The newly elected president of Ndigboamaka Progressive Markets Association, the umbrella body of major markets association in Lagos state, Comrade Chinedu Ukatu (Fcsim), has disclosed that he would protect the common interest of the trading communities in Lagos state.
Hon. Comrade Ukatu who was the General-Secretary of the association before his recent elevation as the president told The Unique Model Magazine in an interview that to be a member of the association; the person must first be a leader in a major market in Lagos.
Speaking about his performance in his previous position as the Secretary-General, he said, “Well, briefly, Ndigboamaka Progressive Markets Association, just as I highlighted, is the umbrella body of major markets in Lagos, and for you to be a member of the association, you must be a president of a market, representing your market because it’s an umbrella body of major markets, but the major markets are being represented by their presidents, and their excos.
“First and foremost, I joined this association at the formative stage in 2010; I am one of the founders of the association. Then we formed it as Political Pressure Group, for the interest of the traders, and from there it metamorphosed to the umbrella of markets leaders, and first and foremost my first position, when I joined the association was president of the Progressive Auto Dealers.
“And when I joined the association, I was elected the organizing secretary of the association. From organizing secretary, I became the secretary general of the association. And from secretary general today by special grace of God, I am the president of the association.
“As I have highlighted already, the basic requirement you have to represent a market association, you cannot just come in, because it is an umbrella representing the major markets, Ladipo, Alaba, Aspamda and others, you must have to be a leader of a major market before you can be a member of this association. That is a primary criterion to be a member of this association.”
Comrade Ukatu maintained that he would change the narrative around the trading community which projects them as the informal sector.
His words, “And my major objectives and vision is over time we have been crying to re-align ourselves and change the narratives of the vision / preservation of the trading public; you know we are the major contributor to the economy of the nation. And most importantly, people call and identify us as an informal sector; we are bringing to change the narratives to let them know that we are formal sector.
“We are equally partakers in the economy, we are equal partakers of whatever happens in the economy so, we want to change that narrative, we want to bring the trading public into the lime line, we want to fight for the interest of the traders, and we want to get it right.
“We want to fight for the common interest of the traders. And that is my primary objectives as I assume the leadership of this association.”
Asked how becoming the president made him feel, the obviously excited comrade Ukatu said, “Well, do you want me to be crying? For every person that is elevated to higher position, I am excited and I am humbled, and most importantly, I give thanks to my colleagues who found me worthy to bestow this position on me to lead them. And since I am excited and happy, I am not going to disappoint them.
“I have been handling the secretariat of this association for four years, and it is not understatement to say or over statement to say that I have been the engine room that services this association for the past four years, what I am going to do is to raise the bar from where we are now, so a lot of things have been achieved and we are going to topple it.”
Responding to the challenges ahead of him, he said, “The challenge so far, there have been a lot of challenges considering the terrain we are operating in, most of the traders, markets we are talking about are not from the state. We are having challenge of cooperating with the Federal Government; so far so good by special grace of God, things will be well.
“In the year 2021, I was appointed a member of Lagos State Markets Advisory Council, and I am the only Igbo man in that council, that makes it easy for us to have a cordial relationship with Lagos state government.
“We cannot say we have achieved much or the relationship have been 100 percent but for me to rate it one to ten, I will rate it six over ten, but I am still asking the state government for relationship to move up to ten over ten. That is what we are working into, for now that is what I can say.
“But for the relationship with the Federal Government and every other thing, I can rate three, but I am still trying to plead with the federal government based on our cooperation and contribution to the society, and the nation, I am begging that our rating should move to nine over ten.”
On his emergence, Ukatu said, “It was internal plan of the association and guided by the constitution of the association, I was elected, quite victorious. Now, we have written the state government officially to intimate them. We have written all the concerned authorities, including our national grand patron, so we are going to have an inaugural ceremony and we are going to invite all our well-wishers, the business mogul, those who have done well, the governors, even the president to come and witness what we have done.
“The milestone we have achieved, that is when the will come and by that time, you can ask me about my feeling and I will be able to tell you how I feel, whether I feel elevated in their presence, but now it is an internal thing.”
He explained that the award plaques in his office were emblems of honour bestowed on him by various organizations because of his contributions to them, and hoped that more awards would come.