NAGAFF President, Eugene Nweke dismisses Elochukwu

In reaction to comments credited to the immediate past President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Sir Ernest Elochukwu, that the alliance between the present leadership of ANLCA and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) is not in the best interest of ANLCA, the National President of NAGAFF, Chief Eugene Nweke, has said that the former is “merely seeking relevance.”
Elochukwu, in a chat with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY in his office in Port Harcourt recently said ANLCA, during his administration as its national president, encountered a lot of opposition from NAGAFF as a result of disparity in interests even as he expressed doubts in the genuineness of NAGAFF’s motive towards striking an alliance with ANLCA.
He said: “As the President of ANLCA I knew the problems I had from the leadership of NAGAFF. There are those that are playing key roles here in the industry that needed to be told they are not doing it right but then, during my tenure, I discovered that when the association comes up with anything, NAGAFF was always coming up with a counter! So when Shittu was disposed towards cooperation I said okay fine maybe this will work and it will bring peace and I was pleasantly waiting to see the benefits but it still has not changed anything! Rather it brought more shenanigans, more scheming, more intrigues and (tends) towards personal gains.”

Elochukwu also accused NAGAFF of “blackmailing its way into being fully accredited by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN)” even as he alleged that NAGAFF failed to meet the registration requirements.
But in a chat with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY in Lagos on Wednesday, Nweke said that Elochukwu’s utterance is “an expression of parochial interest and his opinion of no significance” to the cordial relationship presently enjoyed by the two associations.
“I am an incumbent president, I am not an ex. ANLCA has an incumbent president. It is left for him to see whether the collaboration between ANLCA and NAGAFF has actually paid off. That man you are talking about is an ex and remains an ex and I won’t like a situation where we start giving people undue recognition, that’s just the truth. People will always want undue relevance even when somebody has attained the crescendo of diminishing returns, he still wants to be at the apex to be heard,” Nweke said.
The NAGAFF president urged the National President of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, to “put Elochukwu in his place”. He said Elochukwu’s utterance is an indictment on his leadership.
Nweke also urged ANLCA to learn to appreciate the efforts of its incumbent president even as he claimed that Shittu’s leadership is the best ANLCA has ever had.
“I throw this as a challenge to ANLCA. Let me see the president they are going to produce that will equate President Shittu. I want ANLCA to produce somebody that will beat Shittu’s performance then I can now say whether the unity of purpose, the strategic alliance, the responsible partnership and collaboration between NAGAFF and ANLCA has paid off or not” Nweke stated.