ANLCA crisis deepens as new BOT queries participation in CRFFN elections

ZION Olalekan |

The battle of supremacy rocking the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) took a dramatic turn yesterday when the new Board of Trustees issued a query to the National Executive Council led by Tony Iju Nwabunike over what it described its shameful participation in the just concluded elections into the Governing Council of Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).

At its inaugural meeting Wednesday at its national secretariat in Festac Town, members of the BOT lamented what they called the second fiddle the association is now playing to a sister association, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF).

The board blamed the ANLCA national executives for allowing a sister association, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and its Founder, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, to be the one dictating and calling the shots for ANLCA and the rest of the associations.

Two members of the BOT, Mr. Dayo Azeez and Prince Taiye Oyeniyi took a swipe at the leadership of ANLCA for what they described as its show of shame at the just concluded CRFFN elections.

“Look at the recent election of the Council and the calibre of people that emerged, the association’s reputation is dwindling, ANLCA that was number one in the industry, NAGAFF is now dictating the pace, just because of the kind of leadership that we have. How can ANLCA candidate be scoring one vote in CRFFN?”

Wondering why NAGAFF founder Chief Aniebonam should now be a rallying point dictating the pace of the CRFFN election, the duo stated that “Aniebonam was just a welfare officer in ANLCA, what caused the problem was that he went and started collecting ‘step down money’ and we removed him.

“As fathers who are custodians of the assets and liabilities of ANLCA, we have been stomaching it, but it is not good”, the board members stated.

However ,the immediate past chairman of the board, Chief Henry Njokwu as well as two others; Aare Sanni Shittu and Chief Peter Obi were absent at the board meeting yesterday.

The trio are incidentally part of ANLCA members who participated in the CRFFN election and elected as members of the Governing Council.

Reacting to this, Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, the new chairman of the board, said that their absence notwithstanding, the trio were aware of the meeting and the new leadership of the board but that they chose to stay away.

He assured that steps would be taken immediately through a meeting that would be called between the ANLCA president and the three aggrieved BOT members on how to consolidate and move on.

He said “We are not running a parallel board and we are not sending anybody out of the fold, Henry Njokwu, Aare Sanni Shittu, and Peter Obi are all part of us and we are making efforts on how to bring ourselves to the round table to be able to talk more and agree, but then you cannot force anybody to agree to an opinion.

“We have a platform where we usually communicate whenever we have a meeting, so three of them are aware of this meeting.

“For every organization as big as ANLCA, there is tendency for misunderstanding at one point or the other, we have seen worse than this in the past and we came out of it stronger, and I believe that this one is just a question of a little more time and we would come out of it stronger.

“One thing I have seen is that once there is a crisis like this, the president who happens to be the overall leader of the association to be open minded and be objective when there are issues on ground.

“As a board, we intend to hold another meeting with the President very soon and we intend to as well ask him to invite the other parties and let us seat down and talk. There are stronger issues to be resolved in ANLCA beyond all what we have been talking about”

Alhaji Mustapha assured that the board under his leadership is all out to assist the National Executive Committee (NECOM) of ANLCA to take over its mantle of leadership in the maritime and freight forwarding industry.

Mustapha also said that one of the focus of the board is to join hands with the incumbent president of ANLCA, Tony Iju Nwabunike to move the association forward by consolidating on the achievements of its immediate past president, Prince Olayiwola Shittu.

“It is not a half-baked issue, if it is not good enough then it is not good enough, what we want after Olayiwola Shittu is to perfect whatever he has done, and wherever he has left ANLCA, in the next few months we want to see it growing beyond that.

“Let me restate it categorically clear that as far as we are concerned there is no crisis in ANLCA, what we have is a kind of misunderstanding within ourselves and which very soon it would be resolved.

“Let me also clear that as against the impression that this board leadership is against the leadership of ANLCA President, Tony Iju, we are not in any way against his leadership, rather, we are there to solidly support him and move ANLCA forward.

“We need to let you know that from 13th of July, this new leadership under my humble self Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, my Vice Chairman, Chief Dennis Okafor and the Board Secretary, Prince Taiye Oyeniyi has taken off. Whatever impression anybody may be having against it, the fact remains that this is democracy and it is a game of numbers.

“Five of us have agreed that we need a change in leadership after ten years of Henry Njokwu as Chairman, by the grace of God, we have held the election and there is no reverse. I also want to let you know that after the April 13th election at Golden Tulip hotels, we are not holding any other election until future time when we now meet to decide to conduct another election.

“We are out to move ANLCA forward, wherever the previous administration of Olayiwola Shittu must have stopped, our focus today is to join hands with Tony Iju to move the association forward “.

The Board of Trustees (BOT) of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) leadership is headed by Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha as Chairman, Chief Dennis Okafor as Vice Chairman and Prince Taiye Oyeniyi as the Secretary of the board.