Aniebonam At A Year Older: When Failure Is Success

By Okey Mark

One subject matter that has been a subject of controversy in Philosophy is whether man is a by-product of luck, destiny or hard work. It has created different schools of thought.

Dr. Boniface Okechukwu Aniebonam is a book of many chapters with different understanding to every reader. The only agreement in many disagreements of his personage is pertinacity. At best, he is an enigma, who is yet to relate whether his success in life is a product of luck or industry. But close friends and associates of his can tell that his life story is not without pains, thorns and frustrations at some points.

Aniebonam, like many, shares the undulating life trajectory of the foremost banker and author, Prof. Green Nwankwo, who was frustrated at First Bank Plc and as a primary school teacher. But these became the propelling factors that helped to mould him and today the story of Nigeria’s banking industry can’t be complete without the accounts of his contributions.

Aniebonam, the founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) is a year older this month of September. Like Prof. Nwankwo, Aniebonam had to adopt a birth month. Coincidentally, Nwankwo became 85 years old this September, but Aniebonam is just older in September without a date and mention of age.

Aniebonam left the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) twice in a dramatic twist which has been linked to the forces of divinity and founded NAGAFF upon becoming a grounded and influential freight forwarder. He built NAGAFF to a brand of value and philosophy with thousands of people employed and usefully engaged in business of cargo logistics, a feat he could not have achieved in Customs even as a high-ranking officer. What a bombshell!

He is a soldier in spirit, a philanthropist in human relation and a “Third Paradise” exponent in philosophy. He changed the face of freight forwarding in Nigeria with NAGAFF in the cargo delivery ring and today, no history in this sub-sector without him and NAGAFF is complete.

As he rejoices in his new age, the prayer of Nigerians and maritime industry stakeholders is long life in good health as he is already prosperous. The last prayer is let NAGAFF breathe! It can’t breathe now! It is under a big kneel gasping for breath! This flagship must not die. As customs modernizes its operations, freight agents associations must match them with speed in internal democracy and technology.

Congratulations and many happy returns, the Field Marshall!