The last may not have been heard about the war of words between the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) over probe of alleged corrupt customs officers. NAGAFF have replied ANLCA saying it stinks of corruption.
The National Publicity of NAGAFF, Stanley Ezenga also stated that the fear of being investigated may have been the fear exhibited by ANLCA.
Ordinarily, we would not have dignified the ANLCA Publicity Secretary with a reply, but on a second thought, we decided to help the ANLCA spokesperson to discover or come back to the path of rectitude when it comes to making assertions in the public domain. We find it very unbecoming of ANLCA to have turned into a court that will investigate and clear an “alleged” corrupt officer, to have “investigated the allegation and find them to be lies”. We will come back to this later.
From the comments of the ANLCA Publicity Secretary, it is obvious that there is a gap between the thoughts and the speech of the spokesperson, if he could in one breath, claim that NAGAFF’s allegation against the Customs officers at the Tincan Island Command are all lies, and in another breath accept that “corruption has reduced among Customs officers, compared to the era of the immediate past Comptroller General of Customs, Abdullahi Dikko. In other words, Mr. Farinto seems to be corroborating NAGAFF in our allegation of corruption against some officers. One would have expected that after “they had investigated the allegation” they would have come up with a report that corruption has said bye bye to some Customs officers.
It is very unfortunate that ANLCA uses every opportunity to discredit the immediate past CGC, Abdullahi Dikko, despite all that he did for them, even to the extent that he allegedly build and or facilitated the building of a National Secretariat for them, named after him. This is contained in the speech of the National President of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu at the commissioning of the edifice which they named after Abdullahi Dikko.
We trace this apparent romance with the new CGC, Rtd Col. Hameed Ali of recent as typical of ANLCA when they curry your favour when you are in authority and turn their backs on you after your tenure. It is in continuation of their legacy of “use and dump” which they are used to. Our understanding of the current CGC antecedents convinced us that Rtd Col. Hameed Ali cannot fall for this bait. No one can play eye service and unnecessary sycophancy and expect him to fall for it.
Could it be the fear that the circumstances surrounding the construction of their National Headquarters is making them jittery as there are reports that the Anti- Graft agencies are looking into the books of Customs in the immediate past and or the Dasukigate syndrome. Now back to the issue of allegation of blackmail leveled against NAGAFF. If it was cheap blackmail, we would not go to the extent of honouring the invitation of the immediate past CAC, Tincan Island Alhaji Jibrin Zakari to present our evidences against the officers accused by our members and other stakeholders in the industry.
For the information of the general public, we will repeat for the umpteenth time that our intention was to help the Customs correct some anomalies discovered in some Customs officers in the discharge of their duties. We postponed the public hearing in deference to the then CAC and in the spirit of the rapport between our Association and Customs. We decided to leave the matter to the then CAC, as he implored us. Mr. Farinto should abide with the maxim that those who live in glass houses do not throw stones.
One would begin to wonder the interest of ANLCA in the allegation by NAGAFF. The big question is what was the interest of ANLCA in carrying out an investigation into an allegation by NAGAFF? One would not have raised any eyebrow if ANLCA had said their interactions with Customs officers have not noticed any corrupt practices, but for ANLCA to claim to have carried out investigation into an allegation by NAGAFF showed them as interlopers and busy-bodies.
From the comments of the ANLCA Publicity Secretary Mr. Kayode Farinto, it is very clear that they were delving into another person’s business. Maybe ANLCA should come out to tell the whole world if they are doing an image laundering for some Customs officers. If this is the case, one is at a loss as to what their motives are, especially as they are showing love to the new CGC.
To us at NAGAFF, we believe the only way by which we can help the new CGC, Rtd Col. Hameed Ali and by extension, the President and Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari is by pointing potential obstacles to the realization of his mandate to reform, to reposition and enhance revenue at the Customs. We will not engage in sycophancy, or stabbing the CGC in the afternoon, while dining with him in the night, only for us to drag his character in the mud when he leaves office. That is why we are NAGAFF. We will continue to use our bank of intellectual powers to assist the CGC in achieving his objective.
For the avoidance of doubt we want to make it very clear to any stakeholder who cares to listen that the war against corruption should not be left at the door step of Mr. President and heads of the Government Agencies. It is a collective responsibility of all patriots in Nigeria to deal with the bad situation. A Customs officer who is corrupt is not representing the Nigeria Customs Service because the law of CEMA and the Civil Service Regulation as well as the Constitution of Nigeria do not protect such an officer. And for the freight agents who may not know, it is the agents at the traders zone who usually inject corruption act into the system for not being complaint to import and export regulation.
0 comments