Dr. Boniface Aniebonam is the Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF). In this interview with Oluyinka Onigbinde, he speaks on the CRFFN Amendment Bill, COVID-19 and other sundry issues.
“Those Who Have Been in CRFFN Should Position Themselves For Transparency Accountability”
There is an allegation by some freight forwarders that the office of the NSA and the NCS and demanding End User Certificate which is against the CEMA, what’s your take on this?
Those who are saying why NSA or Customs should not be requesting for end user certificate must have been talking from lack of knowledge, what do they know about CEMA, it means that the particular person telling you that is not a professional freight forwarder, if he is, he would have known his limitations. In the first instance, the responsibility of the customs is very clear, as an agency of the government they enforce regulation and their job is to implement the laws as it is stated in the Customs Excise and Management Act (CEMA). When you look at sections 4 and 5, the power of the board to give direction and the best approach is to implement the CEMA for the good of the greater numbers, in terms of threat and of course excise duty.
Now, if that is the case, they mention the office of the NSA who is the Chief Security Adviser to Mr. President who issues all those certificate, the end user certificate has to do with security matters; as you could see the nature of the country when you look at the security via explosives, so they want to know what you want to use what you are bringing in to do.
So the end user certificate simply means who is the end user, who is the person importing such items, because some chemicals can be used in the manufacturing of explosives, they are not saying you should not bring it in, but they want to know what you intend to do with that and if you an authorized person to use the material, they will give you the end user certificate.
Some freight forwarders have been agitating that Customs should invoke the Bill of Sight so as to curb the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic, what’s your take on this?
Yes, the bill of sight is contained in the sections 27, 28 and 29 of the CEMA and that is the regime as it were in destination inspection. Bill of sight comes into being when there are cases of improper documentation for goods brought into the country, that is, all goods coming into this country must come with registered Form M, and that’s for statistics for government to know what is coming in and what is going out in terms of forex and so if you don’t have enough document in relation to import you made, it means you have to apply to customs to give reasons, because the regime they are operating now is that you must open your Form M registered with a bank and with all other supporting documents.
Yes, the port is in a terrible state; there is force majeure right now because of the corona virus pandemic. On a more serious note, I want to believe that it is not freight forwarders that are clamouring for it. NAGAFF wrote to customs and equally copied Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) who handles shippers concern in macro level and with the state of the port, this is the time to generate ideas, what do we do to move goods out of the port as far as the scanners are not working. If you ask somebody like me, overtime the period under which the CGC came in, he has been making a lot of efforts to see that scanners are provided, but then he has a limit that he can go, because that is from the office of the Presidency, in particular finance ministry and of course whatever may be their reasons, nobody knows why we have not got the scanners, if that is the case what do we do, we are still managing 100 percent examination and of course, so I think its most appropriate right now to invoke the bill and that will save us from a lot of problems arising from the various alerts being placed on cargoes. So bill of sight is just to make things easier and faster while acknowledging appropriate revenue to the government and therefore under bill of sight strategically the valuation unit becomes important.
Post-COVID 19, what should be the way forward for the maritime Industry?
We are yet to come out of the COVID 19 fatality, the thing is that whether you like it or not, the government is really under pressure especially when people are finding it difficult, the greater numbers of Nigeria if they do not go out a day they will not find something to eat, so locking them down without providing for them, a time will come when you won’t be able to hold them anymore, so the economy is down because people are not working. So I think it’s too early to start looking at post-COVID issues, there is still an increment in the numbers of cases, we will be talking post COVID 19 when the number reduces reasonably and see that there is hope and that we can plan. For me, it’s too early to discuss post Covid 19. But what we can look at now is to look at what can we do to reduce the number of cases and that is to observe regulations which includes washing of hands, social distancing and all that, so that is how we can add value, we must be alive to talk about economy.
What’s the update on the amendment of the CRFFN Act?
Our position is quite clear on the amendment of the CRFFN Act, we notified the National Assembly that we are in court over matters that have to do with some sections of the CRFFN Act which we know from day one that CRFFN is not an agency of the government, if it’s an agency of the government then why bringing in section 6 of the council act that provided opportunity for self-sustenance, but I think they prefer to go to the national cake to be taking money, again that is why I am talking about, we have not been productive; nobody want to work, what else will government do for you when section 6 already told you what to do, even as I am talking to you, the Practitioner Operating Fee is related to this section 6 and have we even implemented that? Things are really not working and we blame Mr. President for everything because its like virtually everybody is involved in actions that are inimical to nation hood.
There is no doubt that you played a major role in the formation of the current governing council of CRFFN, but you are still fighting whether or not it is an agency of the government…. Cuts in
My interest is for posterity and rule of law, otherwise we are rubbishing the good work being done in the National Assembly and its affecting the society, the National Assembly is there to make good laws for our country and if we throw these things, and we spend days and nights to package for a greater Nigeria, then we make nonsense of all of them.
But it seems the present governing council are not interested in whether it is government agency or not, some appear to be more interested in the amendment of the Act for the purpose of tenure elongation?
That makes them human being, is it not common in African leaders they want to elongate their powers, you will always have that interest but that’s why we have the government to create some level of balance well for us in NAGAFF the subject matter is CRFFN as the act were is not an agency of the government and for you to know that what we are saying is true those things that are been canvassed at the court of appeal are the things they want to amend at the national assembly so they are now laying ambush, they want to get what they thought they will not get in court through the National Assembly, and I just hope they will not be used to do so, and to the extent that this is not the time that the government is removing hands from certain things, hence the rationalization of various ministries, so why are we trying to create problem again for government funds other than we generating the funds by ourselves.
I just hope that those who have been in CRFFN ab initio should position themselves properly in terms of transparency and accountability because a lot of money has gone through there and if CRFFN is not an agency of the government and you have been collecting money from the national coffer what happens if we win the case in court and the court declares that the council is not an agency of the government then those who collected money will be called to explain.
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