A chieftain of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Babatunde Shittu has advised gladiators to sheath their swords in order to make the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) work again.
Shittu, who is the Managing Director of Shibab Nigeria Limited, while speaking with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY in his office on Thursday, said the leaderships of ANLCA and National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) had been the ones creating problems for the council.
“The associations are the problem of CRFFN, they are fighting for supremacy among themselves. Everyone want to play the big boss, everyone want to be in charge and the way they see CRFFN is that it is a money making council where they can all make money but it is not.
“They forgot that CRFFN is here to regulate freight forwarding industry, they are here to ensure that everyone is qualified and there are professionals in the industry but the in-house fighting over who controls the council by the two leading associations is hampering the progress of the council.
“If CRFFN is positioned, everyone will be proud to belong to the industry, but some think the council is to make money but, we can’t really blame those who think so because they have used their various associations to make name for themselves,” he said.
When asked what would bring about the required solution to the many problems bedeviling CRFFN, he said, “The gladiators should come together to support who is in charge and if they want to put anyone there they should do that if that is what will return normalcy to the council, they should come together, put someone there so that we can move forward.
“They should ensure they come together, at this level we should not behave as unserious people, this is our industry, this is where we find ourselves, we have to do it well so that our children can be proud to take over from us.
“Also, we all know that the first problem of the council is money to run it, no money to run the council because government has stopped giving them money, and they have stopped collecting transaction fee. Also, members are not paying their dues so, where do we expect them to get money to run the council and even pay people who are working there?”
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