Godfrey C. Nwosu, Md Greyitch Investment Limited and Coordinator of CREFFPON.
Story by Dili Utomi.
An exclusive interview with the coordinator of the Congregation of Registered Freight Forwarding Practitioners Of Nigeria, Mr. Godfrey Chiemeka Nwosu.
Question: Good afternoon sir, could you please introduce yourself?
Answer: My name is Godfrey Chiemeka Nwosu, the chairman of Freyace Global Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Gyeritch Investment Limited. I am a registered freight forwarder by profession and in the forefront of the vanguard of the Congregation of Registered Freight Forwarding Practitioners Of Nigeria.
Question: What gave rise to CREFFPON?
Answer:The acronym is CREFFPON and it means the Congregation of Registered Freight Forwarding Practitioners Of Nigeria. All members of CREFFPON are registered members of the Council for the Registration of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), every member of the CRFFN is a registered freight forwarder and so is qualified to be a member of CREFFPON. The coming of CREFFPON is as a result of the urge of members to come and correct what we see as anomalies within the Council, the elected and appointed members of the governing council. You may recall that recently the members of the board of the governing council were telling us that the two year tenure prescribed for them by law is no longer sustainable, that the act now provides for them to stay on a term of four years against the original provision of act 16 of 2007 that established CRFFN. It is an act of the Parliament and as is contained stipulates a tenure of two years for the board, but the board came towards the end of their tenure to say that their tenure elapses as a four year tenure. This action by the members of governing council made some members of to approach the courts to interpret the specific provision of the law on this matter and with this we are seeing revealing facts emanating from the running of the council. We thought it wise to bring up these issues in order that people may get to know the abnormalities inherent in the running of the council, the membership, who is supervising and who is doing what within the members of the board.
CREFFPON has been running for about two months now creating awareness about the movement by printing fliers and reaching out to people through public campaigns. This is a congregation that has come out to try to set things right. Our motives, aim and objectives are clearly spelt out in our fliers, we have six points as aim and objectives and our enlightenment campaign will soon be followed with an international press conference in order to escalate this matter to the government agencies, relevant authorities and the international community.
Question : Sir, we presently have other professional associations like NAGAFF, ANLCA, AREFFN, NAFFAC and others, what have they been doing that you think that CREFFPON would do differently if and when it metamorphosizes into an association?
Answer: In all the associations that you have just mentioned, the general problem that they have is leadership problem, they do not live up to the expectations of the members, I challenge you to mention one of these Associations that does not have a leadership problem. So, CREFFPON like I told you is not an association but a movement, it is an advocacy group aimed at righting the wrongs that have pervaded other associations within the sector. CREFFPON may not metamorphosize into an association, we have a multiplicity of associations already, but we at CREFFPON desire to have common Federating Body like you have in other countries like Ghana, Togo, Kenya, South Africa etc. I will give you another assignment to investigate, if you need to resolve issues of freight forwarders today, who do you go to, where is the platform to address it, is it the CRFFN that has not passed any law for two years now? The shippers council and the NPA have been doing the job of the council. They have only been there to receive the yearly budget, engage in white elephant projects and try to do tenure elongation.
Question : Please sound them out, what are the duties of CRFFN that they have not been carrying out?
Answer: One, as a regulatory body, training and retraining of members is their primary responsibility. They have been trying to build an institute for twelve years now without completing it.
To protect the interest of members is also their duty that they have failed to carry out, there should be uniformity in the charges or rates on all items in this operation. There should be standard charges everywhere within the Port areas on all goods and services and this should be regulated by the Council. They are to ensure uniformity in professional dues payable to practitioners in the subsector. Three, they should also enforce discipline, government makes laws and policies and it’s agencies are expected to implement the laws and policies through the regulatory or supervising bodies. The council should be an integral part of the economic control group, the physical control group and others. When we talk about security issues, the freight forwarder is in a position to advise the liners on safe routes to pass. Freight forwarding encompasses moving cargoes from the point of origin to the destination point and so we are in a position to advise and so with the council for the regulation of freight forwarding, we should be advising the government. These are a few areas where I think that the governing council of the CRFFN has failed. We should have trained and qualified people in the council, but who do we have there, this question I leave for you to investigate and find out.
Question : Advocacy groups are supposed to be in existence to solve certain problems and you would not want people to come and create more problems, for those who would want to join this movement, what would you say to them?
Answer: Anybody who desires to be a member of this movement should be a registered and practising freight forwarder, he or she must have RFFI as an individual or an RFFC as a registered corporate body, at CREFFPON, when you make an opinion, you must sign out with your RFFI number and not with your name.
Question : What about the character of the person?
Answer: If you check the character of a registered freight forwarder you will find out that it is different from the character of a conventional clearing agent, one, anybody who has gone through the process of registering with the CRFFN, you will know that the character and composure of such a person is professional. It is those that are not members of the CRFFN that you will see that behave in unprofessional ways, as a member of the CRFFN , there are things that I cannot say or do. For those who have character deficiency, you should not come near CREFFPON, if you think of those who have achieved in this industry, the who is who in the industry, they are members of this movement. We are not tasking anybody in this movement, the membership is free, we fund the movement through the voluntary donations of members and people of goodwill. You can go to the link and mention your RFFI number and you are accepted as a member, we are not looking for anybody to fund us. In any movement, there is always sacrifice and so people volunteer their time and money, but we are not looking for someone who will come and fund the movement and then high jack it dictate to the rest of us thereby injecting bad blood into the movement.
Thank you.
