Mujtaba Ahmad retired in 2004 as Deputy General of Customs (DCG) in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). In continuation of service to the nation, he was appointed chairman of the Sokoto Civil Service Commission (SOCSC). In this interview with UMARU MARADUN, the retired Customs boss believes that politics is actually a dirty game, reveals the mess in the SOCSC prior to his appointment, and speaks on the current situation in the NCS
Joining politics
What I discovered when I joined politics is that it is a dirty job. You associate yourself with the people you are not supposed to associate with and each and every body in politics is a king. You have to pretend to make yourself a fool in order to succeed in politics. Most of our politicians are self centered people with only their personal and selfish interest as a mjor concern to them. They don’t care about national interest. Certainly, they say and it is true, that in politics there is no permanent friend or enemy but permanent interest. The permanent interest of politicians is now personal interest, that is why you see all this squabbling and croon competing in the political parties that is happening now. It’s all politics of personal interest, instead of national interest.
Our leaders are equally no difference from their followers. If we put national interest and have internal democracy in the party, the problems we are having today will not exist. Money politics has taken over from ethical and rational politics. They claim democracy in action but that it is craziness.
On customs service
The future of the Nigeria Customs Service is very bright. Series of reforms were taken since the time I left service in 2004 about 10years ago. Most of these reforms however, were targeted toward revenue sector at the expense of enforcement sector. I have not seen very serious reform in the enforcement sector and the administrative structure of the service. The sector is as dormant as I left it, as Deputy Comptroller General, Enforcement and Drugs. I have observed the improvement in the sector in terms of transportation, more vehicles are now available to the officers for patrol, arms and ammunitions are the same or even worse than the time I left. Smugglers still use more sophisticated vehicles and weapons than that of the service. In border accommodation, there are some improvements, but not as rapid as expected in term of funds now available for the service.
Within the 10years I left, almost all the housing estates, we bought for the officers in Abuja were surprisingly sold. We had DCG Quarters, ACG Quarters, Comptroller Quarters, SC Quarters and all juniors’ officers Quarters purchased with the incentive founds we were annually given for reaching our targets. I was made to understand that all those achievements made in the sector have now been lost. Officers are staying in rented houses and apartment. At once, I was told even CGC was staying in a rental house.
I wonder how an officer can afford to rent a house or build a house from his salary in Abuja. This opens an avenue for corruption. I was told the present CGC Mr. Dikko Inde is making efforts to replace the houses to rectify the situation through aggressive housing projects he embarked on in Abuja and state commands.
Another thing that needs to be done is decentralizing the command operations to the grassroots level. Centralization brings about large scale corruption, reduces efficiency and effectiveness of the service. It is high time to decentralize the command. Each state should have its command instead of merging two to three states as one command or Maiduguri/Yobe command or even Adamawa/Taraba commands. If the services are brought nearer to the people, It will be more effective and efficient and less opportunity for corruption.
There is also need to create more zonal command instead of merging them for the sake of saving money. Enforcement is spending for required services and not saving fund.
Reforms in the service
The greatest achievement made so far by the present Customs Administration is kicking out the destination inspectors like Co-Technor and Co. and making Destination Inspectors a reality. We tried to do that for years but these agents always have their way through corruption. Thank God, they are now gone. More grease to CGC’s elbow.
What the service needs now is a customs service commission, similar to that of police. There is need to remove the burden of administration off the head of officers so that they can concentrate on the real work of Revenue Generation and enforcement activities of seeing our borders suppressing smuggling. The borders of this country are so porous and need all the hands it takes to secure it.
Chairing Sokoto civil service commission
When I was appointed the chairman of Sokoto state civil service commission by His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Sokoto state
Dr. Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, in October 2010, I met the commission in a mess. To start with, there was no commission in place for almost one year. Therefore, cases of promotion, recruitment, retrenchment and discipline were in thousands. The financial position of the department was zero. I did not even know where to start at that time. The commission was supposed to meet monthly but I did not meet for almost a year.
What I first did was to change the time of meeting. Instead of meeting monthly, we started meeting weekly. It took us almost nine months to clear the backlog of the said cases. We then applied for a special impress, which His Excellency, graciously approved to enable us work the way we should work, not forgetting that the mandate given to us by the governor was to put the civil service commission back to its glorious days. We created additional departments for appointment promotion, recruitment, and discipline and appeals as well as planning research and statistics. We also created an intelligent Unit directly under the office of the Chairman to fish out officers who are due for retirement but dodging it.
Within three years of the new management, we recorded the following:
Over one thousand officers were recruited and over one thousand, one hundred and eighty-eight were promoted, confirmation of appointments-103 cases; permanent and personable notifications-331; advancement-25; change of cadre ad conversion-73; withdrawal of service- contract appointment-48; retirement-341; transfer of service-76; secondment-19; death notification-138.
Others include contract for computerization of the whole department of which work has started. We are planning to host the fourth national convention of the federal and states civil service commissions in June this year (2014.
Challenges at the CSC
Being political penile and error, politicians are of the view that nothing is impossible. But, CSC being established by the constitution and working within the rules and regulations, we encountered frictions between us. Therefore, we have to be extra careful and cautious in dealings and doing our day to day functions. Nevertheless, we have had a very harmonious working relation with the government and other bodies.
