2018 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MARINE SURVEYING ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NIGERIA BRANCH HOLDING AT THE ROCK VIEW HOTEL, APAPA G.R.A., LAGOS.
CHAIRMAN OPENING REMARKS
My dear Colleagues,
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the first Annual General Meeting of our Association, International Institute of Marine Surveying Nigeria Branch.
You will recall on 31 May 2016, the West Africa Regional Director, Mr Monday Ogadina, inaugurated IIMS Nigeria Branch at this venue. It was about 35 days short of being exactly 2 years ago.
At the inauguration a 9-member Executive Management Committee was elected for the Branch and it consisted:
Chairman – Engr. Emeraku Ijioma
General Secretary – Engr. B. Peter Onwordi
Treasurer – Mr. Peter I. Enerichekor
Members – Capt. Tajudeen Alao
– Engr. Kuzi Onyibe
– Capt. Ade Olopoenia
– Capt. Benson Aja-Ukpabi
– Capt. Oladipupo Olubowale
– Mr. Ralph Opara
Some of us had been concerned that your Branch Chairman did not update members with situations concerning our branch. I appreciate our frustrations in this regard.
The truth is that the Executive Committee that you elected the day our IIMS NIGERIA Branch was inaugurated had been assiduously working toward ensuring that our Association is recognized by Nigerian laws so that we could go about our activities legitimately. I am happy to announce that we been registered and the name for our branch is INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MARINE SURVEYING ALUMINI ASSOCIATION, NIGERIA BRANCH. This is the name we were able to obtain Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) approval for. Following this, we proceeded to make sure that we opened a bank account which details have been circulated to members by the Treasurer.
The silence on our part had been occasioned by the fact that the EXCO need not bore members with challenges being faced in the process of registering the Association with CAC. I can assure you that major decisions regarding the selection of name were made with the consent IIMS Headquarters. The choice of name that we got was accepted so long as it is recognized by the laws of Nigeria. To the IIMS Headquarters, we remain IIMS Nigeria Branch.
I would like to, at this point, appreciate the collective and individual contributions of EXCO members toward the attainment of this goal. For your information, the EXCO members taxed themselves financially to make sure that we pursued the Branch CAC registration without having to deplete our funds. The Treasurer will present a detailed statement of our financial activities when he delivers the financial report.
We have listed important agenda items for deliberation and if there is anything we would like to discuss that was not included in the Agenda, we shall treat such under Any Other Business. Having said this, let me once again welcome us all to this 2018 AGM of IIMSAA Nigeria Branch.
Engr. Emeraku Ijioma OON CEng FRINA FNSE MIIMS FAEng
Naval Architect and Marine Surveyor
