He is the western zone coordinator for the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and a political leader of the Igbo people in the maritime sector, he is one of the strong voices in the freight forwarding sector, and is presently vying for a post in the upcoming Igbo Maritime Forum election, Shipping Position Daily’s Dapo Olawuni caught up with him recently at the Tin Can Island port, Lagos. The encounter reveals his passion for the plight of the Igbo race in the maritime sector of the Nigerian economy.
He is the western zone coordinator for the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and a political leader of the Igbo people in the maritime sector, he is one of the strong voices in the freight forwarding sector, and is presently vying for a post in the upcoming Igbo Maritime Forum election, Shipping Position Daily’s Dapo Olawuni caught up with him recently at the Tin Can Island port, Lagos. The encounter reveals his passion for the plight of the Igbo race in the maritime sector of the Nigerian economy.
What is the rationale behind the formation of Igbo Maritime Forum?
Every ethnic group has an assembly point where they meet; there is no special rationale, the Igbo Maritime Forum as you know it today used to be known as the Igbo Maritime Front, and from there now we have moved to forum. So all the Igbos devoid of where they come from, all the Igbo indigenes in the maritime sector have decided to come together to chart their cause and discuss things as they concern them; most especially on how to promote the cultures and the tradition of the Igbos.
Are the Igbo’s not getting adequate representations in the scheme of things?
We are, there is this lukewarm attitude from one time or the other, they don’t want to show interest, and because of the economy of the country, you will want to put your house in order before you can say you want to go for a meeting, there are meetings that you will call and some people don’t even have money to attend the meeting, but they have the will to do so, so sometimes we don’t blame them, but we have adequate representation in the maritime sector, they are the highest in the sector.
We hear that the Igbos want to take over the leadership of ANLCA and CRFFN
It is not true, and we are not mixing Igbo affairs with any association affairs, anything that has to do with Igbos has nothing to do with associations and therefore it cannot be muddled or mixed up, they are not interwoven or related, you must be an Igbo man before you join any association, in association, every race is represented, in Igbo meetings only Igbo people are represented. Igbo maritime forum has nothing to do with associations, we don’t want to know if you are from ANLCA or from NAGAFF or from anywhere, the identity is only one and this is that you must be an Igbo man and nothing more than that.
What are we to expect from this upcoming election?
My people are asking me to represent them as deputy President General of Igbo Maritime Forum; you can remember that I am still the political leader of the whole Igbos in the maritime industry; as of today. When the election time is here we will go out and contest, we don’t want to do it to bring hatred or rancour, after the election, we will still remain one brother and that is our aspiration, the election will not be used to bring disunity among the Igbos.
What is the relationship between Igbo Maritime and other groups in the maritime sector?
It has been very cordial and we have been meeting, the only thing is that the day we have our Igbo cultural day we don’t invite any other tribe, and the Oodua have a way they do their things and we respect them, in fact we are emulating them because we have not even gone as far as the Ooduas, they speak with one voice, they come together to do their traditional and cultural things, the essence of all these meetings and the group is mainly to promote our culture and tradition that are fast being washed away.
What are your agenda and plans for your members?
The first thing is to promote our culture, we have a lot of our cultural values that are being thrown away, our dress code, the way we talk, the way we address our brothers. In Igbo tradition, you don’t take your brother to the police unless that matter is handled in-house and cannot be handled very well, but there are lots of things before you take your brother to the police, you have to try and settle it in-house first, we must promote love and peace among ourselves and this is what will preach, we have to exhibit a lot of kindness and love, the Igbo race is made up of so many tribes and different types of dressing, so on our cultural day, we showcase the traditional way that each tribe dresses and the most popular ones among them, these are the things that we need to revive before it dies finally and goes into extinction, we need to revive them and make people know that we have these things. We also have a lot of traditional rulers in this freight forwarding industry and we need to recognize them, we have highly- placed chiefs and we need to recognize them, because we don’t wear ranks, we have a way of identifying our seniors, so these are things we intend to bring back and that is why we cannot mix it with association politics.
Is the Igbo maritime forum only for freight forwarders?
You can only place yourself in a place at a particular time, if the military men want to have Igbo forum and the people in the Senate wants to have Igbo meetings and possibly the eastern governors wants to have meetings, it is purely for the people in that sector, the lawyers, the doctors, every other works of life can have their own forum, but this is the only one we have in the freight forwarding sector, so any other tribe either from the shipping companies or others that want to meet they are free to do so.
MR. ISAAC NDUKWE
Mr. Isaac Nduke is an indigene of Imo State; he has been in the business of freight forwarding for the past 22 years and is currently vying for the post of Financial Secretary in the coming Igbo Maritime Forum election.
“Importation of vehicles made Tin Can Island Port very rowdy” …Isaac Ndukwe
What led to the formation of Igbo Maritime Forum?
We started this issue of Igbo maritime as far back as 1996, I am one of the pioneer members, since then we have been trying to reposition it. As a matter of fact, this time around we have agreed that we have to give it a different dimension and put it in the fore front, our brothers, Oodua Maritime borrowed it from us. Now, we are coming up with election, with this, we want to put things in order, we have inaugurated our electoral committee to take care of the elections and they have made their position known to us and rolled out the criteria for aspirants. I am going for the position of financial secretary and I have met all their requirements, the election will come up by the second week of May. We have a lot of aspirants, who at the early stage thought that it is a child’s play, but as things unfold, it is assuming a different dimension; our big brothers that have made marks in this industry are now beginning to show interest. The problem we are having in the Igbo affairs is that our so- called brothers that have made mark in the industry don’t usually come out, they have nonchalant attitudes and they don’t always want to know what is happening, but this time around, I am happy that things are getting better.
Is it true that it is only when ANLCA election is close that Igbo’s gather together to oust the Yoruba’s in charge of ANLCA?
The issue is that since the establishment of Igbo maritime forum, we have not had a very cohesive and strong arrangement, the past leaders are in ad-hoc arrangement and on interim basis, so this is the very first time that we want to have a very holistic election where everybody will be involved. Though, according to your question, this was the early thought of our past leaders, but this time around, I don’t think it is like that, we want to give it a different face, and we want to push Igbo maritime to the forefront.
Tin Can Island Port is the most rowdy port, what do you think can be done about this?
We have conventional ports in Lagos which is the old wharf, it is the original port, Tin Can was a second- thought because of how things were going, because of the increase in the level of importation, so they looked around and said okay let’s have a second port and this was how Tin Can Island port was formed. It was because of the importation of vehicles that made Tin Can Island Port very rowdy, the arrangement here is not like Apapa, when you go to Apapa port, it is well organized, all the freight forwarders are well organized and they have their offices, you have to operate from your office as a freight forwarder, but here in Tin Can, most of the agents do not have offices and this is one of the problems.
What is your agenda for the Igbos in the maritime sector?
Why I want to be there is to make sure that things are done in a proper way, it is all mentioned on my campaign poster; accountability and honesty, I want to be part of a change in Igbo maritime, I want to make sure that Igbo maritime will be seen in a different level and that is why I want to be there.
Discussion about this post