By Zainab Junaid
Going by what Wikipedia term the phrase he who pays the piper dictates the tune, which originated from the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The town of Hamelin agrees to pay the Piper to get rid of all the rats. When they failed to pay Piper, he stole their kids, indicating that, the person who is paying someone to do something, can decide how it should be done.
When one juxtaposed the ambition of this phrase with the ambition of politics played at the Chairmanship level of the Council of Regulation of freight forwarding Practice in Nigeria, CRFFN, where power deserved by hard core professional freight forwarders is invested in the hands of retired soldiers, who is not a practicing freight forwarder, through representation, one would say, “those who get the connections get the most” in the industry.
Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar, a retired Army Colonel, not a practicing freight forwarder has emerged for the second time, the Chairman of CRFFN, charged with the responsibility of directing and deciding the fate of all freight forwarders in Nigeria. His new appointment make his tenure a two consecutive term in the same office, 2018 and 2022,respectively.
INVESTIGATION
Standard Times Nigeria gathered from a reliable source that there are 15 professional freight forwarders, elected by their constituents in the industry to represent and take care of the members’ interest at the board and are reported to also be on the same board as Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar, but are sidelined in favour of the newly appointed chairman.
On a condition of anonymity, a source said, “We are puzzled why the 15 full-fledged professionals on the board of CRFFN would keep mute while a non-professional was made the industry’s chief regulator. “What makes it more confusing is that the same Act which the present board of CRFFN is operating and used to produce a retired soldier to govern the industry was the same Act that produced the first two chairmen of the board who are practising freight forwarders. “The first governing board was chaired by Tony Iju Nwabunike, the present National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) while the second governing board was equally chaired by another crack professional freight forwarder, Alhaji Akeem Olanrewaju who was ironically the Vice-Chairman to Nwabunike in the first governing board. “Those first two boards have the same membership composition as the present board: 17 government-appointed members and 15 elected freight forwarders as members, making 32- member governing board. If the first two boards could produce freight forwarders as their chairmen and deputy despite being in the minority (15 as against 17), why should the freight forwarders in the third and fourth governing boards become so docile and timid as to concede this vital position to an outsider, a retired soldier, “ the source said.
The Source went further that “the elected freight forwarders in the third and fourth governing council were too frightened to stand up against the impunity of the now – resigned Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who intimidated them into silence while carrying out this absurdity. At the 2018 inauguration of the board by Ameachi, he practically imposed Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar as the Chairman as he didn’t allow an election to take place to the chagrin of the elected freight forwarders. Amaechi was accused of brushing aside a muffled protest put up by Increase Uche, who was then the National President of NAGAFF and a member of the third governing board. He intimidate them to silence when he told them about the person he had in mind for Chairmanship position while giving them the opportunity to produce the Vice-Chairman, which was the only position put to vote that produced Chief Henry Njoku as the Vice-Chairman in 2018.
This same scenario played out in the 2022 inauguration of the 32- member governing body with Amaechi in Abuja recently, sources disclosed. Prior to that date, Ameachi was said to have told those who were elected that he has gotten his chairman. So when he met them, he used the same gimmick which returned Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar as the chairman without a voting process.
Resolution
Following Chibuike Amaechi’s imposition of Alhaji Tsanni as chairman of the governing council, Amaechi’s action, contrary to the legal provisions of the CRFFN Act as regards the position of chairman and vice-chairman, has automatically placed the Council on the precipice. It is absolute disregard of the rule of law. It’s not even healthy for the political future of Mr. President (Buhari), Chieftain of NAGAFF, Freight Forwarder, Simeon Nwonu, once declared in 2018. “The CRFFN, and by extension, the entire freight forwarding family in Nigeria may not survive this second coming of this retired soldier if President Buhari fails to redress the matter.” If the NAGAFF High Command could go against the emergence of Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar as the chairman of CRFFN in 2018 which they described as an imposition, why then is his appointment made easy in the second time? “That the same CRFFN headed by Alhaji Tsanni Abubakar in 2018 which the freight forwarders unanimously condemned as inefficient, inactive, and self-serving, is now returned with the same principal officers, leaves a sour taste in the mouth,
“We wonder how a non -professional freight forwarder as the chairman could empathize with the freight forwarders and address their welfare issues and other matters that impinge on their professional well-being. It is only the person who wears the shoes that knows where it pinches. “If none of the 15 core professional and practising freight Forwarders on the board couldn’t find themselves qualified to be the chairman of the body that is statutorily charged with regulating their industry, then the freight forwarders should brace themselves up to accept what comes to them in the next two years of this council,” Observers opined
