Barrister Osuala Nwagbara (Maritime Lawyer)
Barrister Osuala Nwagbara (Maritime Lawyer)
First and foremost, what is the reason for posting officers to different area commands, one of the reasons is to acquire on the job training for the Officers that are posted. Secondly, it is to boost revenue generation for the government and also for the avoidance of the entrenchment of personal interest when an officer stays in a position for too long, these are the three main reasons why transfers are necessary in any given set-up. However frequent changes are not in the best interest of the service and at the end of the day, it is not an answer to improvement in revenue generation. The first thing we noticed is that when a new customs area comptroller is posted to a particular area command, the amount of revenue that accrues rises quickly, that is because people feel that because there is a new customs area comptroller, they want to do the right thing, you also see the new area comptroller will put up a tough posture which quickly raises up revenue and attract attention that he is doing well. Over a period you will discover that revenue will dwindle, this is because he begins to feel that he would be transferred soon and begins to amass wealth to fight hard times when he is posted out of the command.
Mr Frank Aliakor (Member, ANLCA/Apapa)
Customs comptroller general has devised a very proactive approach towards making sure that officers and are very efficient in their areas of command so he decided changing them to make sure they are not staying there for too long, when you are in a position, you become so known to the people that you will not do your work well, so he decided to make a change in order to bring new officers who will make a good service delivery, there is nothing wrong with the changes, it is very good because change is one of the permanent things in life.
Olorogun Andrew Ibatemha (ANLCA, PTML)
Whoever is there is there to serve the nation as a revenue collector and when they are changed frequently, it is to allay the fear of corruption because the tendency is that when you stay too long, you are bound to become corrupt by the processes; so the government decided to change them so as to reduce corruption but I don’t think that will solve the problem because when a man is corrupt, he is corrupt, government needs to do other things like punishing them rather that transferring, transfer is not punishment.
Eugene Nweke (President, NAGAFF)
The change is for administrative efficiency, officers are prone to temptations of bribery and corruption and I have said it severally that over-familiarity in the terrain brings compromise and corruption, when an officer overstays in a particular command more than necessary, that brings about revenue leakages by way of compromise, when an officer is posted to go and do his job professionally, he knows that within six months, he is there to do his bit while another person comes to do his, it is a corrective term, there are no officers that will say he is the only person that knows it all in an organisation like NCS.
Alloy Uchegbu (Secretary, NAGAFF, PTML)
One thing that is permanent in life is change, it is part of the civil service routine that officers after spending sometime at a particular place should be changed, I believe there is nothing wrong with this, when people go to new places, new ideas are being encrypted. I believe the customs CG has the right to take officers from one place to the other whether they completed their tenure or not, they are civil servants and are supposed to serve wherever they are posted at any given time, it is all for the good of the service and for the good of the nation.
Chief Achike Molokwu (ANLCA, Tincan)
The changes are good but the period allowed is not encouraging, I am of the opinion that officers should stay a year so that they can achieve something, it will be better that six months, changing of CAC is a normal thing to do, but the time limit given to them is very short for them to realize or achieve positively, if it is at least a year it will be better because we have many comptrollers hanging here and there doing nothing.
Barrister Fred Akokhia (Vice-President, NAGAFF)
I was once a custom officer, at a very high level, and i know the CG can change anybody, even if it was a day that you have been posted to an area, there is nothing wrong with it, it is all part of the management decision and it is to make the service better. The man who is at the realm of affairs knows where he can maximize the potentials of his officers to achieve their goals; it is something that has to do with management efficiency. For instance Dan Ugo was the CAC /FOU, he was performing well but they think he can perform very well in other areas; they took him off and put someone else there. So the management of customs sit down to have the overview of who can fit in while they take the officer who was previously in that position to a higher responsibility, it is not vindictive.
Tunji Obagbo (Director of Finance, POTEMA)
The superior officers that are changing them have reasons why they are changing them, the changes might have been as a result of promotion in commands, customs management team must have a very good reasons for their frequent changes of the comptrollers. In most cases it is to improve on performance.
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