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.
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