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Mrs. Ify Anazonwu-Akerele is the former Director General, Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS). In this exclusive interview with MMS Plus, she explains the current state of the Chambers, narrates how it all started, analyses the Nigerian political terrain and unveils her reason for vying for a place in the National Assembly.
Excerpts:
The recent report published by MMS Plus seems to have created some sort of unease within the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS). Are there any clarifications you want to make on this?
You should have talked to me before putting that out. The Chamber of Shipping is not sleeping. I had approached Chief Adebayo Sarumi to come and take us out of the doldrums since we lost the former president, Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe. I brought Otunba Kunle Folarin to use his maritime expertise to give the Chamber a structure to progress with. I wanted to leave the Chamber but I couldn’t leave it in such state. I had to force Otunba Folarin to come in but the Chamber is not sleeping. It is very slow because there is a lot of restructuring ongoing. The Chamber has to return to what it used to be; which is an advocacy platform and a trade facilitator. If you had called me, you would have avoided this wrong impression about the Chamber. I know that in the maritime sector we are like a big family, once there is a problem it can be rectified. The report was not completely right because a lot is happening at the Chamber.
What is happening now? Are you still the Director General of the Chamber?
No. I have resigned but I’m still very much involved because we were not able to get a satisfactory candidate when we carried out some exercises. We are starting afresh to source for new candidates for interviews. It is not easy to convene an interview panel especially when our board members are all over the country. At the moment, there is an Acting Director General who is trying to reorganize the Chamber and I’m helping him as much as I can. I’m still working on giving him a thorough and complete handover notes that would enable him take the Chamber forward. Otunba Folarin has also come up with a very brilliant idea and a wonderful structure and roadmap to work with and we are very hopeful.
I understand that there is a slide in membership profile and in terms of revenue. What accounted for this?
This started happening before Chief Sarumi came in. it was one of the reasons why I ran to Sarumi to come and help. The former president, Mike Akhigbe had a huge plan which we were waiting for him to implement before he passed away and we found ourselves in the middle of an ocean when he died without achieving the target.
Subsequently, we started looking for someone with the same passion of the Late Akhigbe and the successor must also be a maritime veteran. That was how I sourced for Chief Adebayo Sarumi. He was invited and it took a lot of pressure to get him to agree. He said he is not a razzmatazz person and he would take things one at a time. That is his system, it’s how he works. Please make sure that people know that the Chamber is not sleeping. It’s only in a process of being restructured. I can assure you that when the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping returns, it will be with a bang.
Do you have a time frame as to when the Chamber would be fully operational?
The Nigerian Chamber of Shipping would be back in full swing in the next six (6) months.
I understand that you have been headhunting and that there is a particular person you wanted but the person promised and didn’t show up.
It wasn’t head hunting. If we were headhunting, we would have gotten somebody long ago but the president said no, he wants things to follow the due process. The consultants are doing a very good job with the interviews, but I personally advised that they should give the job to a young person because I know it’s a very strenuous work. That’s why I resigned.
How has life been since your exit from the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS) and your venture into the political life?
I moved into the political arena because I felt I had something to offer to the maritime sector and my community. I always liked community development, advocacy and anything that improves the knowledge base within these sectors. My major course of study was Sociology so you can understand my love for community activities either on the global level or nationally. This is why I passionately grew the the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping to the level it got to. I had been there for 11 years and I felt that it was time to move on.
As an advocacy person and with an understanding of the challenges in the maritime sector, I felt that from the National Assembly I would be able to help draft a lot of bills that would address areas that were neglected. I got to understand the Cabotage law and I knew that the law promises a lot but it was not successful and I knew inside out what I needed to make sure the Cabotage law was successful.
Hence, I was so bent on getting in. I had a lot of support from members of the Chambers of Shipping and a lot of them gave me money to go for any campaign to show that everybody wanted one of their own there.
So, that is what pushed me. I wanted to take the relevance of the Chamber to another level as it would be a strong advocacy platform and when I speak for the Chamber at the National Assembly, the Chamber of Shipping will back up what I am saying and give empirical evidence so that is why I transited. I still believe that I will be a voice for the sector from the parliamentary angle. I have not given up but you know these things, you have to learn as you go along.
So how would you describe the political family and the intrigues that go with the political drama?
It’s extremely complex and very immature. It has not reached the maturity level that I will like it to get . It’s extremely subjected. I wonder why some run for office; some people don’t have an agenda for the people they are representing. You can see what is happening about the budget paddling issue. It is beginning to reveal that a lot of them seem to go into politics for their personal gain not even to help their community, just to be rich. That is why I said it is still very childish, basic and subjective and that is what I have found. I had to keep what I had in mind to myself.
Sometimes when I asked them about their program for the community, some will say that they just want to get in there and make sure they put aside N2million for them. By the time I go in, it will be difficult for me to have that attitude because all eyes will be on me.
Does it worry you that we have some invasion into the maritime industry, which is bringing people with no experience into leadership?
Politics make sure that this is what happens; unfortunately we have many maritime people that go into politics. So if they are going to bring anybody into the maritime sector, it is to compensate for their hard work towards supporting the party. What have I done for that party that will justify a thank you? It’s like some kind of gratification.
Secondly, before I got into the maritime sector, I did not have a clue. I was in the administrative sector, international relations and research. I had the ability to coordinate, so if they put somebody like my sister that is at NPA, she shows the ability to coordinate and assimilate.
She can sit down on a table with expert of each section and when they give her feedback, she can discern which is true and which is not true. She can also train herself on the computer. When I joined the Chamber, I had no clue so I had to educate myself and for two years I did not speak on any issue because I did not know what to say. I went for so many courses, I exposed myself, read and I was also on the internet. After the second year, I was able to talk and start presenting papers. Remember that NIMASA then was run by an architect.
Once you have the ability in you, the unfortunate thing is that the people appointed do not stay long enough but if they stay long, they can begin to understand. The political push causes them to make mistake. You cannot assign a non- medical person to a health system because that one is a lot more technical but in the maritime sector a good administrator can listen to expert’s advice and genuinely strive to understand their advice.
Unfortunately, the people they appoint don’t stay long and in their learning years they make a lot of mistakes. I had the time to wait for two years. These people do not have the time. That’s the disadvantage.
Eleven (11) years in the Chambers! You must have had wonderful moments. When you look back and see what the Chamber was and what it has become today, how would you describe those 11 years?
We started the Chamber as an office in a one-room. Before then, it was a mute idea and the Secretary General was carrying the files around and when I came, he handed the files to me and said this is your objective. It’s got to be an advocacy platform that is going to give information out to Nigerian players.
So the first task I had was to ensure that people understood what Cabotage was. That was how the Chamber came about and we went head on into workshops, seminars and anything just to explain what Cabotage stood for. We set up a maritime desk and bank. The first bank to buy into the idea was Skye bank and then the other banks followed and they started realizing that bankers who were financing ships had no idea what a vessel looked like not to talk of the finance involved.
So, we started ship-financing training. What we were doing was explaining to the public what the maritime sector really is. We weren’t claiming to experts in any area. Just like the international Chamber of Shipping in England, we are the umbrella body for ship chandeliers to come and talk.
At one stage, when we spoke from the Chamber, the government listened so they put us on a lot of presidential committees. There was no monetary gain. The Chamber was a trade facilitation body.
