“As long as it remains in the Transportation ministry, CRFFN may not likely achieve its objectives”
Dr Boniface Aniebonam is the founder of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders. In this first part of a two-legged interview, he talks about the CRFFN , Customs operations and sundry other issues.
What is your appraisal of the maritime industry in the first quarter of 2022?
The maritime industry cannot be separated from the country. The country is bleeding because as far as security is concerned, it is unbelievable. I don’t think we have seen a situation like this before. We can liken it to saying we are at war. Looking at the way people are dying; we can compare it to the Nigeria-Biafra war, because dead bodies become an everyday affair. But there is hope. As far as the government is there, they are doing their best. The assessment you want us to do for the first quarter of the year is neither here nor there. Nothing has changed rather things are getting worse. This is the truth. The cost of clearing goods is higher and I’m sure you know the exchange rate and these are functions of Customs responsibilities or moving goods out of Customs control. So the government needs to sit down and look at the port activities and port operators, because it is very strategic to the economy of the nation.
But it doesn’t seem to affect the maritime industry as such, because we don’t see people die here anyhow and we still have ships coming in.
You are making a very wrong mistake. If you go to Tin Can Island Port, just at the entrance gate, you will see the number of obituaries of freight forwarders there. It is as bad as that. People are under pressure. It is becoming more difficult to remove goods out of Customs control. At this point, we don’t need to blame any person because all of us are involved.
The roads leading to the ports are still very bad especially coming from Mile 2 to Tin Can. It is worse than before.
It is an open and a public thing. It is unbelievable that such a road leading to the gateway to the nation’s economy is so pathetic. If we keep talking about one thing every day, then it makes no sense. For the past five years, we have been talking about the same thing just from Apapa Port to Surulere down to the National stadium.
This time around, I don’t really know what the problem is. For instance, the bridges are not meant to be a parking lot. The bridges are meant for motion vehicles and not static loads and this has been like that for years. I guess they are trying to get it back to a better state, but how did we get to this level?
What is your reaction to the recently-conducted elections into the Governing Council of the CRFFN. Are you satisfied?
The truth is that CRFFN is not moving forward. It is not adding any value. It seems the administrators don’t understand the concepts and reasons for establishing CRFFN as a regulatory agency as far as the port is concerned. The freight forwarders are the artery of the nation’s economy. They are the motivators and operators. They are very critical to the nation’s economy. The wise men at the national assembly have refused to put up that Act to enable a more professional way of doing things in our ports, because the freight forwarders are the link of the various chains. CRFFN started to fail from day one and it is not news. Unfortunately, up till now, nothing has happened. Now, look at what happened in the last election. The first objective of CRFFN is to bring all the contending voices together from various associations and operators under one umbrella, regulate and control them, and set standards for all procedures. This last election has divided us more. This is because the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) and NAFFAC did not get any elective positions and they are duly-accredited associations. Ordinarily, if we follow the standard of INEC, if you do not win the election they will be deleted. Deleting them does not solve the problem. They will stand somewhere and start making noise again. That is not the intendment of the Act, if you do not see anything that is wrong with that, the CRFFN has divided us more; rather than bring us together. That is a very critical example. How dare you that you are conducting an election and there are no guidelines or register of voters. People were not able to verify and we saw different kinds of people, whether they are freight forwarders or not, we don’t know; and whether they are just interested in the money they will get. But I don’t think the issue is money. As long as we remain in the Transportation Ministry, CRFFN may not likely achieve its objectives because the emphasis seems to be money now. Everyone is looking forward to the collection of POF and that is what the struggle is all about. Look at somebody like me; that is part of the reasons I don’t want to be part of that Council. I have all it takes to be a member of the council. Those who went to the Council came back empty; with nothing that they can say they were able to achieve. When you talk to them, they start talking about regulations. What nonsense is that? Even as a freight forwarder under CRFFN register, you cannot enter PTML. The honorable Minister has given a directive that with the membership card of CRFFN, you should have access to the port. But ordinary PTML there did not respect that and the CRFFN had nothing to offer. So to what extent have they protected the freight forwarders and their businesses in the port?
What will be your advice for the newly-elected members of the CRFFN Governing Council?
How long will it take the Minister to swear them in? It is almost two months now and they are yet to be sworn -in to start operation. I cannot continue to worry because it is like you are talking to people who are not ready to listen. I was one of the founding members of the CRFFN under which NAGAFF was under my watch as the first President of the association. We facilitated the emergence of CRFFN and we know what it is. Here we are, it is not working.
What will you advise the new governing council to focus on?
What do you expect us to tell them? CRFFN is not a new setup. How many times do we set the agenda for them? We have continued to set the agenda for them, but no improvement. You are setting the agenda when the new council has not even been inaugurated; two months after the election. We are hearing that the Minister of Transport is going for a Presidential nomination. So as of now, he is likely not to be thinking of that swearing in. Let’s be hopeful, but there are signals. What we need to do honestly is to take out CRFFN from the Transport Ministry to the Ministry of Trade and Investment. This is because the Ministry of Trade and Investment has to do with what the port is all about. CRFFN is one of the most strategic regulatory agencies in this country. For instance, the last quagmire at the port wouldn’t have happened if CRFFN is effective. Every matter that would lead to the shutting down of the ports would have been discussed amongst all agencies and associations. We keep saying this, but nobody is listening. It is as bad as that but there is hope. Why do we talk about the President of the Country as not being competent? All these do not add up because the powers of the President have been delegated to the heads of government to carry out responsibilities. It is a constitutional matter. Mr. President cannot be the Inspector General of Police or the Comptroller General of Customs or the Head of Ministries. These powers have been delegated. So why are we not doing what we ought to do in the interest of the country? But we sit in the comfort of our rooms accusing the President. Although he may also have his faults, because he has the residual power to intervene when there are issues. For example, the insecurity of the nation is fully on his desk. He should have deployed modern-day equipment to locate where some of these things are happening and track down the perpetrators. That is where leadership comes to play.
Also Watch: Shipping Position Interaction with Dr Boniface Aniebonam
Looking at the recent protests by clearing agents over the issue of Vehicle Identification Numbers, now the strike has been suspended, but the issues of demurrage and duty payable have not been resolved.
That is why I said earlier that this matter can easily be resolved under the platform of the CRFFN. CRFFN has a mobile court. If you do anything to the contrary in the breach of statutes and set rules, you could be taken from the aspect of cheating and it is criminal. The court can try you. Everything we are talking about has been resolved. There are laws that resolve all these. Speaking of demurrages, the terminal operators may say they were not the ones who asked the agents to withdraw their services from the port. But are they not under the supervision of the government? Are they in another country? The VIN valuation was not supposed to be an issue. But we cannot continue to say the same thing every day. The Customs as far as I am concerned acted in haste in carrying out that responsibility. There was no adequate consultation in that regard, yet we heard customs saying that they had several meetings and all that. But I can tell you as the founder of NAGAFF, I wouldn’t say I am aware. These are things I should know at this level. Yes, they might have done that, but what does it take Customs to write a letter to the head offices of these various segments such as NAGAFF, ANLCA, even CRFFN, and all others, informing them about the policy. The freight forwarders are in demand of unification and application of principles or operations. They don’t want to clear cars from the ports and they are held on the road. Let us unify it, so that when you get out of Customs, you can drive your car. They wanted that and Customs saw reasons. But how did they go about that?
When you decided to go into it, why don’t you follow the procedure of valuation? You shouldn’t give a flat value for all cars. That is not right. I think that was the cause of the problem, it is like you are overvaluing imports. Is that enough for all these problems? It is not. If you speak to them, nobody wants to listen. About seven to eight years ago, NAGAFF advocated that as far as cars are concerned, we have not developed a transportation system that is in line with modern-day transportation responsibilities. We said what we need to do now is that the older a car is; the higher rate of duty in order not to make Nigeria a dumping ground. The newer a car is, the lower the rate of duty. Now, you are open to making sure it is in line with the provisional constitution of our country. If you want an old or rickety car, then rest assured you are going to pay a higher rate of duty in that regard, because the government does not want that. Technically, they banned it but they allowed you to make a choice. If you want a new car that will help and serve you for a longer time, pay a lower duty. When you do the balancing, the newer cars are higher in cost, but with a lower rate of duty than the older cars, which are lower in cost ,but with a high rate of duty. One of the biggest problems in the port today is the 41 items that have been delisted from enjoying Forex. Why they were doing this, they never consulted the Nigeria Customs because of the extant laws governing their operations which is the Customs and Excise Management Act. So technically, those 41 items have been banned because every import coming into Nigeria must require a registered Form M and the Banks have been told not to do so. But here we are, the Nigeria Customs Service is practicing the regime or destination inspection or what we call Customs Examination. What we see now is that the Customs system is a mess in terms of the provision of data for trade-related issues. What you see going on today is that the items that are not within the 41 items will come in with a registered Form M, but items that are under that list will be in the same container. So at the time you are making a declaration for Customs purposes, you will now add those items relying on Sections 27 and 28. Then what has the government done? I will simply advise the government that there is no need for the 41 items being denied of the Form M registration or you out rightly ban them. That is why FOU, Strike Force, and Customs Police will continue to be relevant as an intervention force, because the procedures in the port are not too good. So the government is now struggling to make sure that the revenue is collected. That is why many Nigerians should be grateful to Customs. At times, I listen to how they castigate Customs but they don’t know that Customs is so good. I am telling you as an authority. I am an Ex-Customs officer and I know what the law says. If they get angry and decide to implement the Customs Law, many of us will be in jail. Many of the importers will be in Kirikiri Prison. But they are looking at it from the point of trade and you know how strategic trade is in the economy of the nation.
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