- Says it is Needless to Compel Ali to Wear Uniform
By Shola Fadeyi
The President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) , Prince Olayiwola Shittu has challenged the Senators of the upper chamber of the National Assembly on the need to focus their legislation on issues that are making clearing of cargoes and the general cost of doing business at the seaports to be very costly.
He told MarineandEconomy recently that the final consumers of products in the market who are always at the receiving end of high cost of doing business at the ports and the economy will benefit more if the senators will deliberate on more important issues other than dissipating energy to make the Customs Comptroller General, Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd) to appear before them in uniform.
According to Shittu , the senators will fare better to legislate on illegal and arbitrary charges by terminal operators, shipping company agents at the ports , the extortion by security agents and the customs officers in the guise of incessant issuance of Alerts and Debit Note(DN) among other issues which require the attention of the legislators.
The ANLCA President said it must also interest the senate that the customs has no data base showing how much exactly importers need to pay as import duty on cars adding that since this anomaly and others have been responsible for preference of shippers and agents for the use of the seaports of Nigeria’s neighboring countries, the legislature should be interested in solutions to the problems.
He said matters have gotten to a head in terms of raising of DN on almost all cargoes that are imported as well as the rate at which some stakeholders at the seaports increase their tariff that the customs agents who clear goods on behalf of importers have decided to come together to show their grievances through demonstrations which may result to shutting down of the seaports.
Shittu welcomed the decision of the Senate as representatives of the people to invite the Customs CG to the chamber to explain the rationale behind the retroactive payment of import duty on cars saying that it was probably because the policy lacked human face and due to the pressure the people mounted against the customs on the policy that made the Service to suspend it.
The revered Customs agent said the senate has every right to still invite the custom CG to appear before it on any matter as part of its oversight function, but that it should not insist that the man must come before it in uniform because there are other crucial issues concerning the seaports for them to legislate upon.
He disclosed that if the hood does not make the monk , there is no need for the senate to be insisting that Ali should wear uniform before he can explain the policies of the customs to the legislators because the uniform has no influence in any way on his performance as the CG while it also has no impact on whatever he is going to tell them at the chamber.
Shittu however said that the customs agents would soon engage the Senators to let them know the critical areas in the seaport sector where they need to concentrate their oversight and legislative functions to ensure that clearing of goods at the seaports become seamless and to encourage vessels , shippers and customs agents to use the seaports.
The ANLCA boss disclosed that an area where the Senate would need to engage the Executive arm of government is on the issue of the unrealistic revenue target the Presidency gives the Customs yearly to meet, adding that the need of the Service to ensure it satisfies the revenue demand of the Government has been responsible for some of its policies in recent times.
According to Shittu , when Ali was appointed as CG , he was given the mandate of restructuring , reforming and increasing the revenue collection of customs , but the fact that the issue of revenue generation was the most important of his assignments has made him to be exploring all manners of ways to make this possible.
However, the Senate has insisted that Ali , whom it failed to grant full audience at its chamber last Thursday should still appear before it in his uniform on Wednesday , March 22, 2017 as a sign of respect to the customs as an organisation and the tax payers of Nigeria who fund the Service which pays the salary of the CG.
The Senate had through its representatives, Senator Dino Melaye , Kogi West , and Senator Solomon Adeola , Lagos West, among others argued that Ali must wear uniform like other officers because customs is a uniform organization , the fact that the CG position is a rank while his colleagues who are heading customs of other countries and are member of World Customs Organisation(WCO) wear uniforms.
Ali has however advised the senate members in the letter he wrote them and when he appeared shortly before them last week in plenary that they should seek legal advice on whether or not they have the right to compel him to wear uniform just as he was also doing the same to let them know that there is no law compelling him to do so .
The Customs CG has said that what should be the concern of the senate is whether or not he was doing his job as the Customs CG than for them to force him to wear uniform , arguing that his mandate when he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari does not include the wearing of uniform.
He has also argued that having worn the uniform of the Army while in Service, it would be unprofessional for him to wear another organisation’s uniform for the fact that , it is an anathema in the military to wear uniform twice particularly when you are already retired.