A Focused, Committed, Reliable Board Is All ANLCA Needs’- Mustapha

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

The immediate past chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha who is contesting a fresh term in the board has said the single most important factor required to keep ANLCA on its course and soaring is a trusted and dependable board, genuinely attuned to a harmonious working relationship with the national leadership, the National Executive Committee (NECOM).

Mustapha who is generally regarded as an apostle of peace and leading advocate and promoter of internal democracy and inclusivity within the body politics of the association says once ANLCA BoT is at peace with itself and is amenable to and supportive of the NECOM, the sky would be the limit for what the association can achieve, noting that there is nothing as morally and materially edifying, satisfying and beneficial as gains recorded for and on behalf of all members of the association.

This is even as he disclosed with a tinge of regret that the prevailing atmosphere of a divided board and its overall negative effects of the association and its leadership organ is a recent development.

He said the desire to join in redesigning and bequeathing a focused and reliable BoT is reason he is into the race again, noting that he has the reach, credential and experience to be part of the upcoming new board, not just to give back but to identify with the objective of a large number of candidates contesting the board membership ticket with like minds, who are determined to bring a new lease of live into the association and its governance.

He said, “Ordinarily, sometimes when one hears some uncomplimentary remarks by some fellow, you feel like walking away, but then, you also find those who are by far a multitude of members, appreciating you for what you have been able to do and asking you to stay and do more. I can say this is the situation l find myself, and l owe it to the majority of the good people in ANLCA who are anxious to ensure that much of what has been recovered by the present NECOM is not lost.

“I am ANCLA and industry person with a track record going back many years and l am making myself available to serve again on the board assured that always, l stand for what is true and sincere, and what will uplift ANLCA and not what will pull us down. Whoever is coming to the board of ANLCA this time should have the fear of God, unfortunately, some people falsely swear by God’s name to be genuine while they are not.”

Giving an insight of his sojourn into customs clearing business and ANLCA politics, Mustapha revealed how after his mandatory youth service, he was appointed into the Nigeria Customs Service in 1990 but ended up in clearing and forwarding.

“I came Port Harcourt in 1990 to do my youth service, and coincidentally I was posted to the Nigerian Customs Service and I served as a corper in the Onne port command and that gave me the opportunity of meeting a good number of young officers who were just coming into service as 2star and 3star officers.

“Coincidentally again, I was given appointment as a ‘superintendent officer’, but unfortunately before I could resume, the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida regime changed the ministers and the new Minister of Internal Affairs took over and had to change the entire list of the employment of the new officers then. So, somehow I had to join the clearing and forwarding business, that was when I joined Joe Eboje as the Sea Freight Officer for 3 years before I started my own company, Pyramid Associate Limited. I incorporated it in 1993 and I obtained my first clearing license in 1995.

“Moving a little bit backward, I mentioned doing my youth service with the Nigerian Customs Service, so that gave me the opportunity of meeting a good number of officers and a good number of them became management officers, they were able to reach the top of their own career as well. They later became Comptrollers, ACGs, DCGs, some of them are retired now and that strong relationship like us growing up together, clubbing together, working and attending parties together, provided me the opportunity of a good relationship with them.

“Now at the end of the day after incorporating my company, I started working properly. Today I thank God for everything, today I have a good number of clients especially in the oil and gas company, the likes of Slumberger, Texaco, Mobil Nigeria, and thank God we  have done a lot of big projects for not just the federal government, but the Rivers and Akwa-Ibom state government that runs into millions of dollars. I thank God for where we started and where we are today, the future is still pregnant, positively, and we will have the birth of tomorrow to share.”

With a mixture of nostalgia and regret, Mustapha recalled how he joined ANLCA politics and also reluctantly talked about the beginning of the board crisis that snowballed and consumed the NECOM, setting the leadership crisis that is still festering, aglow.

“Having looked at it critically and coming down to how I became active in ANLCA, I actually started picking interest when Joe Eboje and Chief Elochukwu had to contest for the position of the president. Of course being a former staff I had to work with Joe Eboje, I had to work with him and joined his campaign team, when he didn’t win I dropped my interest in ANLCA. But as God would have it, again, Prince Olayiwola Shittu picked interest to contest as the president again I think in 2008 and invited me to join his team.

“That gave me the leverage again to start getting interested in ANLCA politic, I coordinated the list for him as his campaign team leader. To God be the Glory I was able to deliver and eventually he won, so for the period of about eight years when Prince Olayiwola Shittu was president of ANLCA, somehow I became seriously interested because of the way he handled that seat, he raised the banner of ANLCA to a very high pedestal that made my interest in the association’s politics to grow the more, and I looked around on where to come in.

“Of course I was a little bit undecided because of my status, I couldn’t go back to contest at the chapter level because I had gone beyond that level and incidentally when I looked at the zonal coordinator position in the east, it was being contested by Dennis Okwu, who happened to be my friend and I couldn’t bring myself to the level of contesting against him. Somehow the BoT election came up again in 2014 so that gave me the opportunity to say, let me contest the BoT membership election. I was one of the members who won and we were all sworn in. Somehow I was the youngest among the nine of us who came into the board and I was made the coordinator which was like the acting chairman of the board until when we were able to resolve among ourselves on who would be the substantive chairman of the board between Chief Henry Njoku and …

“So I coordinated the board for about 9 months when eventually we agreed on conducting election for the board and Henry Njoku took over and after about 2 years when we had to conduct another NECOM election, Tony Uju took over and that changed the scenario again, like Tony Uju being an lgbo person and Henry Njoku being an lgbo person, the two of them couldn’t have remained at the top level of ANLCA so Henry had to drop but somehow when we had to conduct another chairmanship election, that was when the whole crisis started, but that is by the way.

“What l am trying to say is that I have held the position of the coordinator of the board and  everywhere was peaceful, there was no problem and the unity within the association was there, until the whole crisis.”

Despite his humility and peaceful disposition, Mustapha flows and hobnobs in the circle of the nation’s big league, and his reach, contact and connection is one that can be tapped into for the benefit of the board and ANLCA.

“My profile in the clearing and forwarding industry is fairly elaborate. I was part of the presidential team for the Deep Blue Project that was midwife by NIMASA and the Ministry of Transport and that opened my eyes to the security network in Nigeria, at least having to do with the maritime and waterways security, piracy and the rest. I rubbed shoulder with a good number of military generals, the then minister of transport, the minister of defence and the chief of defence staff at the time, so that game me a good relationship and that exposed me to the military network.

“So I think uhmm I have what it takes to be able to be part of the new board to continue to midwife peace and put it on a better pedestal and that is my short story for seeking to be on the board again.”

A philanthropist and a man of many parts, Mustapha has impacted lives with the establishment of the Taiwo Mustapha Foundation, largely active in his home area of Kwara State.

“I run a foundation known as Taiwo Mustapa Foundation, it is a registered foundation and we use it in assisting the less privilege on three layers. We have the education side where we give scholarship to girls and boys that are not from well-to-do family but are brilliant and they have bright future, we have a committee that is in charge of that, whose duty is to identify boys and girls from poor homes but who are very brilliant. Some have graduated and some are still in different universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

“Then we have the health side of it, where we try to help a good number of people to take care of their health expenses but mostly people from my community and we have an empowerment programme. This empowerment we do on a yearly basis especially during the big Sallah when I am home and also during Christmas to help the widows and the elderly people in terms of feeding them, and distributing food around. “The foundation also gives cash to market women and some artisans in terms of assisting them in their small businesses. By the grace of God, the Taiwo Mustapha Foundation started our community road which was done last year”, he said