Prof. Wole Soyinka’s ‘The Trials of Brother Jero’, a play of political corruption and extreme Socio-economic banditry of modern leadership, metaphorically posits that “there are eggs and there are eggs”.
In the maritime industry, there are practitioners and there are very distinguished ones. A High Chief with numerous titles and political feathers, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam is a personage that has defied a common description fits into this Soyinka’s postulation.
He is a masquerade, maverick and an enigma. His voice wears weight, and actions exudes force and vibration for results.
Aniebonam, an ex-Customs officer in this interview with KINGSLEY ANAROKE of MMS Plus, explains why the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria(CRFFN) has remained dormant from a perspective. It has regulatory powers yet lacks the capacity for enforcement.
The Council suffered accidented and deliberate distortion of focus on take off, creating a litany of challenges for its stability. While it is grappling with survival, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola, last week, announced that the Agency had been mistakenly listed under the Ministry of Transportation, making once again its 2026 budgetary appropriation difficult to handle. It is torn in-between two ministries and the reason is obvious-Free money! Earlier, this reason had denied it the opportunity of having its Governing Board constituted like other agencies. However, this challenge did not prevent the ministry top officials and the Minister from expending the N7billion appropriated in 2025 budget. The agency is perpetually broke yet has the worst record of bureaucratic politics in the history of transportation sector.
Aniebonam talks on what could be considered as the most appropriate shipping and terminal charges in Nigeria ,while calling on the federal government to extend the tenure of the Comptroller General of Customs(CGC), Adewale Adeniyi, to complete the nation’s two years tenure at the World Customs Organisation(WCO) as Council Chairman.
Chief Aniebonam’s perspective on the deadly rivalry amongst government agencies in the maritime industry does reflect Soyinka’s thoughts in his Jero’s metamorphosis. They are always soaked in rivalries that create “capital flight”, while the industry remains undeveloped.
Aniebonam is also the founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders(NAGAFF) and the New Nigeria’s People’s Party(NNPP).
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The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola, last year, constituted and inaugurated the boards of other maritime agencies without that of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria(CRFFN). That move would have brought some stability into the Council. What is your take?
We started to fail from day one in CRFFN. You know when you get something wrong in the course of implementation, to fix the mistake is always very difficult. It is most unfortunate that CRFFN took this path of dishonour. But this is not the time to blame anybody, our hope is that the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy should take time and look at the Council.
Unfortunately, the issue of money has come into it but this is not what the CRFFN is all about. CRFFN was set up to ensure a sustainable freight forwarding practice in Nigeria.
The Board is yet to be constituted and you know when constituted the chairman of the Board is the chief executive officer, and then the Registrar who is in charge of the administration is appointed. But you can attest that the system has been turned upside down.
Having said that, it is time and most appropriate, the Board is constituted by the Honorable Minister so that we can begin to look at how CRFFN can be administered. For instance, the ongoing modernisation of Customs and other agencies of the government are directed at e-commerce.
Everything is becoming digitalized and paperless, who is taking care of the freight forwarders? Whatever you are doing without carrying the freight forwarders along, is akin to building a castle on a shifting sand.
However, if the government has not constituted the Board, they are looking at the CRFFN Act. We are looking at meeting the Minister to look at some underlying absurdities hindering the body. CRFFN is not an agency of the government. Recall that NAGAFF had gone to court to seek the interpretation of the Act on that.
So if the Board is not constituted, government has no blame.
We look forward to the Minister calling a meeting of those who initiated CRFFN to navigate this web of confusion in the Council. I repeat that if we don’t get CRFFN right, the ongoing reforms in the ports is like building a castle on a shifting sand.
To show you how God acts differently, the Nigeria Customs Service Act of 2023 says that for you to be a customs representative; not clearing agent, that you must be registered with a freight forwarding association duly recognized by the federal government. At this point, who is to undertake the registration? It is the CRFFN. Following this, as I speak to you now, the Association of Nigerian Licenced Customs Agents(ANLCA) is moribund. What is in place now is freight forwarding. This presupposes that it has come to a level where the Comptroller General of Customs(CGC) and the Registrar of CRFFN can collaborate on the way forward for the industry. As an ex-customs officer, I can tell you that Customs is not interested in any association; they are interested in individual professional, that is why you have customs representative on the Act. Customs train individual professionals not a corporate body. It means that the licencing regime is gone. Look at all the efforts of the government on Customs modernisation! But freight forwarders are not trained. That is why compliance is very low, thereby affecting government revenue, boosting insecurity in the country and less ports competitiveness. We need to match the speed of Customs modernisation.
There is the complaint that freight forwarders have refused to subject themselves to regulation tariff -wise but question the charges of shipping lines and terminal operators. What do you say?
The basis is that CRFFN isn’t doing what it should be doing as a regulator. Do you know that they are empowered so much that they have mobile courts.
But they are not enforcing it…
That’s exactly what I am telling you. It is like a court giving an order that is hardly enforced.
What do you consider as appropriate shipping charges?
Go to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council(NSC), they are the port economic regulator. Up till today, the agencies are incoherent in their communication. We talked about the National Transport Commission(NTC), politics took it off with Nigerian Ports Authority and NSC pitted against each other. But you can’t take away the fact that there is need for regulation. The National Assembly should come up with a legislation that can authorize NSC to handle certain things. NSC needs not wait for government to do certain things as an agency of the government because it is conferred with coarcive powers by its status. Why wait for powers again?All that needs to be done is to write the Inspector General of Police(IGP) to attach some police to you and move out for enforcement to ensure that things are done properly. The high point is that in event of any criminal related incident you will be a principal witness. NSC wants a specific order but the authority already resides with it. Even a civilian has the power of arrest and hand over to the appropriate authority, so why wait?
Talking about the shipping companies, they wake up everyday and increase their charges and nobody talks to them. At PTML, they do whatever they like. They go against government policy that demands the payment of 15 percent FOB value of every auction cargo. They ask for extra charges before delivery can be made. This is a system collapse. If laws are made but not enforced it makes no sense making them. Shippers’ Council stopped working with the exit of Hassan Bello. We expected this government to bring in someone like Hassan Bello, who understands the system to be the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy. Remember, we recommended him for that position.
The worst has just happened! The APC national chairman has told us that government appointees should go back to their wards and campaign for the next elections. It means governance and leadership by technocrats is gone.
The ineffectiveness of CRFFN to regulate the freight forwarding sub-sector and set professional standards has created a lot of crisis in the industry. MMS Plus did a story in the past asking the government to set aside a percentage of duty value or reward as payment to freight agents for their services since it has been difficult to have pricing threshold of their services to clients.
The provision of the new Customs Act, describing freight agents as Customs Representatives presupposes that we have to be paid for our services. As a customs licensed agent, as held in the repealed Customs and Excise Management Act, CEMA, agents were licensed to operate without any obligations. But as Customs Representatives, we have to be paid for representing the Customs. I see Customs going back to amend that clause in the Act. But a labourer is worthy of his wages. If they don’t change it, some day they will be compelled to enforce that provision of the Act.
What is your take on CGC’s performance? Don’t forget he is expected to leave this August if no other extension is granted.
The CGC cannot be leaving this August when he is heading the World Customs Organisation as the Board chairman.
Remember that he was given a year extension by federal government, last year to complete his reforms in Customs.
What I am saying is that Nigeria is occupying a strategic position in WCO. Now, if Wale Adeniyi has a two year tenure there and has one year to leave his seat as the CGC in Nigeria, his exit as CGC will cause Nigeria to lose the WCO seat. I believe government wouldn’t allow that to happen. We should try and complete our tenure in the global body. Therefore, Wale’s tenure should not end this year but next year. It should be extended to accommodate his remaining one year in WCO. I know many people may not see it from my perspective but that is the way to go.
