Six months after its election, the present Board of Trustees of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) now has a Chairman.
Immediate past Chairman of the Board, Chief Henry Njoku, was re-appointed Chairman over the weekend, to oversee the affairs of the highest advisory body of the association.
Njoku had headed the Board for six years until the election which also saw the swearing in of the current nine-member ANLCA BoT held February this year.
The ANLCA election held in Warri, Delta State was not without the usual intrigues as the new BoT failed to name its Chairman immediately after the election.
The board members had resorted to appointing one of its own, Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, as Coordinator after ensuing disagreements on who heads the board.
Mustapha disclosed to newsmen over the weekend in Lagos the outcome of the election which aside Njoku’s reelection as Chairman, witnessed Aare Sanni Shittu and Prince Taiye Oyeniyi retaining their positions for the second time as Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Board and Chief Peter Obi as Treasurer.
He said Njoku’s emergence as Chairman was a uninanimous agreement reached by the nine members after Chief Ernest Elochukwu conceded the chairmanship position to Njoku.
He said the election held barely 24 hours after the association permanent secretariat was commissioned was aimed at moving the association forward.
“After the official opening of the secretariat, we agreed to have a meeting and during the meeting, we agreed to move forward for the progress of ANLCA. Just as we stated at our inaugural meeting that we are suspending the elections of the officials of the board for the main time just to create further harmony between us in the interest of ANLCA.
“However yesterday (Friday) we decided to go ahead with the election having realized and agreed that our house is in order,” Mustapha stated.
Also speaking, Elochukwu noted that all efforts of the board is geared towards moving the association forward and to maintain cordial relationship between the board and the national executives of the association.
“Everything that we are doing as members of the board is geared towards strengthening the association. We want to assure that we will always maintain cordial relationship with all and sundry in ANLCA while at the same time carry out our statutory role,” ELochukwu, who is the immediate past president of ANLCA, said.
Njoku promised to work with other members of the board and meet up with the expectation of the association.
He said the board is now stronger adding that most of the achievements recorded in his first tenure in office was because of the peaceful coexistence between the board and the national executives.
Njoku said: “What we are doing is to move this association forward and I want to reaffirm here on behalf of the board members that this is a family. We will work to live up to the expectations of our people and our association in general. We are custodians of our constitution and we will try to live up to that expectation.”
Explaining why it took so long in deciding who heads the board, Njoku said the board had wanted to meet earlier to conduct the election but according to him, two members of the board had not been around, thus necessitating postponement of the election till last Friday.
He added that it was solely the decision of the board to appoint a chairman anytime even without the consent of the National President.
When asked if the board agrees with the national executives of the association over the naming of the ANLCA permanent secretariat after the Customs Comptroller General, Alhaji Dikko Abdulahi, Njoku said the position of the board will be made known when it meets with the national executives of the association.
“The fact is like I said, we don’t have any quarrel with the national (executives). We will continue to view activities as they go on. Yesterday (Friday) was just the commissioning and it will be very improper to condemn what the national has done. We will meet and they look at it made ask few questions,” Njoku who was the chairman of the building committee which handled the ANLCA permanent secretariat said
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.
