Freight forwarders won’t endorse any presidential candidate - Farinto

Tayo Oladipupo

The National Vice-President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Kayode Farinto, has said that operators in the maritime industry, especially freight forwarders, would not endorse any of the Presidential aspirants in the forthcoming general elections until they are sure of his sincerity to develop the maritime industry.

Farinto, who spoke in Lagos, said this decision was based on their disappointment with the APC-led government who he said they overwhelmingly supported in the 2015 general elections but later reneged on its promises.

He recalled that he led stakeholders in the industry to campaign for President Buhari thinking that they were going to have the desired change in the sector, adding that he was sorry to have misled them as all the campaign promises of President Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the maritime sector were not met.

He said, ”I am sorry to tell the industry stakeholders that I misled them because all the electioneering promises that were made even by the sitting Vice President in area of auto policy, that they will review it so that common man will have access to vehicles that are cheaper in the area of Tokunbo has been jettisoned.

“The so-called auto policy was actually done for a few Nigerian that are less 0.5% and they are milking Nigerians through this area all in the name of local assemblage.

“We do not have local assembling plants because government is actually losing a lot of money but this people have been given opportunity to bring in semi-knocked down vehicles but what they eventually bring in is completely assembled vehicles where they only remove the tyres and maybe the engines which can be coupled under few hours. This is an act of corruption”.

He however disclosed that he was not ready to lead anybody in the industry to campaign for any of the Presidential candidates in the 2019 Presidential election until they see their manifestos few weeks to the elections.

“So, I am not ready to lead anybody in the industry to campaign for anybody until we see their manifestos maybe few weeks to the elections. But APC disappointed us in this area and I am sorry. So, I am not ready to be stupid again because each time I go to the port, people will tell me, ‘Doctor, you promised that APC will do this in the industry and they have not done it’, it is very unfortunate and this is a fraudulent act. I put it to the Vice President that he did promise to do a lot of things in the maritime industry and he failed, it is a fraudulent act, it is also an act of corruption.

“So, I won’t be stupid this time around to lead a group of agents, stakeholders, even customs officers to campaign for any candidate until we have one on one talk where we commit them and make them have a written agreement with us on what they can do for the maritime industry. If not, we can always pick any of the green horns and vote for them”, he submitted.