The lady with the highest number of votes at the just concluded CRFFN election, Princess Chi Eze of NAGAFF.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The election into the board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has been concluded with the fifteen seats alloted to the private sector already filled, but there were some interestingly intriguing matters that occured before during and yet after the election.
Firstly, the tenure of the out gone board expired around July of 2021, but the board members did not vacate their offices until late last year after a whole lot of hues and cries.
Secondly, the modalities for conducting the election, the eligible candidates, the time and of course the venue for the election became another issue of great contention. This particular matter threatened so much to distropt the activities of the Council as the registered freight forwarding associations met on several occasions to fashion out their own way of handling the election. The five registered associations had on several occasions agreed that the places in the board should be shared in the ratio of 6,6,1,1,1. This meant that the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) should have six slots, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) six slots, the Nigerian Association of Freight Forwarders and Airfreight Consolidators (NAFFAC) one slot, the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (ARFFN) one slot and the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDCLA) having one slot also. This arrangement though seemingly reasonable also incurred the wrath of the unregistered Associations who also have professional freight forwarders in their ranks and therefore would love the election to be conducted on the basis of personal recognition and on the qualification of the individual persons. At the end of it all the Minister of Transportation succumbed to the will of those from the unregistered Associations and the candidates were screened as indiviiduals and not as representative of the various Associations.
Voting time at the CRFFN election centre in lagos.
Thirdly, election day came up yesterday, the 9th of March 2022 and it took place at three different centres namely, Abuja for the Northern Zone, Lagos for the Western Zone and Port Harcourt for the Eastern Zone and the result was quite interesting.
At the Abuja centre, the winners were Princess Chi Eze who is a candidate of NAGAFF, got the highest number of votes of all the zones with 224 out of the 443 cast votes and Muktar Ya’u of the NAGAFF with 91 votes for the Airport/Land border unit.
At the Western Zone, the winners were, Ibrahim Tanko of NAGAFF 179 votes, Ndubuisi Uzoegbo of NAGAFF with 147 votes, Tochukwu Ezisi, the NAGAFF president with 110 votes, Ifeanyi Ekemezie of NAGAFF with 72 votes, Chukwunonso Ejikeme of NAGAFF with 120 votes,Dr. Kayode Farinto of ANLCA with 72 votes and Tim Awogbeni who was the immediate past vice chairman of the Airport chapter of NAGAFF , presently a candidate of APFFLON and contested for the Airport/Land border unit won with 145 votes.
The Eastern Zone had these winners Increase Uche of APFFLON and also the immediate past President of NAGAFF and who contested for the Airport/Land border unit seat had 121 votes, Henry Njoku of ANLCA had 63 votes, Ifeanyi Isikaku of ANLCA had 52 votes, Kingsley Offor of ANLCA had 44 votes, Christopher Okafor of ANLCA had 26 votes and Bala Rabiu Lawan of ARFFN had 54 votes. This brings the total number of winners from all the zones and as stipulated to fifteen, the winners according to the associations are as follows NAGAFF 7, ANLCA 5, APFFLON 2 and ARFFN 1.
The result shows that the clamour by the unregistered Associations to have the election thrown open to all members irrespective of association or affiliation has yielded fruit. The result also brought into the fore the quest by women to have them participate more actively in all socioeconomic and political activities as Princess Chi Eze floored other contestants by a wide margin to win the election.
The election may have come and gone, but the dust that it kicked up may take some time to settle and clear up. This then forms the task of the various stakeholders to perform, the rancour, bruised ego and losses incurred need to be amended in order for effective handling of freight forwarding matters at the Council, there actually lies the core of the initial responsibility of the elected and also the selected officers.
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