I welcome all members of CWC and NEC present in today’s first CWC/NEC Meetings; being the first meeting of the present Executives of NATA after the National Election in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria in January 2018.
Today’s first meeting will be a historical meeting held in Lagos State; the Centre of Excellence.
The last meeting that was held in South-West was in year 2014 in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
We thank God for making another meeting possible in South-West again. I wish to advice all members of NATA to embrace love. If we love each other, the Association will move forward by force; by fire and we should support the new Executives in all areas.
I want all of us to believe that it is God that makes someone a king, If God does not support someone to be in a position it will not be possible. I advise our comrades from Eastern part of the country to desist from going to court in any aspect of dispute in the Association.
Some of our Comrades in the East have been in court for over ten years now and they stay-put in office because they are in court.
This should be stopped, forthwith. We should embrace dialogue in all aspect of misunderstandings and those who are in the courts because of the concluded National Election should withdraw their cases immediately after this NEC Meeting.
If such comrades know that they have the interest of the Association at heart. If they fail to withdraw the suits; they should be expelled from the Association with immediate effect.
There should be discipline in the Association. Nobody is above the law.
I want to use this medium to advice us that we should include rotation in our Association’s Constitution; as this will stop perceived marginalization of any zone within the Association.
If we go back to the history of the association; the NATA Northern Zones have spent twelve years in the helm of presidency and if we add four years of this current President it will be sixteen years. This is one of the reasons why some zones felt they were marginalized during the last Election.
We should not allow any zone to spend more than two terms which is eight years in office. If a seating President spends four years and performed very well he should be allowed to spend another four years to complete his second term; then the Presidency should go to another zone. We should entrench this in our Constitution and it should be dully followed.
We should also stop with immediate effect any member that cannot read or write from contesting for any position in the association during election.
Also, no member should be allowed to stay on a position for more than eight years. The era of someone staying as Life State Chairman should be stopped.
I am using this medium to advise all State Councils to pay up their Monthly Dues; as we all know without money the Association cannot move forward. And National Body should not depend solely on Ammasco International Limited.
With the look of things, it seems we cannot do anything in the Association at national level without support from Ammasco International Limited which is not supposed to be so; even though we have MOU with the company and they’ve been supporting the Association in many ways, but we should not put all our responsibilities on Ammasco International Limited alone at the national level.
I believe some State Councils deliberately refused to pay up-to-date their Monthly Dues of N10,000; while some State Council Chairmen have collected the money from their states and refused to remit it to the national purse.
The National Secretariat should note down all these defaulting states and inform their State officials of the amount they owe; they will discover that some chairmen have collected their dues, but refused to remit it.
Some States in the Association have good relationship and opportunity with their State Governors. Their Governors gave them millions of Naira and still some of them don’t pay National Dues. They are just being selfish and self centered.
Despite the fact that we in Lagos do not have the opportunity to meet or get funds from our Governor, we still faithfully pay up our dues to the national,
This is rigidly adhered to because of our understanding, interest and commitment to the Association.
We implore other state councils to emulate Lagos State Council in this wise.
I want to suggest that any state council that owes the National Secretariat should not present any candidate at National Elections and they should not enjoy any diffident from the National Body.
There should also be Discipline in the Association; as the Association lacks discipline in all areas. Discipline should start from National Body down to Unit level. Members behaved anyhow; discipline needs to be emphasized in our Constitution. It is indiscipline that made members to drag the Association to court at random; which is not supposed to be.
By now the National level should have plans on how to build our own permanent National Secretariat. It should be getting prepared for rainy days by saving and also have a separate account for this project. A percentage should be put into the account from any money we get from donors and each State Council should put development levies in place every year which should be deposited into this account for the development of the Association.
I will advice all members to get involved in politics at each State and at Federal level. We should support a strong party in each individual states and the ruling party at the National level.
Also, let us all be closer to our Governments at all level; as the biggest Association in Nigeria, we should get some things from politics as politics is a game of numbers, so we should make use of our large numbers and get something from government at all levels.
The world is going digital and I implore all members of NATA to try as much as possible to follow the trend. We should make use of any opportunity brought/introduced to us. We must not be stagnant at a point, let’s always try to move with the way things are being modernized.
I will advise all State Councils and the National body to take data base seriously. We must all have our data bases in each state and also at the National level.
All members in each state should embrace Insurance Policy and the state officials should make sure that all members insure all their properties and themselves.
The National General Secretary and the State General Secretaries and indeed all members should be conversant with the internet, in order to get N.G.O and inducing donors who can assist the Association financially, with Grants.
We thank Mobil Nigeria Plc now 11 Plc for supporting the hosting of this NEC/C WC meeting. Mobil is the sole sponsorship of this august meeting. On behalf of all NATA members in Nigeria we say a ‘very big thanks’ to the management of Mobil Nigeria Plc. You are the leading oil company in Nigeria and the world in general. I pray that you will continue to lead oil companies in Nigeria and the whole world. AMEN. MOBIL LEADS! …OTHERS FOLLOW!! There is no controversy over this.
I equally thank other oil companies who have been helping and identifying with NATA e.g. Ammasco Nigeria Ltd, Kano. They have assisted NATA in many ways especially at national level, may your company grow from strength to strength.
We also thank Oando (now OVH Energy Marketing Company Limited for the re-training giving to our members in some states in Nigeria especially Lagos.
Oando has impacted lots of knowledge to NATA members on automobile. The training they gave us cannot be quantified. We say a big thank you to Oando (OVH Energy Marketing Company Limited). Your company will grow from strength to strength and will become house-hold in oil industry throughout the world. We equally thank Eternal Plc (franchise owners of Castrol Oil in Nigeria) for their support to NATA. We also pray that the company will grow from strength to strength and become house-hold in Nigeria and the world at large.
I will use this opportunity to advice members that we should only patronize Oil Companies that identify with NATA and stop patronizing any oil company that does not identify with us, We are the only one using their oils, no other Artisans like carpenters or bricklayers uses this oil except NATA, so therefore all companies should give us patronage or else we will stop patronizing their oils.
Finally, I congratulate all the six states in south west who hosted this meeting in Lagos; Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo. I say a big thank you to all of you. We shall all excel in all our undertaking and we shall not be disgraced in Jesus name! Amen!!
I also thank all my Lagos State Executives for their moral support towards the success of this meeting. I also thank our Deputy National President, Chief Sunday J. Aina and our National Trustee, Apostle Samuel A. Adegoke for their prayers and moral support towards the success of this meeting. THANKS!
Yours
ASIWAJU JACOB OMONIDE FAYEUN
Lagos State NATA Chairman
Being text of Welcome Address presented by Comrade Asiwaju Jacob Omonide Fayeun , Chairman, NATA Lagos State Chapter as Host of NATA CWC/NEC Meetings held in Lagos between Wednesday 26th and Friday 28th of September, 2018