Prince Olayiwola Shittu, President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), in this chat with Shipping Position Daily's Dapo Olawuni, opened up on the associations' position on the implementation of the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) by the Nigerian Shippers Council. He also talked on the issues between the association and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN). He also a piece of advice for the new Customs Comptroller General, Col Hameed Ali (rtd).
"We have given our word to collaborate with Shippers Council because of their regulatory role, and this is part of their regulatory nature that will eventually lead to our best interest"
Why did your association make a sudden U-turn on the CTN?
We are pro-CTN because we have been assured by the shippers’ council that it will add no cost to shipping, we have not seen any reason to disbelieve this because this money is in the hands of the liners, so they should cough it out. The only information shippers’ council gave us is the amount they will be collecting from the liners as CTN, it does not mean this is how much I am going to pay, after all I have a shipment on the way right now and nobody has asked me to come and pay anything. The story on hard drugs found in Apapa is an example, it is meant for export, but in those days you wouldn't have caught anything in container going for export, this shows that the destination countries are also interested and they use their own mechanism to know that drugs are passing through the port. The CTN will bring about cargo security, compliance, trade facilitation and revenue increase, it will also give competition to the liners; for example, in the past you would be stuck if you are shipping cargo from a particular part of the world, whether you like it or not you must use the liner and they come here to charge money. We are waiting for one of our shippers to come and give us the receipt to show they have been charged for CTN first before we can start making comparisons, we are not going to fight government, we have given our word to collaborate with Nigerian Shippers’ Council because of their regulatory role, and this is part of their regulatory nature that will eventually lead to our best interest.
What is your position on scanners that are not working inside the ports?
We are vehemently against service providers coming to take over our scanners, they are not the manufacturers, it's like us employing you to get a mechanic on our behalf, it doesn't make sense because we can as well contact the mechanic by ourselves.
Customs CG, Col Ali has refused to visit the associations or reckon with them
We don't have to play to the gallery by asking the CG to come and visit us in our secretariat, but then, as much as he is going round, he should be talking to those directly involved in customs operations. Definitely not everybody, but the Association of Licensed Customs Agents who are the ones primarily working with him, it even goes beyond that, ANLCA has written to the President asking for a position on the board of the Customs service, we are entitled to it, and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria who are on that board only used the opportunity to feather their own nest. They give them fast track to carry their own cargo, yet they don't comply, I am aware that before Dikko left, he had to expose the members of MAN who took fast track for cargoes declared as raw materials, only for customs to realise they are finished goods, yet they are a member of the board. This is why they are kicking against CTN because it will expose them. If you look at the people kicking against CTN today, including the traders, the reason is because it will expose everybody, but it will be good for us because if CTN will give you the genuine declaration, then PAAR will give you the appropriate bills to pay, once you pay this money, no officer of customs will come and tell you that your value is low.
What is your position on corruption inside the port since Customs CG, Ali came on board
We are not responsible for the corruption inside the port; especially customs license holders, we are victims of corruption because of the discretionary powers given to government agencies inside the port, this is not limited to the customs, their (all agencies) coercive powers will always punish you even when you are doing something right, they will frustrate you, intimidate you, you will be brought to a level of succumbing and do what they want because the penalty is demurrage, but the day Ali (Customs CG) will sit down with us and we do an MoU that if any officer is responsible for demurrage knowingly in order to extort, he will pay the money, this is when you will see sanity in the system. There is no reason for an officer to hold on to somebody's documents because he is not satisfied, let him pass it to his superiors, the process does not allow you to hold documents. I am a victim also, I have consignments kept in the port for a week, if you calculate 100 containers in the port for a week you know how much demurrage that will be.
What do you think the CG should be doing right now?
If Ali wants to work, there are so many things he needs to do immediately. For instance, if somebody is going to import a vehicle, he should know how much he is going to pay once the vehicle comes in, a benchmark should be published, with this it will be easy to do your declaration and pick your car without hassles. Customs will make so much money if this happens; he (CG, Ali) said he is looking for revenue, unless they are looking for revenue into individual pockets. It is the hesitation and actions of the customs that gives room to other agencies like the DSS, Police for you to suffer in their hands; they believe if customs is holding your consignment for three days it means there is something inside. Let government put ANLCA on the board of the Customs so that we can be formulating the policies together, after all we generate the revenue and they collect.
Why did ANLCA fail to use CRFFN’s internal mechanism for dispute resolution rather than go to court
Let the Council go and tell the Court about it because we are not aware of any of such internal mechanism, anything outside the Act of the CRFFN is null and void, if the CRFFN is passing a resolution that nobody should go to court, I remember there was an issue that came up and the registrar asked us to do a resolution that no freight forwarder can take CRFFN to court. I told them that it is unconstitutional, the constitution of the Federal Republic superceeds any Act, I don't need to be a lawyer to know this, it means they are trying to tamper with our fundamental human rights, what if the CRFFN that we have a problem with are the ones to come and decide the case under internal mechanism, how can we get justice?
The issue of the CRFFN is dragging on unnecessarily because it is hinged on collection of money, the CRFFN goes beyond collection of money, they should be sensitizing people on what their obligation is to the CRFFN, so that the renewal of registrations, operational permits and so on, these money are enough for the CRFFN to do their job, but they are de-emphasising that and talking of collecting money inside the port, this is not in the Act.
Instead of fighting people, CRFFN should romance them, send representation to all the associations and even private companies, go to Skelas Company office for example and asked them to renew their registration and you will see people complying. ANLCA is not interested in sharing any money with anybody, if the present government is looking for money and decides the POF is revenue for the Federal Government, we would withdraw the court case, but we would not work and pay money to people who don't have work to go and share.
I also learnt that ANLCA's case might be thrown out by the court because, it was the Board that is supposed to sue, not ANLCA
Let them plead it in court, issues that are left for the court will not be decided by you and I. When they throw away the case, we know the next thing to do. It is costing the CRFFN a lot because as long as we are in court nobody is ready to pay to them, they are the ones loosing.
Do you believe in forming an ad-hoc committee for the CRFFN as advocated by Alhaji Moshood Tijani?
Alhaji Moshood wants some members of the past board returned, why not himself? He was also a member of that council, where is the position in the Act that says you should appoint an ad-hoc administration. They also said they are having election in December, as of now we have not got any timetable, if the election is done without ANLCA who is in court we would go and get a restraining order against them, we will tell our people not to participate.
Tijaco may have his reasons for saying that, because everybody is entitled to his own opinion, but how workable is that opinion lies in the hands of the CRFFN and the government.
Has CRFFN delivered on his mandate of building capacity?
The job of CRFFN is to create room for capacity building, they are not a training institution, they cannot even force me to attend a particular university. The job of CRFFN is to accredit institutions, another responsibility is to ensure associations act within the concept of their constitution, part of this is to ensure that all associations have democratically elected officials, but it is only ANLCA that has this, why is CRFFN afraid of sanctioning those that are not democratic? The Act also says you must have representation in three zones of the Federation, how many associations have this? Maybe it is because the headship of the CRFFN also has the possibility of benefitting from the existence of these mushroom associations; they have created a tower of babel.
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