Obicee Okonkwo (ANLCA member)
From inception when Alli came in as Comptroller General of Customs, I had always seen his appointment as putting a round peg in a square hole, he cannot just fit, I see him as a man battling with issues because he was not properly briefed, he is battling with decisions because he felt he could come and intimidate people, you will found out that he is not coming out with his best. From the onset you see that he only came to put fear in people and not to come and work, because he doesn’t even know what to do. I leave it to the authorities that brought in a non-trained officer to come and work in an organized environment, to me it doesn’t work out, I want to believe that the government brought him to instil that fear and intimidation and after a short while they will take him off and bring a trained officer who is within the confines of the service, if that is what government has in mind, I think it is high time they did it, they don’t have to wait because things are getting bad, I don’t see intimidation working where we have trained and professional people working.
Bolade Oladipo (Personal Assistant To ANLCA President)
Alli is operating in a different terrain, he was a military officer, but he is now heading a paramilitary organization like Customs which has a lot of internal workings that a career officer should know, but he is not a career officer. So far so good, let us assume the man is doing well, he is learning fast, gone are the days when he threatens to jail officers, he is now recognising and protecting his officers, this means he has started studying the rudiment of the organisation and he is learning fast. If he is doing well by encouraging the officers on trade facilitation and revenue generation, let’s give it to him, but I know if he were to be a career officer, it would be a different ball game.
Abdulraheem Abdulsalam (ANLCA, Abuja Chair)
He has been very proactive and the policies he met in place he tried to ensure that they work effectively, in terms of relating with the association, I think the national executives are doing their best to work with him, he knows how important the agents are to customs, we are the ones collecting the revenue on behalf of customs, we get the customers and get them to pay the appropriate duties. I think the CGC is doing well, but we all need to key into the change mantra that is affecting everybody, it is not easy for people to change, but this is our country and we don’t have any option. So far, there has been an increase in the clearing procedure at the port and there is discipline among customs officers.
Emmanuel Onyeme (Tin Can PRO, ANLCA)
The CG as a military man is coming into customs, and you know customs job is not an easy task, it requires a lot, he has to study a lot of things that has to do with the organogram and organization of the service. What the CG is doing now is assessment of the customs and the service they offer to the country. He is also looking at the structure of the officers’ salaries which also has to do with welfare, he is going round to see what is happening at each command and how to address them, at the end of the day, officers would be happy because I know that after the assessment, the CGC will come out with a lot of training for the officers. For me, what the CG is doing now is accessing the customs to see how they can meet up their revenue and trade facilitation function.
Chief Austine Kelly (NCMDLCA)
Assessing the CGC might be difficult in a way, owing to the fact that there might be some level of improvement internally as regards the service, but the fact still remains that not much publicity has been given to the CGC in that regard. But as far as I am concerned, I have not seen any achievement or whatsoever Col. Hameed Ali has recorded since his appointment as Customs Comptroller General. It is obvious that things are going backwards, trade facilitation was better off until he came into the picture. Therefore I can say externally nothing has been done to boost trade facilitation and it is not a good story to tell for the customs boss. Also, the terminal operators and shippers can have their own view about the CG, but obviously he has done nothing to drive the service forward.
Prince Olusegun Ologbese (Stakeholder)
The CGC is on course and in no distance time things will change for the better. There has been some level of reduction in the area of corruption and that is a plus for him .However, using the word arrest and jailing of officers has made most of them to be afraid and it has helped the system greatly. Since assumption in office, he has been able to put the officers on their toes in ensuring that things are done positively and to some extent, it has worked in reducing the corrupt tendency in the system.
Stanley Ezenga (NAGAFF)
Problem of customs and that of the country is not what we can all fix in a jiffy. Overtime the system has been running in such a way that needs to be sanitized, thus it will take a while. But since the President has set the ball rolling with his body language, it shows that the appointment of CGC who has a military background is to send vital messages across to the people in the system. By and large he is trying to achieve what he had said he wanted to achieve and I believe he is working towards that.
Chief Boniface Okoye (NCMDLCA)
The CGC in question is an outsider in customs operations and it will take two more years for him to understand the good, the bad and the ugly side of how the job can be done positively. In as much as the government decided to appoint an outsider to head the customs, I know there is no point for us to expect anything, because the service has a tradition and there is the need to study how it works.
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