Former CRFFN Chairman Denies Planning to Re-contest Election

The immediate past Chairman of the Governing Council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Hakeem Olanrewaju has said he was not planning to run in the forthcoming elections into the Governing Council of CRFFN.

However, he said, that does not foreclose that he is not interested in the electioneering processes, “knowing that the future of my profession will be in the hands of those who gets into the council.”

He advised the would-be governing council members to be objective in the services to the council and the profession, so as to avoid possible pit falls.

“I have interest to decide with my vote as well as that of other practitioners, I am interested in the integrity and professional versatility and commitment of our professional colleagues (men and women) who intend to reshape the freight forwarding in Nigeria, once elected into the council.

“Second, you recall that, as enshrined in the CRFFN Act 16 of 2007 and midwife by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the first governing council had transitional four years tenure (2008 to 2012) for the elected 8 freight forwarders then, while ministerial appointees had two years on geopolitical zones rotation basis. Subsequently, governing council members had only two years tenure. It is important to note that, between 2012 to date 2018, makes it Six years that the CRFFN had functioned and been administered without a formally constituted governing council.

“Implying that for six years, our CRFFN has been administered by the supervising ministry of transportation in collaboration with our employed administrative officer (the Registrar). So we had four years during which our council had structures, became institutionalised and formulated initial regulations, sadly, we also and six years of retrogression,” he said.

He added that the forthcoming election is critically important to the well-being of our profession, “as it opens up yet another window for us to take over our profession from the ministry of transportation and to demonstrate our willingness to show professionalism and ability, which will engender capacity building via professional training and retraining in the freight forwarding sub-sector of our economy.”

“Third, take note that, if the enforcement of the Practitioners Operating Fee ( POF) commences, as a key revenue component of the council, automatically the fee will be paid directly into the Treasury Single Account ( TSA) by the forwarders either at the point of releasing the cargo or at the point of exit.

“The Governing Council of