Nweke Commends NAGAFF For Re-Scheduled CRFFN Elections

mmsplus July 5, 2018 NEWS LENS Leave a comment 574 Views

…As NAGAFF Founder offers advice to independent candidates

By Kenneth Jukpor

As the rescheduled Governing Council elections of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) is set to hold on Saturday, July 7th 2018, Chief Eugene Nweke, a former President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has commended the magnanimus contributions of NAGAFF to the growth and sustainability of CRFFN.

Although Nweke was one of the candidates screened out of the CRFFN Governing Council elections as a result of the 6-6-1-1-1 (NAGAFF 6, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) 6, National Council for the Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) 1, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (ARFFN) 1 and National Association of Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) 1) sharing formula introduced by NAGAFF, he had kind words for the NAGAFF leadership.

According to Nweke, at the tripartite Ministerial briefing on the election arrangement which held on Monday this week, with the Transport Ministry in Abuja, the duo of the Permanent Secretary and CRFFN registrar present, apart from other issues highlighted before the Honorable minister, the most striking and convincing moral justification why the election should go on as planned, was that:

“In the past 4 years NAGAFF is the only accredited association, that has used its chapter electioneering process to mobilize more than 4000 members to effect the first and second stages of membership registration with the CRFFN (N15,000 per member), this process yielded over forty million into the confers of the government”

Similarly, out of the 1098 cleared voters list, having effected the annual subscription fees for staff and executive membership at N10,500 and N20,900 respectively, a cross check revealed that NAGAFF had over 900 members shortlisted as eligible voters, while the other four accredited associations collectively had less than 200 eligible voters on the list.

With this process, NAGAFF has also successfully paid above seven million into the CRFFN confers.

On the contestant list, a total of 10 NAGAFF members picked the CRFFN Governing Council nomination forms and paid a contestant of non refundable fee of #500,000 each. This process yielded the sum of five million, duly paid into the confers of the CRFFN.

Nweke lauded NAGAFF for reducing its contesting members to accommodate the three other financially weak accredited associations in this process, pursuance to its quest for an all inclusive governing council representation.

Despite having all it takes to win the 15 seats as provided and interpreted in the Act 16, 2007, in a show of purposeful leadership, with a profound sense of magnanimity, it choose to play a big brother freight forwarding association by rendering financial aide to some contestants from other accredited associations.

“It is on the basis of the above efforts, that, I wish to sincerely appreciate and commend the management of NAGAFF for its magnanimity. I also commend the Honorable Minister of Transport, the Transport Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, and the CRFFN management for their moral consideration and justification. Congratulations to you all” he said.

While Eugene made his position known in a press release, the Founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has admonished all freight forwarders who intend to get into the CRFFN Governing Council board to identify with an association.

Aniebonam said this in reaction to a question by our correspondent during a joint press briefing by all freight forwarding associations yesterday, however ANLCA was absent from the meeting.

He also encouraged independent contestants to choose from oneof the five duly registered association and identify with the association.

Explaining further, he said; “Let me give you an example you cannot contest an election in this country if you do not belong to a political party. If you want to contest for election in this Federal Republic of Nigeria you must be a member of a political party. And if you look at the issue of multi party system in Nigeria is has also opened the space for you to belong to any party you want”

“When you come down to our own sector, you have CRFFN as a regulator and CRFFN has accredited five associations an in this five associations you have the opportunity to join o of them. I was part of the people that drafted this CRFFN law”

According to him, the registered associations provide the framework for individuals to strive even as he added that anybody that failed to associate with the association needed to be properly checked.

The fate of independent candidates in future CRFFN elections is in jeopardy and the sharing formula is expected to be the prevailing template, however, membership of CRFFN is based on individuals, corporate bodies and associations.

While accreditation of voters holds on Thursday and Friday, 5th and 6th July, this week, the election of practitioners into the Governing Council now holds on Saturday, 7th July, 2018 in Apapa, Lagos.