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Freight Monitor

Emenike Nwokeoji leads ANLCA to slaughter slab of STOAN

–as  association in disarray over price hike by terminal operators 
The Eyewitness Exclusive
Emenike Nwokeoji, the National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), may have failed his first leadership test as the helmsman of the oldest freight forwarding group in Nigeria.
He was elected on September 7th, 2023 to pilot the affairs of the association which just came out of a five-year crisis that factionalised and nearly obliterated it from existence.
However, in what appeared to be his first major litmus test as a leader, Emenike made the oldest and once revered freight forwarding group look ordinary and vulnerable in the war of nerves, intrigues, and nerve-racking bargaining tussle between the association and the terminal operators over the hike in terminal charges.
Under his nose, ANCLA was reduced to a pawn in the chess game that the latest price hike has turned into.
It would be recalled that the terminal operators, under the aegis of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria(STOAN), announced over 400 percent increase in their storage charges and other fees, claiming they had approval from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the economic regulator.
When the news filtered in about two weeks ago, the leadership of ANLCA, which came in about a month ago, appeared to have still gotten carried away with its electoral victory and sat back like a lame duck without taking any proactive step.
This is more so when the freight forwarders were neither consulted nor carried along in the process leading to the hike as provided for in the concession agreement.
In as much as there is a window in the concession agreement for the terminal operators to effect price hike subject to the approval of the Minister, proactive and visionary leaders would have risen in one accord to engage the Shippers’ Council, which was said to have given the approval, and the Minister, who has the final authority to grant approval, probably not to stop the increment, which some stakeholders said was inevitable, but to get a good deal for freight forwarders.
But Emenike Nwokeoji – led ANLCA leadership kept mute on the matter, fuelling widespread insinuation that the rank of ANLCA NECOM may have been infiltrated and heavily compromised.
The only group that came out to engage the Nigerian Shippers’Council on the matter was a body called the Association of Concerned Freight Forwarders and Transporters led by Andy Omenogor.
The group took the battle to the Shippers’ Council and even addressed the press through the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria( MARAN) by its Vice President, Ndubuisi Uzoegbo , even before the price hike came into force.
All this while, the great ANLCA, the beacon of hope for the already traumatized freight forwarders, sat back and looked away from the frenzy that the price hike had generated.
Curiously and instructively, they had to wait until the terminal operators, through its umbrella body, STOAN, “summoned” them to a meeting on Wednesday, October 18th, 2023.
Here lies the crux of the matter.
It was the terminal operators, the hunters, who seized the initiative from the hunted, the freight forwarders through ANLCA.
In what looked like a sheep being led to the slaughter slab, Emenike Nwokeoji, the  President of ANLCA, led his full compliment of his lieutenants to the ENL Consortium office, one of the terminal operators which serves as the office of STOAN where they were ” talked” to by the effervescent Princess Vicky Haastrup, the Chairperson of STOAN.
Inside sources claimed that STOAN leadership, as expected, sold the price hike to the top hierarchy of ANCLA, which included the NECOM members, Chapter Chairmen, special assistants to the President, and chairmen of the various ad hoc committees that attended the meeting.
At the meeting, the leadership of ANLCA showcased its poor bargaining powers when they were made to listen while the generalissimo of STOAN  massaged their ego, convinced them of the need for the price hike, and sought their support.
It was further learnt that, like a cornered fugitive, the leadership of ANLCA begged the terminal operators to delay the implementation of the price hike.
This plea, as belated as it was, showed that the ANLCA team had lost touch with the realities on the ground and went into the meeting without purpose and vision and was bereft of any tangible bargaining powers.
It also showed the lack of direction of the team as the implementation of the price hike they were begging to be put on hold had already commenced two days earlier, on Monday, October 16th, 2023.
“Some of the freight forwarders have even started to pay the new price hike,”  a source told our Reporter.
It was also gathered that the leadership of STOAN was evasive on the request as it neither said yes nor no.
The STOAN team must have been amused at the strange request considering the price hike had already commenced.
It was on that one-sided discussion that the meeting ended.
But an overzealous Presidential media aide, Alhaji Ayokunle Suleiman, the Senior Special Assistant to the National President of ANLCA on Media, twisted the outcome of the meeting when he sold a dummy to a friendly online medium, (not the eyewitness news,)that the terminal operators have agreed to delay the implementation of the price hike.
 “After much deliberations on the increment in Terminal charges, the President(sic) gave us her words that they have placed it on hold.
“Mr. Emenike had insisted that status quo must remain, and the STOAN Chairman, their Secretary agreed that the terminal charges increment would be placed on hold in order to create room for proper consultation with critical stakeholders” the overzealous Media aide was quoted to have gleefully said.
The subsequent publication of the twisted account of the meeting by the friendly online news blog rattled and embarrassed the leadership of ANLCA who pressured the platform to pull down the story.
This later caused a commotion in the NECOM.
Emenike Nwokeoji and a few other leaders of ANLCA were said to have scolded the exuberance of the media aide, asking him where he got the approval to speak on the matter to the press.
He was severely tongue-latched and tutored on the need to obey protocol as only the National Publicity Secretary,  Emmanuel Onyeme, was authorized to speak on the sensitive issue as an elected and official spokesman of the association.
When our Reporter got in touch with Alhaji Onyeme, he neither confirmed nor denied whether the terminal operators agreed to delay the price hike or not.
” We are still consulting and negotiating. There is going to be  NEC meeting of the association by 10 am this morning and after that, there will still be a series of meetings. Only then can the association come up with its position on the matter.
“I am the only spokesman of ANLCA and whatever I told you is the official position of the association” Onyeme insisted when further pressed to authenticate the statement credited to the overzealous media aide, apparently disowning the twisted statement.
Bolaji Akinola, the spokesman of STOAN debunked the claim made by the overzealous media aide to the ANLCA President.
“It is fake news,” Akinola said in a terse message he sent to our reporter.
From all indications, the present ANLCA leadership cannot get a fair deal for the agonizing freight forwarders in the war of nerves over the price hike.
The flurry of activities that the ANLCA leadership is lately engaged in is pointless and belated as the die is cast and the deed is done.
Everything they are doing is mere grandstanding and a storm in a teacup only to give a false semblance of a focused, visionary leadership that can get the back of its teeming members in times of crisis.
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Freight Monitor

Adeyanju rallies support for new CRFFN Registrar.

– appeals to warring associations to give Igwe Kingsley a chance

– warns his failure will affect freight forwarding industry 

Funso OLOJO 
Prince Adewale Adeyanju, the indefatigable President- General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has risen in stout defence of the appointment of Mr Igwe Kingsley, the new Registrar of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding practice in Nigeria (CRFFN), vowing to deploy the machinery of the union to ensure his success.
His support was against the backdrop of the opposition from other freight forwarding associations which went to court to challenge the appointment of the new Registrar.
Adeyanju, who was speaking exclusively in an interview with our reporter in his office, admonished the warring associations to shield their swords and support the new Registrar to succeed.
” The industry is bigger than individuals.
“Government has the right to appoint whoever it feels can perform, it has the right to appoint and disappoint.
“The new Registrar has been given that opportunity and every of us owes him a duty to rally round him and support him to succeed, especially the freight forwarding groups.
” They should know that such opportunity can come to any of them in the nearest future. Therefore, they should allow the young man to function by giving him the needed support” the top union leader admonished.
He said that the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, should be commended for appointing the new Registrar from the fold of freight forwarding and the least that is expected of his colleagues in the industry is to support him.
” If they frustrate him and he fails, the freight forwarding industry will bear the consequences of his failure but if they support him and he succeeds, the industry will enjoy the benefits of such success.
“So it is in their best interest to support him to succeed” Adeyanju declared.
He expressed dismay at the hard stance of other associations against the appointment of the new Registrar which he said is not from Yoruba or Hausa but igbo stock whom he claimed are the people surprisingly waging war against him.
Adeyanju however pledged the unflinching support of the maritime labour union for the new Registrar and promised to rally other stakeholders for his success.
” Our own union, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, will support him, work with him and shall rally all other stakeholders to support the young man so he can succeed.
” If he succeeds, the better for all of us, if he fails, the freight forwarding industry will continue to grapple with its challenges even though I don’t pray for his failure”
Adeyanju, who is also the Vice -President of the Nigeria Labour,Congress(NLC),
relieved the problems which have hobbled the performance and efficiency of the CRFFN over the years to the point that the workers in that organization were owed salaries for a year.
” When the council became one of our affiliate members, we discovered that there were lot of crises in the council, in- fighting as workers were writing petitions against themselves.
” Salaries were being owed while the workers were suffering.
“But when we came in, we had to write a letter to the Minister who graciously promised us through the Permanent Secretary, to wade into the crisis.
” I learnt the government, through the NPA,has given the Council bail out twice last year, the last one was shortly before the Christmas/ New Year holiday.
” I want to thank the Minister for his intervention, especially for the bail- outs and appointment of someone from the freight forwarding industry as the new Registrar which  clearly shows he is a workers- friendly person” the labour leader noted.
He however wondered how long would the CRFFN depend on government bailouts.
” This is the reason why we all need to support the new Registrar to succeed so that the council will function and become vibrant to cater to the aspirations of the teeming freight forwarders who are daily grappling with numerous challenges in the industry” Adeyanju observed.
Watch out for the full interview 
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Freight Monitor

CRFFN: A struggling agency on government life support.

Funso OLOJO

The idea behind the creation of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) was a noble one.
Established through an Act of Parliament in 2007, CRFFN is charged with the responsibilities of regulating and controlling the practice of freight forwarding in Nigeria and promoting the highest standards of competence, practice and conduct among members of the profession.
Eighteen years after its creation, CRFFN has remained a struggling agency, barely surviving on the life support provided by the government, thus desecrating the nobility of its birth.
Meant to be a regulatory agency independent of government control and interference as espoused by the International Federation of Freight Forwarders (FIATA), the umbrella regulatory body for the practice of freight forwarding globally, CRFFN has perpetually and permanently remained tied to the apron string of Nigerian government.
As a matter of fact, the council would have long been dead if not for the financial oxygen provided by the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, its supervising ministry.
For close to 18 years, CRFFN has been a liability, a parasitic body whose preoccupation was more on how to survive than the performance and discharge of its statutory responsibility of regulating the freight forwarding practice in Nigeria.
The successive governing boards of the Council since inception, had been populated by people who are more concerned with their pecuniary interests, people who are more interested in their self- preservation and financial gains, than those with the burning passion to develop the struggling freight forwarding industry.
The successive acts of incompetence, the culture of lack of commitment, insincerity and corruption amongst the leadership of the council have resulted to a thick layers of rot that has stunted the growth of the body.
Largely unpopular among the  freight forwarders whom it is meant to regulate due to lack of impact and efficient service delivery, CRFFN has become a puariah in the industry it is meant to superintendent over.
To shore up its internally generated revenue, the government approved the collection of Practitioners Practising Fee(POF) collectable on all cargo landed at the airports, seaports and border stations.
Under the POF regime, importer pays N3.5 per tonne of cargo imported into the country, N1.5 per kilo for air cargo, N1,000 on each imported 20- feet container and N2,000 per 40- feet container.
After the initial hiccups as a result of opposition by the disgruntled freight forwarders, the collection of the controversial POF commenced in 2021 under the leadership of the former Registrar, Samuel Nwakohu, who took over from the pioneer Registrar, Sir Mike Jukwe in 2019.
Before Nwakohu handed over to Chinyere Uromta as an Acting Registrar in January 31st, 2023, the POF was collected for three years.
The collection expectedly continued under the leadership of Uromta from January 31st,2023 to October 2024 when she was asked to hand over to the incumbent Registrar, Mr Igwe Kingsley.
Effectively, before Kingsley came on board barely two months ago, CRFFN has collected POF, reported to have run into several millions of naira, for four years.
Ironically, the Council, despite these collections,couldn’t still pay the salaries of its staff for 10 months prior to the take over of Kingsley.
The question is where did the millions of naira accrued for four years under Nwakohu and later, Uromta, go?
Obviously, the humongous amount of money collected as POF but which actually amount was shrouded in mystery, had been mismanaged and misappropriated.
Apart from few poorly coordinated training programmes organized for  freight forwarders, there was no tangible means to which the POF actuals were deployed.
For the period which the Council couldn’t pay its staff, the regulatory body became a bout of laughter among the industry operators, especially the freight forwarders whom it supposed to regulate.
Its staff became restive and unrestrained, abandoned the core mandate of the council and started to hobnob with the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria(MWUN) which eventually subsumed the council staff into its fold as one of its affiliate groups when the staff members were unionised by the labour union.
The purpose was to use the platform of the trade union to pressurize the council’s leadership to pay their accumulated salary.
When the situation became embarrassing and humiliating to the government, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, had to intervene by providing financial succour through the payment of the accumulated salary arrears in two tranches of five months each.
The last tranche was released recently shortly after the appointment of the incumbent Registrar, Mr Igwe Kingsley.
This scenario, as absurd and shameful as it was, signaled the beginning of the end of the Council, no matter the pretence among some incurable optimists.
As it stands now, the council has lost all relevance as a regulator, it has lost its dignity and prestige among the freight forwarders who the it is meant to regulate.
This sad reality was poignantly brought home after the surprise appointment of Kingsley as its Registrar.
Appointed from the fold of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), one of the five accredited freight forwarding groups, the incumbent Registrar is obviously unpopular among the freight forwarding operators.
Presently, other accredited freight forwarding groups have rallied themselves together to challenge the appointment of the new Registrar in court.
That is why the Registrar may not be able to bring the Council from its present precipice of total descent into  oblivion.
Unless the other freight forwarding groups rally their support round him, Kingsley’s tenure as the Registrar of CRFFN would be another flash in the pan, devoid of colour, character, impact and any developmental stride.
Unfortunately for the new Registrar, the present crop of staff in CRFFN have lost motivation for committed service delivery to the industry.
Their fears, which will be their major preoccupation, is for how long will the government give the council financial bail- outs to meet its obligations before the hand- outs dry up?
That is why we consider the so -called vision the Registrar purportedly has for the industry as a mere rhetorics devoid of conviction and purpose.
The tenure of Kingsley would be a defining moment in the life of CRFFN as it will either make or totally break the struggling agency.
Unless he enjoys the support of the disgruntled federating associations, no amount of financial bail -outs from government, no amount of interventions from government and no amount of vibes, vibrancy and commitment brought into the running of the council by Kingsley will save the CRFFN from taking the final plunge into the dark abyss of obsecurity.
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Freight Monitor

ANLCA’s factional crisis at Airport chapter worsens as Emenike suspends Bamgbala Adewusi over trump up charges

Nwokeoji, ANLCA President

Funso Olojo

The factional crisis at the Murtala Mohammed Airport chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents(ANLCA) may have taken a dangerous dimension as the National President of the Association, Emenike Nwokeoji, has ordered the suspension of Prince Bamgbala Adewusi, the factional Chairman of the Airport Chapter of the ANLCA.

The crisis, which was triggered by the dissolution of the Adewusi-led chapter executives and the appointment and inauguration of Temitope Pius Akindele-led new chapter executives about two months ago, has witnessed several twists and turns that dovetailed into multiple litigations before it finally degenerated into the suspension of Prince Adewusi.

In an internal memo written and signed by Fakanlu Olumide, the National Secretary of ANLCA, Prince Adewusi together with two other members, Mr. Davies Ben Chukwunenye and Mr Lekwauwa Ifeayi Valentine, were suspended for their ”refusal to appear before the disciplinary committee to defend themselves over the documented allegations of financial malpractices bordering on embezzlement of association money”.

The memo, dated 7th, June 2024 anC addressed to all  ANLCA Corporate Members titled Suspension of Membership reads inter alia “This is to notify the entire members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents(ANLCA) of the suspension of the membership of the under listed from the association;

1.Mr Bamgbala Adewusi of ASHOV Nig.Ltd/BATOLAB Nigeria Limited.

2. Mr Davies Ben Chukwunenye of SAMON KAY Nigeria Limited.

3. Mr Lekwauwa Ifeayi Valentine of ROKBAL Global Investment Limited.

”The decision to suspend the membership of the above persons is premised on their failure/refusal to appear before the Disciplinary Committee to defend themselves over the documented allegations of financial malpractices bordering on embezzlement of Association money as stated in section 24(10) of our 2023 constitution as amended.

”It is noteworthy that the fourth member also accused in the petition showed up at the Disciplinary Committee sitting and absolved himself.

”It must be emphasized here that members of the Association are under the obligation to conduct themselves in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Association hence no member should be allowed to act as if he/she is above the said Constitution.

”Consequently, the above-stated members henceforth cease to be recognised as members of the Association, and no transaction shall be conducted with them in their former capacities as members of the Association until further notice.

”We hereby use this opportunity to thank our members for their understanding and support, especially our members in the MMIA Cargo chapter.

”We enjoin them to go about their business peacefully while assuring all that no amount of recalcitrance and blackmail will deter this administration from doing what is constitutional and in the best interest of ANLCA” the memo concluded.

However, industry commentators believed that the suspension of Prince Adewusi was more of political victimisation given the standoff between him and the National President of ANLCA, Mr. Emenike Nwokeoji over the controversial elections in the Airport Chapter.

One of the top members of ANLCA who craved anonymity described Adewusi’s suspension as witch-hunting and an attempt by Emenike to break the resistance and sheer willpower of the factional chapter Chairman which has stood his ground and refused to be intimidated since the crisis started.

The source however described the purported suspension as a charade that will further plunge the association deeper into crisis.

Prince Adewusi was yet to respond to his suspension as at the time of writing this report.

 

 

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