The founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, in this interview bears his mind on the issue of corruption by officials of government agencies at the port, his expectations from President Buhari’s second term in office, among other issues.
What are your expectations from President Buhari’s second term in office as it concerns the maritime industry?
As a leader in the political terrain, I believe the next level of President Buhari’s administration, looking at his body language, will be more robust. However, if I am to narrow it down to the port, I am sure the signals are there that the port is fraught with high level corruption which I believe will be stemmed in this new dispensation. I hope he will bring in a more sustainable reform at the port because what is going on at the port in terms of corruption is very terrible. For instance, the access roads into the port are so degrading, where do we start from? Unfortunately, the executive powers of Mr. President under Section 5 of the Constitution have been delegated so he will have to increase his supervisory role as to who is doing what. We expect him to appoint a technocrat, somebody who has the understanding of the ports as Minister. The issue of trade policy in Nigeria should also be looked into. It is very clear that every import into the country must have a Form M, so for the fact that certain items were disadvantaged from having access to forex does not mean those goods should not come because the interested parties may have foreign exchange but then you will still need to register your Form M.
Clearing agents have opposed the deployment of Customs Strike Force, which is described as the third layer of defense in the prevention of smuggling and duty evasion at the port. What is your take on this?
I am sure you know that the biggest problem in the port today is the issue of compliance. Many of us are simply very greedy and the greed in us does not allow us to see and to that extent, you don’t wake a sleeping giant who for the sake of patriotism have continue to tolerate the criminality inherent in cargo clearance out of the Customs control hiding under the mantra of trade facilitation. You don’t run a society without obeying the law and we need to be careful. We don’t know what the next level of the President means but it is likely going to signify zero tolerance for act of corruption in Nigeria no matter who is involved. What is it that Customs has done that is wrong? Are you going to tell the Comptroller-General of Customs how he should go about his administration when he is relying on the Act that set them up? The only thing we can tell the CG is to take cognizance of the alleged inherent abuse of such powers by the operatives and not to tell him how to run the administration. The Customs has said that the Strike Force is their third layer of intervention. Are you not aware as a resident reporter at the port that people do not comply with regulations at the port? There is no government that will keep quiet over matters of fraudulent practices especially when it revolves around revenue due to the government or bringing in prohibited goods into the country. No government will keep quiet on that. Can you evade tax in America or Switzerland? No government will tolerate that. Anybody who thinks what the Customs CG did was not right can go to Federal Operations Unit in the different zones to see their exploit. Nobody blackmails government, you can only talk to government when you are doing the right thing and somebody is abusing that right to check you.
Talking about CRFFN, it has been over six months after the inauguration of the Governing Council but it appears the council is still docile as it is yet to come up with any blueprint of action that will impact on the freight forwarding industry. How would you react to this?
Yes, I am not a member of the Governing Council but I can tell you authoritatively that having six representations on the part of NAGAFF in the Council, I should know what is going on. For instance, in the area of funding, you can’t do much if you don’t have fund but that is not to say the council is not working. It is working. For instance, they got approval from the Federal Executive Council for the collection of the Practitioners Operating Fee (POF). I’m sure you know that somebody worked on that and you can see some vehicles being distributed to the leadership of the various committees and stocks are being taken and they are getting ready to move out to solve some of these issues. Any moment from now, they will commence visitation to the strategic stakeholders including Customs, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the associations and other groups that are key to their operations. The leadership of CRFFN to me is a hand of God because the chairman has no skeleton in his cupboard not to do what he is supposed to do.
There is controversy around the sharing formula of the POF, which stipulates that 35 percent of the collection should go to the declarant while the CRFFN gets 65 percent.
Anybody can tell you that the council met and took decision by virtue of the court order that made the council to be an agency of the government. Well, that’s a judgment and that has not touched the Act. The Act is the National Assembly. So, it remains as it is. We are only keeping quite with some of these things they are doing and the gazette they are coming out with because we are interested in getting the council running first. As I am talking to you, the council bill has gone to the National Assembly for amendment and a lot of movement is ongoing. There are moves to change certain columns of it and those things that made us to go to court are those things they are now going to National Assembly to amend. So ab initio you will see why we have gone to court to appeal on that judgement. The latest I am hearing now is that the appointees are making some subtle moves to make it mandatory that the Chairman of the council will be among the six appointees of the Federal Government and the Vice Chairman will become maybe an elected member of the freight forwarding associations.
Do you think CRFFN can work efficiently with the different interests and positions of NAGAFF and the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) over who a declarant is?
We are coming together, ANLCA and NAGAFF are coming together steadily and we are moving very fast. For instance, the leadership of ANLCA being the first Chairman of the council is the number one freight forwarder of this country and I have told him, he has the opportunity right now to correct the mistakes he made now being the President of ANLCA. So, he needs to work with NAGAFF so that we can make things work for the good of the young freight forwarders that are coming up. We need to leave legacy as it is. We are no longer negotiating but to work together because the President of ANLCA is quite ready now to do the right thing, I spoke to him and I think he is determined to do the right thing now.
Source: Ships and Ports news
