“I AM STILLTHE PRESIDENT OF IMAN” …Chief Onuchukwu James Clark (Founder/ President, IMAN)
Shortly after speaking with the factional president of the Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN), Chief Osita Okereke, his rival and the man whom many maritime sector stakeholders have known over the years as the president; Chief Onuchukwu James Clark called to state his own case. Chief Okoereke’s interview was published last week and in line with our promise, we hereby publish the second side of the IMAN story as told by its founder.
Tell us how the idea of importers association came up?
The idea of Importers Association of Nigeria came up through government formulating policies on the import sector without a single input from the importers themselves, we are always at the receiving end and most of these policies are completely against international trade facilitation. Based on this, we made enquiries and discovered that it was our clearing agents that are usually there to represent our interest, and whenever they are there, they do that for their own benefit. So in 2004, there was a directive from the President that all cargoes imported into Nigeria without CRI should be auctioned, we had no alternative because this is our source of livelihood, so we assembled together in Anambra state because majority of these consignments were in Onne, River state. We assembled in Anambra state under an umbrella known as Anambra importers and agree that I will be their chairman because of my political contact to the Presidency and that I am going to lead them to the federal government to negotiate our way out instead of leaving the agents to do it this time around. We began to apply political approach and politically, the problem was solved, when it was solved, you know in Nigeria there is freedom of association, then the association was not registered, but haven achieved that success of negotiating our way and ensuring that these consignments were released to the owners because we were able to convince the government that what we imported were consumable items and goods meant for commercial sales not arms and ammunition or dangerous weapons. We now reasoned that having done this in Port Harcourt and it now involves people outside Anambra and the Eastern region that it is important to set up an organization that will protect the interest of the Nigerian importers so that in the event of such cases, we will intervene, whether in the east, south, north or west, and that is how we came about the registration of the Importers Association of Nigeria and I was automatically elected as the president of the association, this was as a result of my ideas and because of my relationship in the government.
I am one of the enlightened ones in their midst, so today I thank God that importers in Nigeria now have a voice, we are no longer called faceless importers, today we are no longer called unorganized sector, we are now not only informed, not only organized but we are dully being represented in areas of policy formulation because we are now a household name.
Apart from your political affiliation, are you an importer?
Yes. I started importation as far back as 1987 when I was a very young man inside the main market in Onitsha, Anambra state; I was importing dry sell batteries, the name known today in the market as ‘flying tiger’ was my special product until I relinquished battery products, today I am not only the chairman of a company which deals in importation of different items, I am also the chairman of Sealord petroleum industry which is also into petroleum importation business, I am also the chairman of Stratabase constructions limited which deals on the importation of building and plumbing materials and equipment. So I want to believe that I am too qualified to represent the Nigeria Importers Association as president.
How did the crisis in the association start?
Personally I will not regard it as a crisis but as a human factor, why I will not call it a crisis is because it is between the leadership of the association, we are not being challenged by outsiders, and when I say leadership, this does not mean the national executives of the association, I am talking about board of trustee members, and I want to believe that board of trustees means an advisory council of the organization. These are the people I co-opted single handedly by convincing all my followers and other importers within the fold then that these people can advise us and they can lead us into negotiations if it is required, and that was when we had their name registered as BOT members.
Who are these people?
I am talking about Chief Osita Okereke, Gilbert Obi, Kingsley Chikezie, Alhaji Yar’Adua, ALhaji Bature and some others, we are eight in number as members of the board of trustees. The bone of contention now is that these BOT members who are not importers, who are just there to advice us, some of them who are desperate to rip the importers and use the opportunity, haven seen the acceptance of the organization in the industry, they look at it that they should use their positions to exploit the importers to deceive the government and misrepresent the importers, and that is where national executive members and other responsible members of the board of trustees says no it can not work. Today they have made us to see the value of the organization but from my own assessment, it is more than that, these three members of the board of trustees connived with some dubious criminals in the society to set up what is known as the ‘national task force to combat the illegal importation of arms, ammunitions’ and so on.
Are you saying that the task force is illegal?
It is illegal because the foundation is fake, it is illegal because it is assumed to be a private- public partnership initiative, it is illegal because it is expected to be importers association and federal government partnership initiative, it is illegal because the importers association as members were not dully consulted and we did not discuss about it neither did we agree on it, we held our board of trustees and national executive council meeting in Abuja like on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and these issues were not discussed, but by Friday, the so called task force was being inaugurated. I was opportuned to be there because of my position, I was called from the ministry of finance to come and represent the importers, when I arrived and they saw me they were all shocked, but everybody must accept any good measure that is geared towards sanitizing the industry, so I accepted it but where we disagreed was using the same task force to go into the field; instead of checkmating smugglers they were extorting money from smugglers, instead of collaborating and relating with government agencies in the port like the Customs, SON, NAFDAC and other constituted agencies in the port, they have decided to mount a campaign of calumny against the leadership of these organizations because they are desperately in need of extorting money from the industry. Based on the information given to them, they not only set up this task force, but also moved in to purchase vehicles to the tune of more than N270Mmillion on hire- purchase, when they were asked the means of payment that was when we disagreed and they said I had to be a part of it, I was given one land cruiser that is valued at about N16million, one Hilux jeep that is valued about N7million and another Hummer bus worth about N8million. I was offered these so that I can now lead them into how to criticize Customs, SON and paint them as incapable of doing the job, they are asked me to do that and I told them No, and told them “you people are not in the industry but I am a practitioner, and these are people that have done perfectly well to the development of the sector, we have an MOU and an understanding with them, we have been networking together and we are where we are today because we have been collaborating with them”. And when I refused to abide by their dubious proposal, surprisingly chief Okere said he is going to assume presidency of the association to enable him have control over the task force, when the members dully inaugurated by the ministry of financed refused to buy the idea, because they have reasoned and agreed with me that we need to partner with other stakeholders to achieve whatever we want to achieve, when they refused to abide by their idea of extorting money from the public, they now resolved and said that they have removed the chairman of the task force, the surprising aspect of it is that do they have the power to remove the chairman of the task force who was appointed according to them by the federal government. If this is federal government and importers partnership as they claimed, who is responsible for the logistics and other operational requirement of the organization, if it is a federal government task force when they make arrest do they have the power to prosecute? So you see why we are saying it is illegal, we are not saying it is illegal because the task force as the name goes is illegal, but the foundation, intention and operation so far is geared towards illegality and we can not subscribe to illegality and we will not be part of it.
You were accused of defrauding the association
I am hearing this news for the first time; it is a well known fact that from the inception of the association, it has not been generating money from any source. I have single- handedly financed the association and I have a commitment of over N50million, I have single- handedly financed the setting up of the association’s offices in the six geographical zones, I have funded the constitution and funded organizing of lectures, workshops, seminars and meetings of this association. Let me now come to the issue of the Hummer bus; in 2008 or thereabout when we entered into joint partnership with the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders on this same ask force issue, NAGAFF is to play a technical role and make some little inputs in terms of financing, NAGAFF donated a 504 saloon car to the task force and it is expected that the association also will have to make provisions for its moving around with the police to complement what we are doing, the association has no money, so I used my personal money to purchase a vehicle of N5.6m and donated it to the association, NAGAFF was there and other stakeholders were there as well to receive this bus, I did not drive this bus for one day, up till today, the bus is still in the hands of the association, where we are having problems is that since the association presently is having little sources of income in western zone, why don’t we put all our expenditures together so that we achieve something. But these men who are making these allegations are not importers, they have never been part of us in any meeting, they have never been there as BOT members except Chikezie who was like a handpicked boy to me, he is a mere errand boy in chief Gilbert Obi’s office, Obi is from the same community with me and I know what transpired before I was able to accept Chikezie as the secretary of the organization. I don’t know where the association had N1m to spend, not to talk of money to purchase vehicles, the records are there and NAGAFF and other stakeholders can bear me witness, NAGAFF provided us with a car and an office for technical relationship at Maybin street in GRA, Apapa and we had to provide an office also at the Trade Fair complex, in Seme, Idiroko, Kano and Port Harcourt. What I spent in the composition of that task force is not less than N15m and the records are there, so how would they accuse me of embezzlement when there is no money, who gave us the money? Did we have any donor?
Whose cause is IMAN fighting?
It is purely to represent the interest of all the Nigerian importers and represent them before the government, to be part of policy formulation on import issue, this is the reason for forming the association and we have a registered constitution that deals on it, so whatever I do today or intends to do tomorrow as far as the organization is concerned is in that constitution.
Do we really need this national task force?
What may be different is the name. What led to the setting up of the joint anti- smuggling task force with other stakeholders in 2008 was the accusation by the federal government that Nigerian importers are not only importing contraband or prohibited items, but we are being accused directly of kicking against the import guide lines, falsification of documents, concealment and so on, we wear the shoe and we know that all of us are not lawless people, and that was why we now decided on our own to sanitize our members and to educate our people and give a massive and intensive education that will convince our people that towing the line of the rule of law pays more than the line of lawlessness. That was what led us into setting up of the task force, but the purpose of the task force is not to go to the highway and be arresting people, it is purely to educate the Nigerian importers and let them know the right thing to do because it is assumed that most of these things are done out of ignorance, and we continue to say that it is not enough to organize seminars and workshops about import business in a five star hotel in Abuja, we also wrote a letter to the minister of finance and others for us to have a joint annual seminars and workshops plus a sensitization programme where we will take this campaign directly into their markets. For example if we are in the western zone, we may choose to go to Alaba to hold the seminar, if we are in Anambra state we will go inside the Onitsha main market. I want to tell you that the shops will close, people will gather and we will educate them, the culture will remain in them and they will toe the line of the rule of law, these are the major purposes of setting up the anti – smuggling task force campaign.
So far will you say that the association has achieved its objectives?
It has not; it is only when they call the national task force that they have achieved their objective. I read in your newspaper that they want to transform into a federal government agency, which means that they want to take over the job of customs because customs are statutorily authorized by law to do whatever they said they have come to do today, but what we on our own as importers association have come to do is to characterize with them by all of us moving together to educate the Nigerian importers to toe the line of the rule of law by total compliance to the import guidelines. We do not have the power to arrest and prosecute, but we have the powers to compel our members to abide by the rule of law and we can not do it alone but with different stakeholders, but this has shown you that they have different agenda and if they become an agency, importers association can not be an agency, it will remain an NGO and this is our position, maybe they have used the platform of the association to achieve whatever illegality they wanted to achieve but when we now said No it became a crime.
How many presidents does IMAN have?
We have only one president and the founder until another election is conducted.
I asked this because Chief Okereke is also claiming to be president
Somebody that was invited to be an adviser based on what he told us as the presidential candidate in this country and as the chairman of a registered political party, how can he suddenly leave his party and his movement to become the president of IMAN? Is he no longer interested in leading the nation? How can he abandon the position of an adviser given to him in the association to come and say he wants to be the new president, what is his experience, everybody knows Okereke and I may not be surprised today if people see him as a public nuisance, because it is totally out of what is expected of him, instead of being an adviser you are becoming a task force. I thank God today that by their fruits, you shall know them, I am a professional in the industry and I remain in the industry and I want to believe my people know who their president is. But one thing I am strongly convinced about is that Nigeria is not a lawless country, they will soon be arrested and prosecuted for impersonation.
What is your reaction to his threat to jail you?
From the first day that I opted out of their idea, he has been making such threats, but the funny aspect of it is that he will threaten me when I am not there, but behind the people he will be calling me on phone for reconciliation, I have witnesses that Osita Okereke has knelt down before me not less than three times that he is in trouble and that the dealer of these vehicles are on his neck and that why can’t I accept his idea at least to raise money and pay for these vehicles first and then we can go back to the drawing board, but I maintained my position and I said No, I have never toed the line of illegality and I can not do it now, I have a name in the industry, I am a practitioner in the industry and if I soil my hands today, automatically it will affect my business and my age-long built good name within the industry, Whenever I refuse to do his wish, he will be fuming, I am not threatened by whatever he may say, I have never been invited by the police, I have arrested them twice with the EFCC which is today investigating them, but they have never arrested me for once, I have arrested them with police from Alagbon and Panti, and I took them to EFCC, but, I have never been invited by the police because of their petition because they have nothing to say about me, if they say I embezzled money they have the right to approach the law enforcement agency, if they say I have embezzled money, they have right to approach the court, but as I am speaking to you today I have not only approached the court or law enforcement agency, I have also made it public that they are indicted of pipeline vandalization, fraud, illegal purchase of such vehicles and so many others in writing, but they have not done one against me in writing because what they have said orally can be denied but actions that I have taken can not be denied because the records are there.
How can this crisis be resolved?
I told you we don’t have crisis,
Someone else is parading himself as president and you said there is no crisis?
Time shall tell. I have told you the motive of doing that, he is not only parading himself as chairman of the organization, he even expelled the chairman of the task force, he is also accusing the custom comptroller general of abetting smuggling, he is also accusing the clearing agents. I tell you, he is a frustrated human being because we have refused to allow him to use his ill gotten vehicles to intimidate and extort money from our members and that has become a crime against him. So, like I told you that time shall tell, as a practitioner we are in the industry and the bible says that by their fruit you shall know them.
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