Anabaraonye Joseph [Registrar, FFAN]
Prince Olayiwola Shittu and his executives have actually contributed to the maritime sector; he led the association to the best level unlike what it used to be. His approach is in form of diplomacy as he carries everyone along from the members to the stakeholders and also the association has grown in line with the right members. So far so good, since he commenced office there is peace in the port. The exco is so far transparent, so we will say he should keep up the good work and congratulation for a year in office.
Anabaraonye Joseph [Registrar, FFAN]
Prince Olayiwola Shittu and his executives have actually contributed to the maritime sector; he led the association to the best level unlike what it used to be. His approach is in form of diplomacy as he carries everyone along from the members to the stakeholders and also the association has grown in line with the right members. So far so good, since he commenced office there is peace in the port. The exco is so far transparent, so we will say he should keep up the good work and congratulation for a year in office.
Mr. Richards Adeniyi [Maritime Reporter]
The President of ANLCA, Olayiwola Shittu is versatile and experienced, he and his executive members have done extremely well for the association and the maritime sector at large. Since he came in as the president of the association, he has been able to create an atmosphere for peace as the association has also grown in terms of membership. He is more than qualified to run the affair of ANLCA. He has been able to guide the members on how best to do the job, we are still watching him because, I know he will do more for the association and we hope to see more from him while in office.
Ajisafe Ademola [Agent]
I know Prince Olayiwola Shittu as the president of ANLCA; personally I have not seen what he has done, it only on the area of peace in the port but after that one, he has done nothing; no development from him at all. As for agents, it seems like we don’t have one voice that is why they are there to represent the interest of all, but nothing has come out of it .The Customs dictates the tone whereas we are supposed to challenge some sought of the unnecessary charges from the Customs, but nothing is being done. For the past 365 days, nothing has being done and that was what they promised us before they were elected into office. He is busy travelling to Abuja for reasons best known to him. The charge from the customs is just too high and it can cause difficulties to the end users. Look at the road where agents operate within the port complex, it is the duty of the ANLCA executives to cry out so that the landlords of the port can also tell the government about the situation, ANLCA has role to play to the development of the port because they are stakeholders. As a president he has not visited the various chapters since he assumed office, as a president you are supposed to go out to see what is going on in various ports where you are representing but not at all. Shittu has not addressed the various chapters of the association since he assumed office; he not even visited the terminals to know what freight forwarders are facing. There is a lot of problems in ANLCA, Shittu is supposed to carry everyone along, but he is not. So what are we now saying is that he has done nothing to the association, stakeholders and the ports in general.
Mr Ernest Charles [Freight Forwarder]
He has practically done nothing to the freight forwarding business in the Nigerian port and the association in general. The freight forwarders do not have a say and for that reason, the Customs dictates the duty for us .but if there is a true leader who is there to represent the interest of all the agents, I don’t think that we will encounter difficulties with the customs for payment or what so ever. We are common freight forwarders that cannot go out to the customs to demonstrate, but our leaders who can dialogue with the customs for the way forward in terms of our plight, but the president is not there for us. His one year in office has not affected the life of the ordinary agent in the ports’ the shipping companies are set to increase tariff and we say we have a president that has been in office for a year. If the president and his executives are able to oversee the problems of agent at the port, thing wouldn’t have gone the way it is.
Aare Sanni Shittu (Vice chairman, ANLCA BOT)
It has been a wonderful period, as a human being he has tried his best and we appreciate what they are doing as a team, but what they need now is just correction among the officers, they should be able to cooperate with one another to ensure that unity prevails among them. I will advice them to however know that there is still room for improvement, they should be able to do more because members are expectant of them, they must be able to deliver, we appreciate what they have been doing and at the same time, more is still needed. A year out of four years is still too little to access what anybody has to offer, but so far so good, we appreciate Prince Olayiwola Shittu and his team.
Nze Alloysius Igwe (Former chair, MMA, ANLCA)
It has been wonderful for the past one year; the association is now in the right direction, it is like putting a square peg in a square hole, it has been very wonderful and we are all happy for that, you will agree with me that the association is quite a very old one and for a very long time it has been in comatose because things were not happening the way they supposed to. Prince Olayiwola Shittu inherited a lot of problems and you don’t expect him within a year to start performing miracles, but within the short time he has been there, I think he is doing a great job, I am not the type that advice in public but I know that whatever he needs, I can always write and communicate to him personally, so we will all ensure that the association is restored back to its glory days.
Kingsley Anaroke (Maritime journalist)
Prince Olayiwola Shittu’s coming into ANLCA has been able to reposition ANLCA, because before his coming, ANLCA was in a serious comatose, there was nothing coming, then you had presidents coming in and not being active, some even became errand boys for some custom officers and even rival agents associations.But his coming has lifted ANLCA again, the only challenge they have not been able to confront is bringing the agents at the forefronts of redeeming the image or trying to sanitise the ports, they have tried this by forming the CRFFN but they are still toddling as far as I am concerned. Talking about JACOFF they came up with it as a platform of unifying various associations and make a statement, to me the issue of unification and collaboration is one thing that ANLCA has been able to achieve under Shittu, his coming has brought up JACOFF and trying to unify the agents, his coming has also given some teeth to CRFFN even though there are still problems here and there. I think one other area they have not been able to meet is trying to redeem totally the image of the clearing agents, the issue of funding is also a problem because as it is now, if you don’t have funds to manage the association a lot of people will fall into the same hands of giving in to blackmail and all manner of things, As a person, I think he has done his best, he has tried as much as possible, this is just a year, in the next three years, I think it will be more positioned.
Joseph Omobare (clearing agent)
Prince Olayiwola Shittu has always distinguished himself as a very great person, he knows the job, he is well educated and now under a year of his being in office he has been able to fulfill some of the promises that he laid down during his campaign. One thing I will advice the man and the entire executive is that they should be more aggressive when it comes to the issue of customs, a lot of our jobs are being delayed by customs for no reason at all, meanwhile in many cases it not the fault of the importers or the agent, it can be attributed to negligence, ineptitude, greed and recklessness of the government agencies. While all these abound, some of the chapters chairmen do not have time for members, they are only concerned about their own jobs and welfare, so I think in his next three years, there is still room for him to do more.
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