If you think the PDP acted with impunity, come to the port and talk to Customs brokers in respect of what they go through in the hands of Officers and their use of raw ‘discretional’ powers. We conclude today, an 80 minute interview with the National President, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, as he narrates one, out of the many harrowing experiences agents go through in the new Customs Service, because some officers see themselves as ‘stones’ and the agents as ‘eggs’ that can be crushed at will!
You said some of the stakeholders were skeptic when Col. Hameed Ali was appointed as the Comptroller General of Customs. Why?
Some of us were skeptic because Ali was never part of the system. And we know it would take an average non Customs officer of a particular rank an average of 3 years, to understand the rudiment of what going on in the ports. So, what do you expect from Ali, a retired soldier at his age, to start learning what? More so, this thing is not solely by book. It is by practical experience!
What Ali was supposed to be, is a symbol, representing what we knew President Muhammadu Buhari to be. And which means, if for any reason, if you are caught, you will go for it.
It is not that there is no corruption in America or Britain or elsewhere for that matter; even in China and Japan and South Korea, where they kill people for stealing, people still steal. But the issue is: ‘don’t be caught! For, apart from people who are retired for old age, can you let us have the statistics of those who have been ‘caught’ in this process of fighting ‘corruption’ and ‘these are the following officers’, ‘these are what we have done to them’, ‘these were their offences’. Can you publish it now and that will let us know ‘how far’, because some people might be working quietly without noise.
The signal he showed us when he came was: ‘everybody will go to jail’; ‘Customs agent who conspire will go to jail’; and then, suddenly, he now says: ‘Oh! The job of Customs officer is very tedious’. So, we expected he must be working behind the scene and he didn’t want to scare people from performing their jobs. It is allowed, but how come?
Let me tell you this; it is like a cartoon thing, you go this way you are met, you go that way, you are met and I want to clarify that for you: if you don’t want to compromise, because you are compliant, you will suffer. Why should you suffer? It is because you are not ready to compromise. And if you are not ready to compromise, because you want to be patriotic, or, you want to pay your correct duty, you would still suffer. But why should you suffer? And if you make noise too much, they will come after you. I’m speaking because I’m the President of ANLCA and they know that I’m speaking on behalf of our people; not on behalf of myself, otherwise they come after you..
The National President, can you bring us more vividly into the picture of the new Customs, by at least, one experience; but, it must be something that you, not one of your members, have personally experienced?
Customs PRO and Image Maker, WALE ADENIYI
I’ll give you an experience, just last week here, five containers of wind screen that was to be delivered to Warri from Onne were held by one officer called Jack. That Jack is a man we’ve had problems with before over his high handedness. Jack has been there for more than 15years on the same seat in federal operations, people clamor for his removal. So, the next thing was: ‘So, this is the job of the President of ANLCA? ‘Okay, take it to Owerri!
I told my people ‘don’t fight, you know what we carried, we don’t do contraband jobs’. So, we went to Owerri. I didn’t call the Customs Area Controller, so that it would not be seen as if I want to seek for some undue influence. Those containers were in Owerri for 5days. My National Publicity Secretary who had something to do in Owerri went there and saw them, only for those containers to be examined and found out that we had even paid unwarranted DN of N600,000 that was not necessary. But, because somebody was not happy on the level of the compliance of that cargo, he referred it to Valuation; if Valuation did not raise that DN, they would say Valuation Officers have compromised. That is the crisis in the port.
But after re-examination, they now discovered that we have even paid N600,000 above what it should be; and this is a LC (Letter of Credit) job, where everything was meticulously done!
But, I didn’t complain. And so, for five days; and even into six days…and by the time they finally released it to go without any infraction, we had lost money, including on trailers that was stuck with the containers, container deposit was stuck; and by the time it got to the yard of the owner, he was railing blue black, that that was the last job we were going to do for him! And that we should go and take responsibility for the delay! This is what we paid, just because an officer is saying ‘I want to use my discretion!’
But, It is not only of Jack. Jack is just one, out of many! There are officers who have being roaming around Lagos areas for the past 20 years. Those were his promises when he became the CG: that no officer would stay in a place for more than 3 years. But now, we have had of the excuse that they are saying, that if they are going to transfer their officers, it is going to cost some billions of Naira for their transfer expenses.
So, what do you expect us to do? That’s why I said it is the blame game now. How do you look at that issue of blame? Who is to be blame? What comes first: the egg or the chicken? Who starts the issue of corrupting the other? Is it the agent or the officers? Neither the Customs officer, nor the agent, nor any of the security agencies followed the importer abroad. None of us are part of the documentation.
The banks that they say should supervise the import process and all, nobody is talking about them. And just because the importer carried his documents and give you as an agent and because of your knowledge you did the proper classification and everything, even some banks would say they are the one to prepare the form M, your own is to process.
They give you PAAR, your own is to process it… the amount they say you should pay, you go and pay it then it is thereafter your suffering starts. You are now going to defend what somebody else had done, because you are an agent and there is this traditional belief between an officer and an agent, that when you enter his office, you are a ‘suspect’. He believes you are coming there to deceive him; and that’s a relationship built over the years; and they continue to maintain they are the ‘stone’, and the agent is the ‘egg’; and if the egg rolls against a stone who suffers? Of course, it is the egg. Or if the stone rolls against the egg, it is still the egg that suffers!
There was no apology for that my experience in Port Harcourt, not even a sorry because the officer would tell you that by virtue of CEMA (Customs & Excise Management Act), they can afford, on mere suspicion alone, mess you up. But, look at it this way: it is not all the eggs that are rotten in the basket!
I give you an example of Edike who is now the Zonal Coordinator; he used to be the Controller Apapa; he introduced something that his colleagues have never been happy with him; if an officer delays or purposefully contributes to an agent suffering loss of money like this demurrage, like an officer putting documents in his drawer on Thursday and travelling; and an agent has to wait for him till Tuesday when he arrives without allowing his subordinate to do his job; Edike makes the officer pay for the demurrage! It was a remarkable innovation. And it changed the attitude to task performance.
The Controller in Port Harcourt is my friend but I avoided him because of the fact that I’m the President of ANLCA and would not want to push myself forward to influence their decision; or that ‘something is hidden’. That was why I said they should see it through. How would I know what was happening to our members? What will happen to other agents with people like officer Jack, staying for more than 15 years on the same seat? But then, do you know there are officers who are languishing in small, small unfriendly environment permanently?!
…CONCLUDED