***Intimidation of members by agencies will no longer be tolerated. – Afam.
In a bid to reposition the operations at seaports, a registered freight forwarder with the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders ( NAGAFF) and the Deputy National President of National President, Seaports, Chief Afam Chukwuma has vowed to put machineries in motion to actualise the reformations.
Chief Chukwuma who made this known while interacting with our Correspondent in his office in Apapa , Lagos said already arrangements are in place to reactivate ailing NAGAFF chapters in the Eastern and Western seaports , adding that it will no longer be business as usual.
“I am therefore bringing it to the notice of all actors from the chapters, from the high command level that we are ready to reposition the seaports. All operations of seaports of NAGAFF must come up alive. They will become more active and more ruborst under my regime. It is my hope that even the ones that are moribund will be reactivated,” he said.
According to him, “Ports that do not have NAGAFF Presence would be established. What am saying is that there may be seaports chapters/zones like the eastern ports, Warri and Calabar axis that may not be doing too well, we may have to visit those places and establish the presence of NAGAFF. Of course, they might have been in existence in the past but not anymore, we need to reactivate them.
The NAGAFF Deputy National President , Seaports who was the Assistant General Secretary of NAGAFF assured that NAGAFF under his watch would not only remain number one freight forwarding association in every seaport in Nigeria, but would also ensure that the very reason NAGAFF was established is realised,”It is a new regime, new focus , new determination, new zeal and new goals have been set and we are ready to fire,” Afam opined.
Chief Chukwuma further pledged to ensure the interest of freight forwarders are protected, stressing that No freight forwarder who is a member of the association would be allowed to be intimidated when he is right while assuring to encourage them to do the right thing
“All port operations should be made to understand that NAGAFF members are professional members and must be treated with respect, must be treated with high esteem, must be treated with decorum when they deal with government agencies be it Custom, be it SON, be it NAFDAC, be it NDLEA every agency must be made to understand that when they are dealing with NAGAFF members, they are dealing with professionals , those who understand the terrain and must be treated with respect. So the operations at the seaport must take a new look. That’s what my regime is focusing on.
On intervention for their members who have issues in their businesses, he said, “sure, we will intervene. When someone belong to an association, there’s something the association can do for him because he or she is expected to live up to his responsibility for the association.
In turn, the association is expected to protect you where you appear defenceless. So if our members are being harassed or intimidated or not being given the right of way where they are supposed to have it , we will surely intervene to ensure their cases are resolved.
“We encourage our members to be compliant, to do honest declarations and honest in their dealings so that our job will be easy. But we will not under any circumstance allow any agency of government to intimidate our people. That will not be accepted. It is a new regime, it’s a new focus with a new vigor .
“Few hours ago, I have spoken to our Zonal secretary Western Zone to set up a platform ,. It is my hope that we will be meeting this week to set up an agenda. Already we know one or two things we want to achieve. So we need to come together those of us at the Eastern and Western ports, we need to come together to fashion out modalities on how to achieve already set out agenda.
“Of course , Mr President has told us the kind of government he wants, the kind of regime he wants, the shape of NAGAFF he would like to see. So coming down to the seaports, I have identified Mr President’s instructions and we need to expand on it and ensure that even the visions we also have pull together with that of the President and the Association is being taking up higher and higher. Perhaps if all things worked out, before the end of this week, we would have emerged out of that meeting,” he stated.
Photo:. Chief Afam Chukwuma-Deputy National President, NAGAFF, Seaports.
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