Several months after it elected its National Executives Committee (NECOM) members, the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) also recently elected new members into its Board of Trustees (BoT).
The new BoT members are: Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, Chief Kingsley Offor, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Utai, Chief Ernest Elochukwu, Adeola Mummuney, Chief Sunday Momoh, Chief Dayo Azeez, Tunde Awonuga, and Chief Dennis Okafor. They all campaigned under the umbrella of Group of 9, and they won.
Instructively, a former Vice Chairman of the ANLCA BoT, Chief Ozor Chukwura, a former Acting President; Dr. Kayode Farinto and Mr. Eniola Igbarola, also a former BoT member, all lost the election. In like manner, Otunba Babatunde Mukaila, a prominent aspirant and former National Secretary, was disqualified, just hours before the election.
In a manner suggestive of a grand design to wipe out any traces of opposition, albeit in a legit manner, which is permissible under a democratic dispensation, these top ANLCA members lost out.
With the conduct of elections into the BoT concluded, one can affirm that the constitutional organs of the association are now in place at the national level.
This is apparently the best thing that happened to ANLCA since about 2018, when the immediate past NECOM took over.
No doubt, the association has had serious problems. The first sign that all was not well was brought to the fore by this newspaper, in our Editorial Opinion on April 29, 2019; that was about one year after the leadership of the association was handed over to Mr Tony Nwabubunike as its National President.
In that Editorial which we aptly titled: “ANLCA’s one year of Tony Nwabunike’s ineffective leadership”, we recounted the genesis of the crisis, that was just brewing as at that time. We stated clearly that it predated Tony Nwabunike.
We traced the genesis to be the violation of an unwritten part of the association’s constitution. For years, perhaps decades, it has been accepted that positions must rotate between tribes, and as such the positions must be shared between the two ethnic nationalities that dominate the association, that is the Yorubas and the Igbos.
It is a fact that during the tenure of Tony Nwabunike, and even when he ‘abdicated’ and handed over the reins to his Vice; Dr Kayode Farinto, there was no love lost among the leaders of the association, from chapters to zone and to the national executive, and most disturbingly, the Board of Trustees (BoT).
What actually started as a mere issue within the association’s BoT, and between two combatants for the board’s headship; that, is Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha and Chief Henry Njoku, eventually snowballed into a five year ‘war’.
We can proudly state that, no maritime media organisation in Nigeria has devoted as much of its space to finding peace among the deeply-factionalised members of ANLCA. We did this as a corporate social responsibility.
About four years ago, this newspaper again pleaded with 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 yet another Editorial with the title: “Our final recipe for peace in the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents”.
In that piece, we posited 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 an alarming descent to anarchy in the association, we called for its proscription. Yes, we did and we gave reasons.
We boldly recall that, it took trust in the leadership of Nwabunike’s predecessor in office; Prince Olayiwola Shittu, his competence and transparency to rebuild rebrand ANLCA.
Sadly, the transformation that ANLCA that had witnessed under Prince Olayiwola Shittu went down, as a result of the infighting.
We saw as the doors that were widely opened for ANLCA during the leadership of Prince Shittu, gradually closed, owing to the protracted crises.
While the seemingly irreconcilable differences lasted, 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.
But just when everyone thought it was all over for the association, the Customs Consultative Council (CCC), an eminent group of stakeholders came to the rescue, and the rest as they say, is history.
Yes, peace eventually returned to ANLCA in 2023, but it came at a price. The truth is that all those who dragged the association to the near-abyss failed the association. You have all erred. You all displayed characters that elevated self above ANLCA.
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: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”!
Congratulations to those who were recently elected as BoT members. Now you have the privilege of joining the NECOM of your association, to complete the rebuilding process.
Just as we told the NECOM members after they were elected, your assignment is also as easy as you chose to want it to be. It will be easy if you are selfless, transparent and erase the dichotomy which five years of acrimony had created.
We told NEC0M at that time that, their assignment would be a difficult task if they chose to alienate those who were not on their side in the build-up to the elections.
The G-9 who have now metamorphosed into BoT members, may have a rancorous tenure if they do not embrace transparency, honesty, all-inclusiveness and selflessness.
Yes, grounds have been lost, while respect and honour had eluded ANLCA in the past years, and it will require a purpose-driven leadership (NECOM and BoT) to regain lost ground.
After the NECOM elections, attention will now be drawn to conducting elections in the chapters. As we have always appealed, ANLCA leadership (at this period of healing) throw its arms open to embrace all.
The remaining elections should not be used to settle scores, it should not be used to further emasculate perceived opponents. Rather, both NECOM and BoT should use it to apply a soothing balm to the wounds that have started healing.
