The National President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, has blown the lid off one of the causes of the many woes of the beleaguered Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) – the Council’s feud with ANLCA.
The ANLCA boss blamed the quarrel between ANLCA and the CRFFN on members of ANLCA, who, according to him, “found themselves in CRFFN and looked at CRFFN as a superior organization whereby all the executives of ANLCA should report to them”.
Sounding reconciliatory, indicating that he may have mended fences with the CRFFN, Shittu said that ANLCA is now ready to collaborate with the Council.
Shittu, an erstwhile member of the CRFFN Governing Council, at a joint meeting of ANLCA’s National Executives Committee, Board of Trustees (BoT), and Western Zone Chapters Chairmen held Tuesday at the ANLCA National Secretariat, Amuwo Odofin, Lagos, said that ANLCA’s decision to realign with the CRFFN is to help restore the Council, and to ensure that it is not, according to him, taken over by those who have no business at the ports.
He urged ANLCA members to work towards reviving the CRFFN, even as he warned that this reconciliatory gesture by ANLCA should not be taken for granted, as, according to him, ANLCA will not hesitate to let go off the Council if it tries to shortchange the association.
Shittu stated: “What I’m appealing to us is that we should not abandon Council. We must make sure that we correct the ills of the Council from within. Some of you should be ready to go for election into the Council. You are entitled to! I don’t want you to listen to rumours, and that is why we are telling you that we have come back to CRFFN. We are going to continue with CRFFN, and we must gain our due in CRFFN. If CRFFN is looking for money, whereby only ANLCA members will be doing the paying while others are going to benefit, we will say no! So, I can assure you that ANLCA is well-represented in CRFFN. We are ready to collaborate with CRFFN, but we cannot be shortchanged.”
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