Our answer was that, “even though it appears so, but, it is obviously not so. It is not a spell that has held the association down for years. It is pride, greed and ethnicity and ineffective leadership”.
In case, we have forgotten, the crisis that has almost killed ANLCA did not start ‘today’. But, truth be told, it is a fallout of the election that brought Mr Tony Iju Nwabunike and his co-executives to power in 2018.
The face-off which has seen various interests go in and out of courts and in and out of police stations, is sadly a fall-out of an unwritten part of the association’s constitution.
ANLCA’s present travail is fuelled by its penchant for zoning and pandering to ethnic considerations in the choice of who occupies elective positions in the association, be it at the chapters, zones or at the national level.
It is unwritten that positions must rotate between tribes, and that positions must be shared between the two ethnic nationalities that dominate the association, that is the Yorubas and the Igbos. Sadly, this is the source of the crises, which has torn the association’s Board of Trustees into two factions, and which has also created factions in the National Executive Committee (NECOM). This unwritten law presupposes that there are no other tribes in the association, and even though they exist, they stand no chance!
We can proudly state that, no maritime media organisation in Nigeria has devoted as much of its space to finding peace among the factionalised members of ANLCA. We do this as a social responsibility.
About two years ago, this newspaper pleaded with the then-President; Mr Tony Nwabunike to rise above all partisanship and considerations in the larger interest of the association. He threw this advice away!
Again, on September 5, 2022, we wrote an Editorial with the title: “Our final recipe for peace in the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents”.
In that piece, we wrote that, “Were it not for the controversial tenure elongation via an equally-controversial Annual General Meeting in Owerri, Imo state sometime in December, 2020, the tenure of Tony Nwabunike as President along with his executives ought to have expired”.
At a point when we saw a descent to anarchy in the association, we called for its proscription. Yes, we did and we gave reasons.
No doubt, ANLCA may have (by this protracted crisis) dragged itself into an abyss that is difficult to extricate from.
In getting to this abysmal level of apparently irreconcilable differences, the association lost its relevance, respect and honour in the nation’s maritime and allied industry. At a point, it had two parallel executives led by two Presidents. It also had two Boards led by two Chairmen. It also had parallel executives in some chapters.
Sadly, when the battle is over, the grounds that have been lost, the respect and honour that have eluded ANLCA for about five years, may require a much longer time to be regained.
So we are glad that at last, the ‘elders’ have risen-up to the occasion. The calibre of persons who attended last week’s peace meeting in Abuja is indicative of the seriousness of the assignment. They met under the auspices of Customs Consultative Council (CCC).
Apart from the key gladiators, the list of attendees included: Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju (who initiated the meeting), retired Deputy Comptroller General of Customs; Austen Warikoru, retired ACG Liman Bello, Mrs Chinwe Ezenwa, retired Comptroller Dimka Victor, Alh. Inua Mohammed, Dr Eugene Nweke (who acted as Secretary.
Other critical stakeholders in attendance were: Chief Peter Eloka Okocha, Sir Ernest Elochukwu, Prince Shittu Olayiwola, Barrister Hassan Bello (who was Special Guest of Honor), Eze Damian Obianigwe, Chief Oye Ariyo and Mr Toyin Odeyemi.
We are quite delighted that the meeting was able to make serious inroads and set new and impartial guidelines on the way forward.
Perhaps, aligning with the long-held position of Shipping Position Daily, the meeting of these eminent persons affirmed that, “polarization crept into the association due to factional differences which manifested into primordial sentiments”.
The resolutions that were arrived at after the meeting may appear stringent, but it remains the only partway to a new ANLCA.
The meeting agreed that: Members of the presently constituted ASECO should continue in office subject to confirmation by the CCC that all members of the commission hold valid licenses. It also agreed that the Board of Trustees as presently constituted by the CRFFN meeting should continue in office subject to the verification of the members’ licenses by the CCC pending the election of a new Board by ASECO within the earliest possible time. It was also resolved that, ASECO should conduct a new NECOM election within one month from the date of this meeting, 19th of July 2023.
For members of ANLCA who held sway as NECOM and BoT members and refused to let go, even when the association required reasoning and sacrifice, perhaps these wise words from the great Abraham Lincoln is apt.
Having tasted power, Lincoln wrote: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”!
The truth is that all those who dragged the association to this abyss, you have all failed your association.
It is about all of you that, John C Maxwell wrote that: “Character makes trust possible and trust is the foundation of leadership. You have all erred here. You all displayed characters that elevated self above ANLCA.
.If this last effort by the CCC fails, it may well be the last time that ANLCA will have the opportunity to resurrect.
