Home » HOW CAN THE CRISES FACING ANLCA BE RESOLVED
HOW CAN THE CRISES FACING ANLCA BE RESOLVED
Dayo Abdulazeez (Ex vice president, ANLCA)
If ANLCA wants to move forward, the next president of ANLCA should come from western zone. I am speaking confidently that if the association wants to move forward the next president should be elected from the practitioners who are resident in Lagos, because 85 per cent of cargoes coming into Nigeria come in through the Lagos zone and 90 per cent of the licensed customs agents are residents in Lagos, so they are the ones facing the major challenges, they know were the shoe pinches.
Ezekiel Ejabukwa (Freight Forwarder)
ANLCA problem is not a small one; it is a very enormous one and it started with corruption in the system and other ones like tribalism and power tussle. The Yorubas have said that they are the ones in charge of importation in Lagos, some of them have agreed that lets go out and vote according to the guidelines, but some of them are bent on bringing up problems so that the issue will not be resolved yet it is only members that own license that can vote or contest, so these are some of the issues causing the problems.
The only way out of the problem is just to have a normal election, since we have agreed that only people that have license should be voted for and is eligible to vote, so the solution is to allow them to go and vote for whosoever they deem qualified, we all know that without chapter election, there cannot be election into the national body.
Tony Utomi (Clearing Agent)
The issue within ANLCA can not be called a crises, its just a disagreement and in this life we have to disagree and agree, in any association you are meant to have factions, the Yoruba's will be there, the Igbo, the Hausa and the rest of them, each will like to protect the interest of their members and will not like to fail.
But now, the Oodua faction have come to tell us that they are the owners of the sea and meanwhile we are all Nigerians, you cannot say because the sea is at your land therefore the rest do not matter, after all we have seen an Igbo man as commissioner in Lagos state and it was an Hausa man that won the election of ANLCA in Warri so I think the association should still be moving forward irrespective of the factions.
Right now, we are just waiting for ASECO to come and fix the date for the final election and for them to bring out the guidelines. By the grace of God, ANLCA is still ANLCA and we are still one body.
Kennedy Nwoke (Omokas Nig Ltd)
The only solution that I can say is that let the ANLCA leaders and chieftains put heads together and bring out good agents who can lead the association because there is corruption in the system. When they are contesting for the post, they promise all sorts of things, but on getting there, they work for themselves and their agency, so it's a serious problem that has extended to the rest of the chapters.
The solution to the problem is to have or look for a God- fearing fellow to occupy the place, you cannot take factionalism away from ANLCA, and you can only minimize it. You can do this by educating the members about the existing laws, and without this we will continue to have the problems.
Oladipo Bolade (P.R.O, ANLCA, TCIP)
The issue of factionalism has been said to be the problem of the association but that cannot be ruled out because ANLCA displays a replica of the politics that is played in Nigeria as a whole, But you still have to put peoples' interest into consideration while trying to do things, so that there will be an amicable agreement, we cannot say because the Igbos and Yorubas are the prominent tribes, so others don't matter, we are to carry others along. What we are saying is that it is only people with genuine license that can vote, you know genuine agents by their license while those without license are regarded as touts.
At the stakeholders meeting that was held recently, the issue was extensively discussed and it has been resolved because it's just a family issue, some people were aggrieved and they complained about the composition of the body that conducts our election, that is, ASECO, but now the misunderstanding has been settled by our elders and ANLCA is still one family. I can assure you that in a few weeks, the election will hold. The association was founded some 50 years ago even though some of us were not even born then, we want to keep that legacy, we don't want a situation whereby some people out of their own selfish interest will come and disturb the peace of the association.
Onyeasola Kalu (Maritime Consultant)
The problem that ANLCA is having is that it is the same group of people who called themselves leaders that we are still seeing there as the leaders, they are not giving room for other vibrant people to come in: There has been no succession, it is the same people that has been there for the past 25 years that we still see, if the association wants to solve the crisis facing it, it should try and give room for young bloods to come into the system.
The Yoruba groups should stop complaining that the Igbos are taking over most of the major seats because they themselves are the ones that have created most of the problems overtime.