How Can The Election Crisis In ANLCA, Western Zone Be Resolved?

Hon. Frank Aliakor (P.A to Apapa Chairman, ANLCA)
The present ASECO wants to hold a credible election that is devoid of crisis but some of our brothers from the Yoruba maritime group are somehow proposing the idea that they are being marginalized and that the Igbos are taking over the whole positions. To me it should not go along any ethnic line, what we do in ANLCA is: we conduct elections and that is why the association is different, it is the only association that has been operating a democratic system over the years and it has been working for us. But this time around, at the ASECO which is being headed by Alhaji Inua Mohammed, its not as if he can not do the task, but he is trying to be very careful, he wants to do it in a way that nobody will complain and that its done in an unbiased way that is why they are taking time.

However, for us to have a smooth election, our people have to be reorientated, they need to be told what is in this industry, its not a do or die affair, it is based on tenures, when one tenure ends, another starts, the idea of using rogues to attack themselves is not necessary.

Emmanuel Tobi (Fin. Sec. ANLCA, PTML)
The blame for the problematic elections is that of the chairman of board of trustees and the ASECO chairman. I think they are not experienced; Alhaji Inua Mohammed is not experienced because he has conducted elections two times for PTML and Tin Can but he failed, he is supposed to check himself and find out what the problem is. The problem of the ASECO is a very simple thing, what the chairman is supposed to do is to screen those who are contesting so as to know if they qualify for the election, but he never did that, instead he started taking money and looking the other side while some people are bring their friends from other associations to come and contest. You are bringing people from another association who have never been in any committee to come and contest for election in ANLCA, how do you think the people there will feel.
For me, what I think could be done is to dissolve all chapters for now and install another interim in the entire western zone, and for those who are contesting, there should be proper screening before they go into the elections.
Also, they should dissolve the ASECO that is conducting the elections because so far they have failed. Also, it is not the duty of the board of trustees to conduct chapter elections, they are to conduct national elections so when the president comes in, he will then conduct chapter election.

Alhaji Abdulakeem Akanji (Makson maritime services Ltd)
Everything still bores down to the problem of tribalism, in the east you can not see a Yoruba man becoming chairman or head, likewise in the North, but here in the western zone, they allow everybody to be a partaker and yet they want to run the Yorubas under the mat and make them irrelevant; this is not possible. The way out for ANLCA is for the three zones to come together and formulate a regulation that everything should be based on equal representation.
For the election to be free and fair, we have to be sincere to ourselves, sincerity in the sense that who are the people that wants to become chairman and what are their qualities, majority of them will campaign now but when they get there, they will only mind their business leaving other people to suffer, whenever you have a problem and you call them to come and help, they will charge you money and sometimes even snatch your importer from you.

Alhaji Abdulrasaq Arabambi (Maritime stakeholder)
The problem which we are having is about our leaders, they are not sincere and they are corrupt, if they can carry everybody along, both members and non- members, we will have limited problems. I don’t have any interest in the leadership; the only chairman that we know is doing well is Abiodun Ogunfowora at Brawal terminals: the rest of them are just selfish.
The reason why it has been difficult to conduct western zone elections is because our leaders are not being sincere, if they are not seeing something in the system; they will not be killing themselves to get there. If they cannot carry everybody along, there will continue to be problems over the election and the hic- ups will continue. The bottom line is that it is only when there is accountability that there will be progress.

Kennedy Nwoke (Omokas Nig Ltd)
The only solution that I can say is that let the ANLCA leaders and chieftains put their heads together and bring out good agents who can lead the association because there is corruption in the system. When they are contesting for the post, they promise all sorts of things, but on getting there, they work for themselves and their agency, so it’s a serious problem that has extended to the rest of the chapters.

The solution to the problem is to have or look for a God- fearing fellow to occupy the place, you cannot take factionalism away from ANLCA, and you can only minimize it. You can do this by educating the members about the existing laws, and without this we will continue to have the problems.

Ezekiel Ejabukwa (Freight Forwarder)
ANLCA problem is not a small one; it is a very enormous one and it started with corruption in the system and other ones like tribalism and power tussle. It is only members that own license that can vote or contest, so these are some of the issues causing the problems.
The only way out of the problem is just to have a normal election, since we have agreed that only people that have license should be voted for and is eligible to vote, so the solution is to allow them to go and vote for whosoever they deem qualified, we all know that without chapter election, there cannot be election into the national body.