The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Western Zone recent meeting was indeed extraordinary, as reflected in the animated discussion of the multidimensional problems facing the association, especially as these concern the zone.
The meeting, which was held at the Mobil Pegasus Club, Apapa, Lagos, had the entire staff of the ANLCA Western Zone, some members of the association’s National Executive Committee (NECOM) and Board of Trustees (BoT), Western Zone chapters chairmen and their various executives in attendance.
Thrown open for discussion at the meeting were the issues of ethnicity within the association, bye-elections in the zone, delayed or non-remittance of dues by chapters of the zone, and the suspense woven around the ANLCA Elections Petitions Panel report on the zonal chapters elections.
In his welcome address, the Coordinator, ANLCA Western Zone, Prince Ozo Chukwurah, decried the play of tribal sentiments in the association’s affairs, especially in its recent political activities, noting that it “has risen to a level that could destroy our Association if nothing drastic is done.”
He suggested the ban of the use of certain names while discussing issues concerning ANLCA as a means of avoiding further problems caused by tribal sentiments within the association.
“My candid opinion is that we should outlaw the use of names such as Ndigbo Freight Forwarders, Oodua Maritime Forum, South-South Freight Forwarders etc. Let us return to the old system of addressing ourselves as professional colleagues. This is more uniting and cohesive,” he stated.
The ANLCA Western Zone Coordinator also called for bye-elections for the zone to correct the problems resulting from the zone’s recent chapters elections, even as he urged the association’s BoT to look into the Elections Petitions Panel’s report with a view to resolving all the problems that warranted the setting up of the panel.
“Right now some of the chapter executives are not well constituted while others are being run on interim basis. The issues involved should be resolved as quickly as possible to enable the wheel of administration run smoothly at the chapter levels,” he said.
Citing sections of the ANLCA Constitution, which he relayed as how the association’s revenue should be shared among its National Secretariat, zonal offices and BoT, Chukwurah complained that the “provisions of the constitution are being flouted”, resulting in the delay or non-remittance of dues by the chapters.
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