Dr. Boniface Okechukwu Aniebonam, founder NAGAFF and Chairman NNPP.
Story by Dili Utomi.
Dr. Boniface Okey Aniebonam is a renowned freight forwarder, an astute administrator, a business magnate, a politician and a philanthropist, he is the founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and also the chairman of the New Nigerian People’s Party, a grassroot Political party with a fair national spread.
A group of Journalists caught up with him and fielded a few salient questions about the upcoming election into the board of the Council for the Registration of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN), the body tasked with the regulation of all practices along the logistics supply chain and also the welfare of all legitimate practitioners. It is also of noteworthy to point out that the CRFFN was an initial brainchild of NAGAFF, but which has been made an agency or a government parastatal. He provided some answers on where NAGAFF stands as far as the CRFFN and the election are concerned.
Dr. Aniebonam making a point.
Dr. Aniebonam started by going down memory lane saying ” Let me start by reiterating the position of NAGAFF on the CRFFN, our position still remains that the CRRFN is not an agency of government, but meanwhile the case is in court and those who went to court are members of NAGAFF”.
He reiterated that ” A court has already said that the CRFFN was set up by the act of Parliament and is a regulatory body that is meant to tackle issues and that we are members of the CRFFN until it is otherwise stated, but it remains to be interpreted at the High Court where there is an appeal on the first judgment, this is for proper interpretation as our approach to the court is a friendly one.”
Secondly, he said, “I want to also remind us that the CRFFN is a baby of NAGAFF and it remains so in our opinion, I recall that at the early stage of NAGAFF when I was the president and founder the when we wanted to register with the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Association (FIATA), our sister Associations, ANLCA and some others wrote a petition against us and that put paid to our membership aspirations into FIATA. That did not deter us and again since Nigeria is a very large market for FIATA, the then vice president of FIATA, Mr. Belluchi came to Nigeria and had a meeting with NAGAFF at the Eko l’meridien after which we left for Abuja for a meeting with the then minister of transportation, Chief Ojo Maduekwe and that meeting culminated into the making of the CRFFN”.
Dr. Aniebonam in another interview.
Dr. Aniebonam said that after that meeting, NAGAFF set out to sponsor the first private bill at the national assembly and because of the level of discussions going on, the transport ministry took interest in the bill”. He went further to say that in spite of the difficulty encountered during the process of passing the bill that NAGAFF was not deterred and that as the part of the technical session, he worked hard to see the bill passed as an executive bill. Afterwards, the election into the Council was comprehensively rigged in favour of ANLCA and down the line the CRFFN has not achieved any of its ethos”. It has not been easy as you can go on and on about the whole matter”.
In the last election , you all know what happened. The membership of the Council is in three categories, the individual, association and body corporate. In the course of the election, the individual that is the natural person was disenfranchised and the individual is the primary reason why the Council was formed. It was formed to engender professionalism and before you achieve that, you must talk about the natural person who must be involved.
On the election that is coming up, Dr. Aniebonam said that one should cast his or her mind back to the last election where out of the total of 1,300 members that were eligible to vote that NAGAFF had a total of 1,100, that out of the sheer magnanimity of NAGAFF, they asked that positions be shared as follows, NAGAFF 6, ANLCA 6, other sister associations were given 3 seats on the Council. As it is now he said, “We are no longer interested in any memorandum of of understanding and sharing of positions, no, people should go and contest the elections, if you win you win and if it is vice versa, so be it. This is because the last arrangement of having a memorandum of understanding did not achieve anything or add any value”.
NAGAFF is more interested in going into the CRFFN to make the difference and allow the Council to start living up to its values. He said that as at the day before, that NAGAFF has had ten members who have picked up their forms and that the the association has raised over a Hundred Million Naira (#100,000,000.00) to sponsor the ten persons for the purpose of the election and that other members of NAGAFF can still go on and pick the forms as persuaded.
The ten members whose participation in the elections is confirmed are as follows
1 MALLAM IBRAHIM TANKO
2 ENGR EMMANUEL
UMEADI.
3 ENGR CHUKWUNONSO EJIKEME
4 CHIEF IFEANYI EKEMEZIE
5 DR OKECHUKWU OKORO
6 MR NDUBUISI UZOEGBO
7 CHIEF TOCHUKWU EZISI
8 MR TIMOTHY AWOGBEMI
9 PRINCESS CHI GRACE EZEH
10 BARRISTER HENRY ORAROTIMI.
Dr. Aniebonam confirmed that each form costs about Five Hundred Thousand Naira (#500,000.00) and that all the ten contestants have picked up theirs.
The participation in the election is based on individual membership and he noted that about ninety percent of freight forwarders are from NAGAFF, this is because the membership of ANLCA and others is predicated on corporate bodies. He reitereated tht they shall go out there and take part in the election and see the results.
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