Customs Comptroller General, Ali Ibrahim Hameed was in Lagos State last week on a familiarization ?visit to all commands and formations of customs. In this interview with Shipping Position Daily's Dapo Olawuni, founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Dr. Boniface Aniebonam analysed the CGC's visit and it's implication on port activities. Aniebonam, who confessed that he was not at the stakeholders meeting with the Customs boss, however said he watched recordings of the proceedings.
Customs Comptroller General, Ali Ibrahim Hameed was in Lagos State last week on a familiarization ?visit to all commands and formations of customs. In this interview with Shipping Position Daily's Dapo Olawuni, founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Dr. Boniface Aniebonam analysed the CGC's visit and it's implication on port activities. Aniebonam, who confessed that he was not at the stakeholders meeting with the Customs boss, however said he watched recordings of the proceedings.
?"All the CGC knows for now is that cargoes are declared wrongly, but there are still a lot when it comes to corruption?"
?"The rivalry between ANLCA and NAGAFF Cannot Fizzle Out Until…
What is your take on the visit of the Customs CG; Hameed Ali to Lagos this week?
?To an extent I don't understand what the CGC's visit meant, because as at the time the former CGC left and the new CGC came in, most of the industry stakeholders have been looking forward to meeting with him in order to look at issues that have to do with various complaints, I do know that NAGAFF has written a lot of documents in that regard, urging him to get down to the port and hit the ground running, especially on matters of corruption, But haven listened to him on tape, I would say I am quite impressed because he is learning very fast, there are good reasons why Mr. President must have decided to choose him.
Are you satisfied with his speech?
He was merely re-emphasizing the ?relevance of the law, he talked about Section 47 of the Customs law, matters that have to do with false declaration, concealment and so on, he talked about compliance, but on trade facilitation he was not too strong about it. But then, nobody talks about trade facilitation without compliance, but his emphasis is on compliance. These are things he has to say, he is re-emphasizing the need to curb corruption in our port system, they are not new things to any of us, even the past administration of Dikko had always said same thing. For me I would be expecting more concrete ways of curbing corruption at the ports, for me he still needs to do some things if he wants to hit the ground running.
What do you expect him to do to hit the ground running?
To hit the ground running is to begin to look at concrete steps to take in order to curb corruption in the system, on the issue of double alerts on cargoes, we have heard Dikko told us that only alerts from headquarters should come in, but the alerts have continued to come in from various units of the customs. What Hameed Ali is saying now is not different from what Dikko had been saying, what I expected from the outcome of his visit is to set up a committee to give him a working document. Apart from having the Customs Consultative Council which for me does not fit into the mantra of change now, I will expect that there should be a public hearing as far as port function is concerned, specifically on customs matters, the port is customs port and what takes other agencies to the port is the cargo and revenue
We noticed that the CGC was silent about freight forwarding; he was more emphatic on Custom brokerage
For now, he still needs to hear from people like us as freight forwarders, because the licensing regulation of the customs is inimical to the revenue functions of the customs now, it is fraudulent, building professionalism should be tied to the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) where individuals go professional through formal education. He should think about institutional arrangements to curb corruption, the situation on ground now is partnership, government and public partnership; it is no longer issues of one way traffic.
Like I said, he is learning very fast, this is the first time he is meeting people outside the Customs management, he is speaking the customs language as at the moment, he has given out e-mail addresses, he has made references to phone numbers that can be used to reach customs on television, he is likely to monitor whatever comes in.
What I have deduced from all these is that there is an urgent need for the CGC to cause an action that will bring about a public hearing. I want to fault some of these things going on, we cannot continue to gather in one small office in Apapa as a Customs conference room, the situation on ground requires a bigger place where all stakeholders will be accommodated, they should go to big places that can be used, customs must come out at this time, you cannot continue to restrict people, this is a mantra of change? and the entire country is evolving, so you need enough people to buy into the mantra of change. Automatically, I am faulting this issue of regimented representations in the CGC's first coming, it is wrong.
The CGC also threatened to jail non-compliant agents
?He cannot threaten to jail any persons because he is not a judge, he is there to do his job and anybody that goes contrary to the law, institutional arrangements will take care of the person. We should not make these things to be personal, nobody should sit down and say he is going to jail you, is he a judge? And I don't want us to be using these kinds of words, the issue here is compliance, those who are not compliant the due process of the law takes over; you are investigated, represented in court and off you go, so it is not a personal thing, we must not misunderstand the man, he is trying to let you know what the law is saying, we are not in a banana republic where somebody will say I am going to jail you, is he a magistrate or what?
We saw that the rivalry between the freight forwarding associations still played up at the last meeting.
The rivalry; let me put it straight between ANLCA and NAGAFF? will not fizzle out as long as the customs do not see the need to understand that laws are made for man and not man for the law. The licensing regulation code of the customs is specific on issue of corporate bodies, individuals and firm to be licensed by customs, even the CRFFN recognises associations, individuals, corporate bodies and others, but centering on an individual that can be referred to as a professional, if we must fight corruption, it is the individual that can fight corruption and not a corporate body which will still need to be unveiled by a court of competent jurisdiction. The CRFFN is in conflict as far as section 19 A and B, and section 153 to 156 of the Customs law is concerned, it is clear and the National Assembly will need to harmonize it. I am surprised that somebody was talking about consolidation, you cannot consolidate professionals, membership of CRFFN is professional, and I would want customs to begin to appreciate the? fact of harmonizing the relevance of the two legislative instruments.
Would you have preferred that the CGC visits every association's secretariat?
That is not important and we may not have time for anything like that, what I am saying is that we need to see something concrete, there are issues that must be raised like training. I want him to speak on matters of training, I have told you that the frame work of getting the port efficient has to do with technology, infrastructure, policy frame work and the law and? personnel both on the part of customs and the freight forwarders, the personnel on both sides need to be educated, the CGC needs to be concrete in this area. In the issue of fighting corruption also, there must be something concrete, there must be a consensus by everybody, I am looking forward for him to call a public hearing where all the critical stakeholders will sit down and pass a vote, he will not go and implement his job. I heard him saying that reforming and restructuring the customs is personal to Customs, but I disagree completely, it is not personal to them, it is a collective responsibility of Nigerians, what affects a customs officer affects all of us, the CEMA that established operations of the customs also created an opportunity for the relevance of the licensing regulations, this is why agents and customs are two sides of a coin. So a customs officer is tied to a freight forwarder or a licensed customs agent, when an officer is not doing well the agent is not doing well, when there is no cargo to be cleared by the agent, the custom man might not get his salary. You will agree with me that Customs despite all their contribution to the economy of the nation as revenue collectors, they are one of the lowly paid organisations in Nigeria and yet you are telling them about fighting corruption when you know they are tempted. And again, how is corruption perpetuated? What I know that he (CGC) knows now is that some items are being declared wrongly, that is all he knows, but there are a lot.
The CGC being a ‘Green Horn’ in Customs, don't you think there are loopholes he might not understand that revenue will still filter out?
That is why I talked about setting up a committee to give him a blueprint. When he was asked about his telephone numbers by stakeholders, I saw how this was evaded?; his numbers should be a public number if he is ready to come and work, he is a public servant. This is one thing you cannot take away from Dikko, he placed his numbers online for everybody because he needs to know what is going on, he needs to get valid information as the CG of Customs, he will be better off with information sent directly to him than what he is being made to hear.
Are you satisfied with the level of discussion at the meeting?
Port discussion held for only two hour? You can imagine, look at the uncomfortable area the people where kept, even the Deputy Comptrollers General were sweating seriously. He needs to call the leaders of all the associations?, maybe five to seven of them and come out with a blueprint on how to make the port run. I am aware that even some journalists were barred from entering into the meeting venue, so how do you disseminate information?
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