CRFFN: Olanrewaju Commends Amaechi on Moves for Election, Tasks Minister on Integrity of Exercise
rotimi amaechi
• Alerts of plans to return outgone freight forwarders under tactical, strategic voting arrangement
By Francis Ugwoke
The former Chairman, Governing Board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding (CRFFN), Aare Hakeem Olanrewaju on Sunday commended the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi for constituting an electoral committee to conduct an election into the Council.
Olanrewaju who described the move as most noble and administrative responsiveness , however called on the Minister to pay attention to the professional integrity and the integrity of the electoral processes starting with the committee’s composition.
In a statement, the former CRFFN Chairman called for scrutiny of members of the electoral committee as a result of their parochial interests in the whole exercise.
According to him, a fundamental error has been established in the making of the intended electioneering process as the former Governing Council Board was not properly dissolved.
He said that under the present plan, there is an arrangement for the return of the outgone freight forwarders under a tactical and strategic voting system during the election that is anti-democracy.
This he said was packaged by the outgone Governing Council Board.
Part of the statement reads:
“ 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 arrangement creates room for political manipulations and undue leverages.
“ Unconfirmed reports has 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 play 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 settled 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 aware that : “In a “first-past-the-post 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 electorial system.
“Tactical voting arrangements, involves subtly structuring and agreeing on an 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 favor is a misfits and unpopular.
“Tactical & Strategic voting system is often organized to favor an incubent or to foster status quo.
“The term Tactical & Strategic Voting are synonymous, a sophisticated voting system generally refer 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 observations is the Identity of the Electoral Committee Members which has not been made public – again, this further cast integrity question on the electoral arrangements.
“Base on the forgoing, 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 counter productive 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 charades in the order not too different from the last election.
“Such, arrangements will tatamount to deliberate acceptance of multiple litigations, thereafter.
“In similar expression, the Freight Forwarders believe that most of the administrative policies and directives taken by Transport Ministry as a supervisory ministry to the CRFFN has continuously fall 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 the Act 16, 2007, midwifed the election into the First Governing Council of the CRFFN in 2008, with the recorded short comings therein”.
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