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The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders on Friday, June 18, 2021, honoured retired Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Bar. Hassan Bello.
The event, organised by NAGAFF, was a gathering of the who-is-who in the maritime industry.
For the first time, the banquet hall and gallery of the Rockview Hotel, Apapa, the venue of the event, was filled to capacity to the admiration of the celebrator and participants.
Representatives of freight forwarding groups, government agencies, truckers, customs brokers, importers and exporters, as well as the media, among others, touched on Bello’s various contributions to their works in the maritime industry.
National President of NAGAFF, Dr Increase Uche, who spoke at the occasion, said it was their little way of appreciating the former NSC chief executive officer.
He cited several achievements recorded by the outgone NSC boss, including facilitation of Inland Dry Ports (ICDs), establishment and development of Truck Transit Parks (TTP), as well as the provision of buses for freight agents at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He explained that Bello also ensured quick interventions in issues that stifle trade, agency stakeholders regular parleys and stopped unauthorised charges of service providers, among several others.
Uche also urged the Federal Government to consider returning the former executive officer to the industry, saying it was too early to dispense with his experience, detribalised and humane services in the industry.
Journalists, who spoke at the ceremony, described Bello as an epitome of a Chief Executive Officer, who never avoided the press with a retinue of media consultants, but displayed friendliness to all practitioners.
They recalled that during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, he was the only CEO that remembered that journalists should be protected in the course of duty by making them available to the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) like nose masks, hand sanitisers and others.
They also recalled his interventions any time a media practitioner had health issues, citing a colleague who during the pandemic manifested symptoms of the disease with no assistance from anywhere after he raised the alarm.
Bello, they said, mobilised an ambulance and medics, who took him from his house to the hospital where he eventually tested negative to the scourge. To the press, Bello should return.
Founder (NAGAFF), Dr Boniface Aniebonam, commended the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, for appointing Bello to head the NSC for eight years.
Aniebonam commended the Minister for identifying such a technocrat for the industry and pleaded with him to hearken to the voice of the people by finding a way to return him to the maritime industry, as according to him, his services were still needed.
“I have never seen a simple, unassuming and caring gentleman like Bello. You hardly know he is a chief executive of an organisation. Look at what he did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without what he did, when everywhere was in total lockdown, the ports would have remained shut down,” he said.
Aniebonam agreed with some of the earlier speakers that there were some initiatives of Bello that were not concluded, and hoped that his return if granted, would provide an opportunity to get much accomplished.
Responding, Bello, who struggled to fight back tears, said he was short of words to appreciate NAGAFF and the stakeholders for the honour accorded him observed that he had attended events at the Rockview Hotel but never had he seen such a large gathering covering both the hall and the gallery.
He said he was surprised at the reactions and show of love for him by stakeholders, noting that whatever he did as Executive Secretary to him, was a call to duty to serve the people.
Bello, who joined the Shippers’ Council in 1998, thanked the various stakeholders for their cooperation and support while he held sway and urged them to continue with such gestures to his successor, who he said, had an intimidating profile.
He said the ports should be fully digital in their operations for ease of doing business and commended some freight agents that had started practising transactions online.
He described the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports as “tired ports” that should not be replicated in the proposed Lekki Deep Seaport still in the works, saying: “The Lekki port is the way to go in modern port operations.”
However, he said all ports, including the Lekki Port, should be made open and not a close thing, adding: “The problem with our ports is that it is a closed system. We need to be open. That is how to operate”.
Bello advocated what he described as “a community port” system where all should operate in synergy to get things done.
NAGAFF inducted the retired NSC boss as the Patron of NAGAFF with the ceremony performed by the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT), Chief Chidiebere Enelama. Bello accepted the honour of being made patron of the association.
