The Seme Border Chapter of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) is currently facing trying times, this started shortly after the controversial elections into the chapter’s executive positions were conducted last year. Months after, it does appear that some members of the association are still not satisfied with the outcome of the process. Shipping Position Daily correspondent, Dapo Olawuni recently pinned down the Chairman of the chapter, Mr. Patrick Ozobialu and he opened up on some issues.
How has the abandoned ECOWAS project affected your operations at Seme border?
As Nigerians, wherever you try to push us to, we will still be doing our business, at Seme border, instead of business to flow smoothly it has been slowed down, when the project was about to take effect, we were called for a meeting and we were told that they have come to develop the area, they told us the project is going to last for one year and six months, but now it has surpassed the months they told us. The worst is that the project now seems to have been abandoned because there is no operation there and nothing is working right now, we have even been chased out from where we do our business into a corner. We are clearing agents and custom brokers; initially, in the whole of the areas that we were chased away, the building we were making use of was the customs building, but right now we have been chased into a place called Atlas Park where they made us to be paying money, once you import goods, your goods must enter the park and you have to pay, initially we were not paying because we have our packing spaces. According to the plan the ECOWAS gave us before, when place is completed, it can accommodate 200 vehicles, but because of the constraint now, we are forced to move into a private park. I am aware that the park is not suppose to be a private park, but those who are well to do acquired it and they started charging us as foreigners, and all these contribute to the high charges of clearing vehicles. If you get into Seme now, you will see security men from Benin Republic in the area that use to be our side, right now you cannot even know where Nigeria stops and where Benin Republic begins, but we were made to understand that when the project is completed, the border is going to be jointly operated by both countries. Right now, you may think you are passing through Nigeria, but you will see a Benin man coming to harass you and giving you all sorts of problems, their constant harassment on our people shows that they don't have respect for Nigerians, you can go over there and see how they are harassing our women, they even beat them and push them, and yet the police will be there watching what is going on. The police cannot do without the kelebe's and these are the people harassing Nigerians. We are called the giant of Africa, but this small country is molesting us, especially in the border area.
What is the cause of the present crisis at the Seme border chapter of ANLCA?
I don't want to talk on this before, but I will make few comments because, no matter how we look at it, the truth will always be there, nobody can cover the truth. In Seme border, the executives are trying all they can, especially me, this is my second tenure, and what used to be in Seme is not what we are seeing now; today there are agitation here and there, agitation over the by-election, but be it as it may, we are trying the best we can, we have called several meetings and I hope that very soon the efforts we have made so far will start yielding fruits. Some of our members wanted to deviate to other associations just to send a message to the national executives, but through the efforts of me and my executives we were able to bring them back. Why I decided to talk now is because the tension is gradually coming down through our appeals and our meetings.
Is it true that some of your members were trying to defect to NAGAFF and why are they leaving?
According to them, their problems are not to be solved by the executives of Seme, they made the headquarters to know about it, on two occasions the national has met them one on one and is yet to resolve the problem. We know that during the expiration of BoT, when the BoT was at work the executives of Seme had no authority to look into the matter, they complained against the national headquarters and not against the chapter, this was why we kept on working hand in hand with the national to see that these problems are resolved. During the expiration of the BoT, they could not beckon to any other person, so we took this as an opportunity to bring them together, and by the grace of God they are now listening to us.
Is it true that some of the members are still rejecting the secretary; Mr. Lasisi?
On tape I cannot say anything on this, but what I can say is that I and my executives are working cordially to uplift the situation of Seme.
Do you have faith is this new crop of BoT members?
I have been a member of this association for many years and I have never witnessed a BoT election of this kind in ANLCA, this shows that the association is working, the former BoT worked assiduously, the president and his executives worked accordingly too, this was why we can see that the caliber of people that were interested in the election of the BoT are people that are well to do in the custom brokerage business. I also heard more people were longing for the position just because the association was viable, if the past BoT had not worked the way they did, I don't think people will be interested in coming into the board. In other associations, who do you think will be interested in going into their BoT? But this one, the election went freely and people that were ordained by God were elected. So, I believe they are fit to be there.
What is the relationship between the association and the Customs, as well as government agencies at the border?
It is very cordial, the only thing is that right now we are having a problem about increase of duty in our area of work, it is not caused by Seme customs alone, but this has chased our importers away because of the high duty. By the time you look at the amount it takes you to clear a consignment at Seme border, compared to that of Apapa and Tin Can port, people tend to deviate to the seaport, because it is cheaper there, but I believe that by the grace of God we will get our customers back, it all depends on conviction, when you look at the duty, the seaport is now cheaper.
Are you referring to rice consignments or vehicles?
Both vehicles and other imported goods, we don't import rice any longer, the government does not allow rice to come in through the borders and these are part of the things complicating the issues. Before now, if you don't have containers to clear, at least you will have some rice to clear, but now everybody now focuses on single imports, the ban on some items have now made everybody to be jam-packed in a place and these are the difficulties we face. May I also use this opportunity to appeal to the government to please lift the ban on rice especially at Seme, if you go into past records you will see that we always meet up with our benchmark and customs revenue is always increased, but if you go there now you will see that the revenue is coming down, especially when the importers of rice have been chased away, apart from this, so many items were banned, while the duty on many of the goods were increased. I hope the government will take a look at what we are passing through, because all of us cannot come to Apapa port. If infrastructures are extended to other ports there will not be so much concentration on the Lagos ports, with the ban on importation of rice, what government has succeeded in doing now is to call customs agents from Seme to Tin Can and Apapa ports where it is already jam-packed, almost half of us have diverted to the ports, because when your importer does not come to you again, he now goes to Apapa and Tin Can, the only thing is for you to pack your things and go there as well so that you can be able to eat.
Discussion about this post