
The Elders Council of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) on Thursday inaugurated four committees to manage the activities of the Council.
The Council was ntroduced a few years ago as a council of all the elders in NAGAFF who have attained the age of 60 years and above with the aim to address issues with maturity and wisdom; “just like you have the youth as pressure group elders are for enforcement.
“Each Council member must have been registered in NAGAFF for at least 15 years running, without any relationship with other associations and must not be an ex-convict.
“You must have a clean record before you can be registered into the Elders Council of NAGAFF,” Chairman of the Council, Prince Ignatius Nwachukwu stated.
According to him, setting up committees in the Council was necessitated by the need to streamline the activities of the Elders Council to achieve more results, adding that it makes every member to be up and doing because in NAGAFF all hands must be on deck.
Each of the committees is made up of five members; a chairman, vice chairman, secretary and two members.
The committees are Finance and Fund Raising, Compliance and Disciplinary Committee, Membership Drive, and Welfare.
Finance and Fund Raising committee is saddled with the responsibility of raising funds for the Association and it has Chief Patrick Ogbo and Mr. Ugochukwu Nnadi as the Chairman and Secretary respectively.
The Membership Drive Committee is responsible for recruiting new members into the Council from terminals where there are qualified NAGAFF freight forwarders.

Mr. Patrick Amaechi and Mr. Mustapha Aboki serve as the Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively while Mr. Bath Ekebugwu is the Secretarym of the Committee.
The Compliance and Disciplinary Committee has Chief (Dr.) Clement Iwegbuna as the Chairman and Mr. Isiaja as the Secretary.
It is responsible for ensuring that discipline, peace and harmony are maintained in the Council, by addressing issues bothering on any form of misconduct by members and sanctioning offenders.
The Welfare Committee ensures the welfare and wellbeing of Council members. They are also to embark on visitation to members.
Apostle Eze and Mr. Anya Kalu serve as the Chairman and the Secretary respectively.
Elaborating further on the committees and Council, Nwachukwu said the idea came after he was elected the chairman of the Council on April 30, 2024 where he gave a five-point agenda on how to run the Council.
His words: “We started this committee because in NAGAFF all hands are on deck, everybody must come on board to work, to showcase your experience you had had before, either in NAGAFF or whatever association you found yourself before coming to NAGAFF.
“The committee idea came after the election of Elder Council executives on April 30, 2024 where I emerged the National Chairman; we considered having lieutenants because we cannot do it alone. You cannot be here and be there.
“There are things you need to do that others can do, so we came up with the idea of expanding the scope by creating committees that would help the management of Elders Council and that gave rise to those four committees you saw today: Finance and Fund Raising, Compliance and Discipline, Membership Drive, and Welfare, and each is made up of five members, having chairman, vice chairman, secretary and two members making them five.
“Critically these committees were created because in NAGAFF nobody pays anybody salary; for instance you have worked for 20 to 30 years and you don’t get a bill of laden again to work, nobody gives you again, you will be frustrated and you will be forced out of the system.
“Before you know it old age will set in and you would not even have money to buy panadol for an ordinary headache and it starts affecting you. Before you know it the man cannot come out again and before you know it the man has a stroke and some members have been dying like that.
“So how do we address this issue? It is through fundraising, and some members of NAGAFF can send you to someone for a job; no Customs officer will see an elderly person with a walking stick from the Elders Council and turn him down from his office.
“Any amount we charge for the job we use for the elders, to support them. So I created a Fund Raising committee for that purpose.
“Then for the Membership Drive Committee there are some elders who do not even know their left from their right, but once we start coming together it gives them a sense of reasoning, sense of oneness, sense of love and when they’re coming together seeing others they’ll be alive, going out and coming in.
“When they come out they see those who are as old as they are and they hug themselves, move around, robbing minds, and are happier than staying in the house everyday; waking up in the morning and staying indoors all day. You’ll depreciate, just like parking a vehicle. The vehicle will depreciate and rust. That is why elders are supposed to be taken care of and when I took over as the chairman I gave them a five point agenda as my manifesto.
“One; there must be rule of law and democracy (Disciplinary Committee), no longer business as usual, no fighting here. There must be empowerment – you must empower elders and that led to the Finance Committee, there must be transparency.
“Again the Disciplinary Committee is set up because you know elders can get angry and abuse one another, we don’t do it here and if you do we refer you to the Disciplinary Committee to find who is guilty and they will now discipline you.
“The Membership Drive Committee is to bring in elders who are not in the Council. We have to bring them onboard and they have to register formally.
“Then the Welfare Committee is to take care of us in terms of entertainment after our meetings, and also empowerment for transport and some money to use for some time. So when we gather like that we crack jokes, we eat and blood pressure will go.
The President of NAGAFF, Tochukwu Ezisi, while administering the oath of office to the members of the committees urged them to work towards the upliftment of the Elders Council of NAGAFF, “gentle men, retired but not tired,” he enthused.
He said the Elders Council is moving like a jet, stressing that the newly elected executives of the Council are wonderfully doing well and the essence of setting up the committees is to help them because the executives cannot do everything by themselves.
“I want to believe that the essence of creating these committees will be a helping hand to the executives not a problem to the executives because sometimes like this we enjoy and clap but when the chips are down it becomes a problem. I pray these committees will not be a problem,” he pleaded.
There is NAGAFF Elders Council at the chapter level in all the terminals – Apapa, Tin Can, KLT, PTML, Airport, and Onne which is, however, yet to be commissioned to start operating effectively.