Just like we wrote on our ‘People and Places to watch in 2012’ in our first edition in 2012, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, the founder of NAGAFF is very unpredictable. He has no permanent friends, he is your friend today and tomorrow, he fires shots at you, depending on what his interests are. Last week, he spoke to some journalists about issues bordering on freight forwarding. We bring you excerpts from the interaction.
On security of the waterways and creation of presidential port monitoring committee
Just like we wrote on our ‘People and Places to watch in 2012’ in our first edition in 2012, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, the founder of NAGAFF is very unpredictable. He has no permanent friends, he is your friend today and tomorrow, he fires shots at you, depending on what his interests are. Last week, he spoke to some journalists about issues bordering on freight forwarding. We bring you excerpts from the interaction.
On security of the waterways and creation of presidential port monitoring committee
First of all, I want to say that the government has the statutory responsibility as far as security of lives and properties are concerned, and if that be the case, the same government has the prerogative to apply any tactics to perform its statutory functions which are the function of protection of law and order, function of maintenance of law and order, but our worry now is that if we now allow the security of the state on an individual hand, it is likely to conflict with the statutory functions of the Navy and so on, also, to what extent can we say that these people are better equipped than the Nigerian navy to perform their functions. I have always said that if we really want to run this country, we need to use institutional arrangements to run it, this idea of committees, for instance we now have presidential port monitoring committee, this is what Okonjo Iweala does not know, the tag there is that it is a presidential directive, but it cannot last. Committees and task forces are hard-hoc arrangements, they are make-shift arrangements for intervention purposes and we are in a democracy, so we don’t need all that, what we need to do is to strengthen the institutions like the Customs, NPA, NIMASA, Nigerian Navy and so on, and find out from them what their problems are. Another aspect is that, people are worried about the cost of encouraging a private security outfit, people are seeing it from the aspect of corruption, I keep saying that the issue of corruption is something that all of us have to create awareness of and do away with, the government itself must also take the lead by creating the will and let people know that the law is no respecter of anyone.
On the N1trillion Customs revenue target
We have always been an advocate of the fact that revenue is a function of cargo, if don’t have cargo, you don’t have revenue, Nigeria is an importing nation and if that be the case, the more we have cargoes coming into Nigeria, the more government can collect N1trillion in a year, to me it is feasible, N1trillion can be collected by Custom, there is no doubt about it, those of us who are very close to Custom know that the service as being led by the current management team is doing so well, they were given N500billion, they hit it and they are moving on, I am sure they must have made input before such target could be given to them. This has to do with leadership in the Custom if you ask me, from my vantage position, the efforts the Custom is making now is in blocking all the loop holes where revenue leakages can be noticed and they need the corporation of all of us.
Issues bordering on the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN)
Section 10 of 3rd schedule makes it very clear that membership of the CRFFN does not portray you as a public person, I will not want to say much but I am just telling you that we have gone back to court and I am aware of it, if I tell you I am not aware of it, then I am deceiving you, but then the role we are going to play and the role people like me are going to play is to make sure that the council does not wreck, you saw the day I went there to register and they called you all that I have come to verify, I said it then that there is no more problems so we should move forward, but there are people inside the council that do not want it to go anywhere, that’s why we must be appreciative of the registrar of the council, that is why we must be appreciative of the present chairman of the council, every freight forwarder must rally round them, because there are sets of people parading themselves as ANLCA members who thought they could transform the council to another association, this is not feasible and they know it, from Tony Nwabunike, Ernest Elochukwu, Henry Njoku, Peter Obi, Sam Onyemelukwe and the rest, for them they see the CRFFN as ANLCA, but this will show you the little mind that they have, it’s very simple, you should know that the CRFFN is the baby of NAGAFF, I told some of them that were at the induction ceremony that they should still go and look for Lucky Amiwero, I am not asking them to look for him because he is still the president of council of managing directors, there is already a substantive president of council of managing directors, but there are people that if you get them together, they can give direction to the council as opposed to what we see in the council today. The good thing you are supposed to know about the council is that the current chairman of the CRFFN is not from ANLCA, Otunba Moshood Tijani (TIJACO) is not ANLCA, Mike Jukwe is not ANLCA and that is why you can see the progress, immediately Tony Iju left the council, you can see the level of changes, that shows you that the hand of God is in the council, so what would have happened if Hakeem Olanrewaju is an ANLCA member, what would have happened if Tijani is an ANLCA member? Then we would have been marking time, we you hold the property of time and you hold your hands up, when it gets to a point you drop your hand, the hand is dropping now, ANLCA took it and held it there, but we were watching them, but the hand is dry now and its getting down and lowering more and more because the council has a job to do; which is to liberate the freight forwarders, liberation in the sense that we are professionals now, just like any other profession, so we can stand anywhere and challenge anybody at all levels, and that is why the emphasis on capacity building in the area of training becomes very important and I am happy with the way the registrar and the chairman are going about it. As regards the council being a parastatal of the government, I won’t say much because the case is in court; very soon, you will find out that those who are trying to use the council to commit crime will have themselves to be blamed.
The current president of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu is somebody that has something upstairs, he is not part of these people that I have mentioned, he is a new ANLCA man, we are good friends and we are talking, he knows the relevance of the council and he is working, he is under serious pressure, when you are in government and you have people surrounding you that do not agree with your principles and what you want to do, but he has the backing of NAGAFF and we will support him at all levels, I know he is at war in ANLCA even though he is their president, because he has a will that will clear the road for other young freight forwarders. The CRFFN is the biggest employment opportunity for Nigerians, the essence of the council is to create employment for young freight forwarders, a day will come after we have established our council properly that some of these foreigners will not be able to practice here, we are getting to it, only that some of these people in the council will have to fizzle out, when they leave, then we will have new intakes into the council and nobody will go and rig elections into that council anymore.
Concerning the court case with the CRFFN
NAGAFF’s court case is no longer there because it has been decided, it was from the NAGAFF case that the court made an order over a case that is not before the court, it is enough ground for us to go to appeal, the court said we are time barred; which means that the time we came for all these relieve we are asking for was out of time, this means that the court has no jurisdiction to hear our case, so if you say you don’t have jurisdiction to hear our case, why did you make a pronouncement that the CRFFN is a parastatal of government, you can see something is wrong.
How will you access freight forwarding last year and this year?
The CRFFN is an entity that is a regulatory agency battling to take its proper position so that it can give out directives as to modern freight forwarding practice, but NAGAFF as an umbrella body of freight forwarders in Nigeria we are doing our best. We have been very peaceful and am sure you have never heard us going on strike, this means there is peace, the normal problem in the port has to do with efficiency of the port, the terminal operators are doing their best as far as we are concerned, because they are trying to increase the number of their structures and equipment.
On night operations at the port
I don’t know why we keep talking about this, you can stay inside the port for 24 hours and do whatever you want to do, but you should know that the highway in Nigeria at night is dangerous, and do you have insurance that you can move a container belonging to someone else, if they snatch it from you, how will you pay back, so, freight forwarders may not be keen in moving cargo at that hour of the day, but I believe as the security state of the country improves, I am sure it will change.
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