Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA), ready to hold first election

The Nigerian Shipowners Association (NISA), over the weekend expressed its readiness to hold first election into the executive council of the association.

The election is coming for the first time in four years after the last executive was elected on the 26th October 2014 in Lagos.

Recall that immediately after the election, the association was engulfed in series of crisis part of which led to the suspension of President Capt. Niyi Labinjo over alleged fraud.

Speaking to newsmen, the Secretary General of the Association, Tunji Brown said the association is set to conduct fresh election to discuss the modalities to usher in new executive at its next Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday.

According to him, this election is imperative since the mandate of the current executive will end on the 26th of October, 2018.

He said, “The meeting is an annual general meeting of NISA and normally we have our meetings once a year to discuss activities of the association but this year we will focus on the election of new executive members and this current exco members have been on ground for four years and the constitution of NISA allow us to stay in office for two years at a time and another two years for re-election.

“So, the current executive will have outlived its mandate by the 26th of October this year so we want to discuss elections of new executive members.”

Brown who disclosed that the date of the election would be announced at the AGM said the disbursement of Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF) will also be discussed.

“The date for the election will be discussed during the meeting but we have officially notified NIMASA about the intention to hold the election because the constitution stipulates they should be the supervisory body for the election. They did that at the last election, we have notified them officially and they are willing to supervise the election.

“Beyond the election, we want to discuss our achievement so far and the issues that we face as shipowners such as CVFF because it’s in the news that government wants to disburse CVFF and we want our members to benefit from it because so many of them have contributed to CVFF development so we don’t want a situation whereby they disburse CVFF without NISA members being a beneficiary so we want to discuss this also.”

He further disclosed that members of the Shipowners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) and the former president of the association, Capt. Labinjo are all invited for the meeting.

“We are guided by the constitution and we adhere strictly to the constitution and the constitution says every executive must stay in office minimum of two years and of two terms so we have to leave the office whether we have infighting or not but what we have done so far is to extend the invite to all members.

“It’s not about a section of the association but to everyone including Capt. Labinjo and SOAN, we have sent out invite to everyone to attend in the 26th of September so we expect everyone to come and we discuss about the election. It’s about the shipowners also, the new election must take place and everyone must participate to elect new executive for NISA.

“Also, I can confirm to you that at the meeting, we have confirmation for thirty companies to participate, these are old and new Members and we expect to have a very fair role forward about this election,” he disclosed.