Former CRFFN Chairman Seeks Minister’s Assurance On Forthcoming Election

Harboursandport.com: Lagos - Former Board Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN, Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju, has seeking clarification from the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi over fears of attempts to rig the forthcoming elections.

Olanrewaju in a letter to the minister expressed freight forwarders worries about an alleged plan to manipulate the election in favour of some outgone Board members, noting that a fundamental error has been established in the making of the intended electioneering process.  

He listed some of the errors as “the outgone (immediate past) Governing Council Board was not properly dissolved.

The letter read, “First is to commend the Honorable Minister for eventually, see the need to attend to one of the numerous professional concerns impeding the advancement of the freight forwarding Profession in Nigeria, which is begging for ministerial attention and directives.

 

“On one hand, it is most appropriate and appreciated, that the Honorable Minister constituted an electoral committee to conduct an election for the freight forwarders to elect their professional colleagues into the Council Governing Board (CRFFN), this is most noble and administrative responsiveness indeed.

 

“On the other hand, is the uncertainty whether the Honorable Minister indeed cares much about both the professional integrity and the integrity  of the electoral processes starting with the committee composition, especially with regards to the scrutiny of their respective integrity and putting in the right perspective  their parochial interests in  representations,  if any.

 

“It is important to point out that, a fundamental error has been established in the making of the intended electioneering process, as follows:

 

“a. The outgone (immediate past) Governing Council Board was not properly dissolved.

 

“b. Presently, at the expiration of the outgone Governing Council Board, while the elected freight forwarders in the board heeded to the court seeking for their tenure elongation to  4 years and not 2 years as provided by the Act 16, 2007;  the appointed  politicians were immediately reappointed by the Honorable Minister, ahead of the freight forwarders election, from the last experience  this type of arrangement creates room for political manipulations and undue leverages.

 

“c.  Unconfirmed reports have it that, there exists  an internal understanding and arrangements for the appointed politicians to work assiduously and to deploy a process that will guarantee the return of the outgone freight forwarders represented back into the  Governing Council Board of the CRFFN.

 

 “Wherefore, the freight forwarding Practitioners are still very much doubtful and worried about the possibilities of the HMOT, unknowingly might have played into  this initial conceptualized TACTICAL ELECTIONEERING AND VOTING PROCESS packaged by the outgone Governing Council Board.

 

“It is on record that, the immediate past Governing Council Board set up a Tactical & Strategic Electoral Committee before their tenure elapsed, but the components of such electoral arrangements are still very much around in the present making as encapsulated above.

 

“It is important to openly lodge the skepticism expressed by the generality of the freight forwarding Practitioners which seeks  a clarification to the effect that, this published election notice is not in any way  a  mere TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC ELECTORAL COMMITTEE AND SYSTEM or better stated, a furtherance of the formal Governing Council Board.

 

“This expression is apt because we are aware that:  "In a "first-past-the-post the electoral system, a vote is tactical when it is cast for a selected candidate not on merits, but to best influence to ensure such candidate wins in the constituency".

 

“Tactical voting also includes strategic incentives granted to misrepresent the electorates’ choices via a manipulated and preference electoral system.

 

“Tactical voting arrangements involves subtly structuring and agreeing on incentives that will be redeemed during or later, having the capacity to   necessitate and  influencing the electioneering process and the election results even when the candidates in favour is a misfits and unpopular.

 

“Tactical & Strategic voting system is often organized to favour an incumbent or to foster the status quo.

 

“The term Tactical & Strategic Voting are synonymous, a sophisticated voting system generally refers to an electoral Committee system where there are defined agenda, rules, and guidelines that are factored to suite the unpublished interests.

 

“Tactical and strategic voting system is often anti-democratic norms and pro conservativism.

 

“Another crucial observation is the Identity of the Electoral Committee Members who has not been made public - again, this further cast integrity question on the electoral arrangements.

 

“Base on the foregoing, the Freight Forwarders requires a confidence rekindling statement by the Honorable Minister on the issues raised above.

 

“A clarification is apt because it will be administratively counterproductive to allow freight forwarders to obtain election forms at a whopping non refundable cost of #500,000:00 and to eventually discover later that, the election was a mere charade in the order  not too different from the last election.

 

“Such, arrangements will tantamount to deliberate acceptance of multiple litigations, thereafter.

 

“In similar expression, the Freight Forwarders believes that most of the administrative policies and directives taken by Transport Ministry as a supervisory ministry to the CRFFN has continuously fallen short of driving a Professional development process, rather it further makes the Practitioners less Professionals.

 

“For instance, while it may be deemed  considerable that the Nigeria Shippers Council, as provided in Act 16, 2007, midwife the election into the First Governing Council of the CRFFN in 2008, with the recorded short comings therein.

 

“In 2010, the second Governing Council, the elected Freight Forwarders and appointed representatives organized and conducted an internal election, thereby fulfilling the democratic transition as provided in the third schedule, and it went smoothly without skirmishes.

 

“6 years (2012 to 2018) of non constituted Governing Council board, following the earlier drawn of the Governing Council curtains to close position, which was abruptly done by the Federal Ministry of Transport, who gave excuses for the paucity of funds to prosecute an election? 

 

“It outrightly refused all entreaties by the elected  Practitioners who proposed to conduct the election within the ambit of its Professional providence but to no avail, hence, the nonregulatory activities with the period under reference.

 

“In 2018, again the Ministry cooked up another general election, appointed politicians (98% of them non Practitioners) to represent the geo political zone of the Federation.

 

“These politicians were well seated for about six months ahead of the composition of the ideal Governing Council.

 

“In what the Practitioners saw as a collaboration with some of the officers in the Transport Ministry in consultation with the leadership of the accredited Freight Forwarding Associations handed over an electoral script  to the Management of the CRFFN to prosecute, while they sat back to supervise. 

 

“The outcome of that year election 2018 is a typical example of a TACTICAL VOTING SYSTEM.

 

“Today, the Transport Ministry has constituted another election with consultation to with the stakeholders, citing sections of the Act to mean that the Act confers on the HMOT the Power to constitute and organize an election for the Freight Forwarders, which in the understanding of the Practitioners is not so.

 

“Rather, the Practitioners is of the opinion that the HMOT merely misinterpret and misrepresents the object clause in the Act "the Honorable Minister to give directions of essential character" to the Council. In reality, judging from the First Governing Council, the said object clause is applicable where the Governing Council requires to address issues with political considerations ( e.g. internal political appointments, sighting of projects, etc).

 

“The generality of the Freight Forwarding Practitioners, with mouths wide open, wishes to ask, "Can the Government Minister cum Ministry constitute an electoral committee for the: "Engineers, Accountants, Bankers, Lawyers, Doctors, etc.

 

“It is worrisome to note that, some of the accredited freight forwarding associations have a long history of conducting successful internal elections, but under the prevailing circumstances are found unfit to conduct a free, fair, transparent, and acceptable election in their Profession.

 

“Indeed, seemingly,  the Freight Forwarding Profession is the most disrespected and ignored among the comity of National Professional bodies in Nigeria, yet they are the most trusted and movers of the national economy.

 

 

“On this note of expressions, we, therefore, call on the Honorable Minister of Transport to give a statement of essential character premised on professional integrity with regards to this subject of the election notice into the Governing Council Board of the CRFFN.

 

We may make further statement in due course.

 

Thanks.

 

Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju 

 

Formal Governing Council Chairman - CRFFN.