Last week’s elections of chairman and vice chairman of the governing council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) again brings to the fore the sensitive question of the acceptable qualification(s) for members of the Council.
The gathering of council members at an eyebrow hotel in Abuja last week Thursday for the purpose of electing the Chairman and Vice Chairman that will succeed Mr Tony Nwabunike and Alhaji Hakeem Olanrewaju became charged when news filtered in that there were moves by some elements from outside the council to influence the outcome of the elections and that having apparently become obvious that the out-going vice chairman will emerged as the new chairman, some interests must be taken care of.
At that time, names like Dr Sam Onyemelukwe, Mrs Ann Ukpong, an unidentified northern appointee in to the council and Mrs Charity Ezenwa came up. Eventually, the battle was between Mrs Ezenwa; director of maritime service at the transport ministry and Dr Onyemelukwe; a member of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA).
As soon as the registrar, Sir Mike Jukwe read out the guidelines and called for comments, the flood gate of opposition (by freight forwarders) for the candidacy of Mrs Ezenwa was opened. And it was between those who one can aptly describe as gadflies in freight forwarding and members who are not practicing freight forwarders, but who becamemembers of the governing council by other qualifications rather than their being engaged in the logistics chain.
First to counter Mrs Ezenwa’s qualification was ANLCA chieftain, Chief Peter Obi who said categorically that: “Mrs Ezenwa is not freight forwarder by virtue of the CRFFN Act, Section20”. Of course, while making a case for the disqualification of Mrs Ezenwa, her opponent; Dr Onyemelukwe also pointed out that his opponent is a civil servant and not a freight forwarder. “Let us be guided by the Act and our conscience”, he said and facing his opponents he asked rather mischievously: Can you see yourself as freight forwarder and not as a civil servant?”
That position was strongly supported by another ANLCA member in the council; Mr C.A.T Agubamah who picked holes in the argument by some institutional representatives that having acted as the chief executive officer of NIWA and being a director in the transport ministry, Mrs Ezenwa is qualified to contest. “NIWA or whatever it is, doesn’t count here, the fact is that not all of us here are freight forwarders by profession, apart from this, Mrs Ezenwa will be overloaded by the necessity of her office in the ministry of transport, I therefore call on her to step down”.
In their contributions, the national presidents of both NAGAFF and ANLCA, Mr Eugene Newke and Prince Olayiwola Shittu were not too distant from the positions of other ‘practitioners’ who believe that CRFFN is a creation of the parliament for the freight forwarding practitioners. Nweke was however unequivocal when he told the gathering that the CRFFN Act does not favour the candidacy of Mrs Ezenwa.
It was the submission of both the immediate past national president of ANLCA, Chief Ernest Elochukwu and that of the out-going chairman of the CRFFN governing council, Mr Tony Nwabunike that finally nailed Mr Ezenwa and apparently forced her to stand down her ambition.
Apparently pissed- off by the effrontery of the top civil servant who was appointed to represent the ministry of transport in the CRFFN council, Nwabunike pointed out that “the office of chairman or vice chairman of the council is very tasking for a civil servant, as civil servant you won’t find enough time”. Turning to members of the council, if we don’t have qualified practitioners, then we will call for a review of the Act”. And in a veiled reference to her position as director in the ministry, Nwabunike advised that Mrs Ezenwa should remain as a supervisor and allow freight forwarders to conduct their elections”.
With that, the stage was set for the woman in the eye of the storm to bury her ambition and she did that with a strong conviction that the council is not being run the way it should be. “There has been a lot of mismanagement in the out-going governing council”, she alleged even though she was part of that team. On her qualification as a practicing freight forwarder, she told the gathering that she anticipated that the argument would come up; just as she pointed out that she was not desperate about being the vice chairman.
There is no doubt that the argument as to who is qualified to be referred to as a freight forwarding practitioner will continue to resurface within and outside the council, and between a licensed customs agent and others who by virtue of the CRFFN Act are also members of the family.
The same argument has come up even as the identities of new ministerial appointees were unfolded last week. There were questions as regards the pre-occupation of some of the zonal representatives.
Nomenclature or not, majority of those who today want to be addressed as freight forwarders are licensed customs agents.
Freight forwarding practice, as captured by the Act is ambiguous and open-ended, such that anyone can lay claim to being a practitioner; either by possession of relevant qualifications or by being involved physically in the supply and logistics chain in any of the entry points.
Unless this ambiguity is corrected, there is the possibility that in not-too-distant future, the so-called non- practitioners will be the determining factor in the governing council of CRFFN.
As presently constituted, non-practitioners can form an alliance with other nominees of the minister and can through that, effectively have their ways in the council. There are only eight elected members in the 25-member governing council, the remaining are appointees of the minister. Even when the remaining five from the three professional zones are elected, there will only be 13 elected members in a 30 member council.
If Mrs Ezenwa (a civil servant- nominee) had not being prevailed upon to step down, she would have defeated Dr Sam Onyemelukwe (a practitioner) and the lesson would have been learnt.
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