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Can Hameed Ali win?

Three times this year, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd), the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, has publicly displayed illegal arms imported into Nigeria under false…

Three times this year, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd), the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, has publicly displayed illegal arms imported into Nigeria under false pretences by criminals. Frightening as that development is, it is heartwarming that at last the Customs seem to be living up to their billing as gatekeepers.

When Ali was appointed CG, I didn’t know if he could dredge the swamp of corruption in the Customs where officers are alleged to become billionaires long before retirement. Many crooked people were very unhappy with his appointment. They sponsored stories about how the appointment had led to low morale in the service. Some even argued that the Customs job is such a specialised one that only a career Customs officer could fit the bill.

What they were not telling the world was that the Customs service, like many other government establishments, was riddled with corruption and the well-entrenched thieves were the ones calling the shots and deciding what fraction of the takings they would cede to Nigeria.

I don’t expect Ali to magically scrub the Customs clean in one day, but it is important for the public to notice a positive change of attitude in the Customs men and women they have contact with. Of particular importance is the comportment of officers posted to our airports. Right now, it seems the service posts its meanest hustlers and desperadoes to the gateways to harass and intimidate arriving passengers.

Last week, Customs officers insisted on searching arriving passengers’ every luggage, every suitcase. What was the problem? They said there was a new directive that any passenger bringing in any item worth N50,000 must pay customs duty. Who gave the directive? Why didn’t the government publicise it before implementation? Why ambush innocent travellers who had just landed from long journeys with a requirement they were not aware of? The result was the usual Nigerian confusion – long queues, negotiating teams of customs officers and touts, bribes changing hands, ‘uncooperative’ passengers being delayed and humiliated … all these should not be happening in the Customs under the watch of the no-nonsense Hameed Ali.

In other countries, once you don’t have anything to declare, you simply pick up your luggage from the carousel and exit the airport -unless you’re suspected of committing some infraction such as drug peddling or smuggling of banned substances. Here, we have mounted various ‘toll gates’ between the arrival terminal and the exit. And you need to see the green monster of greed in the eyes of the customs officers as they hustle their hapless victims. A first time visitor to Nigeria would wonder, “What kind of hell is this?”

Of course, I know the traditional ploy of blackmailing the nation to allow corrupt customs officers do their thing “in the interest of national security”. In the days of yore, the fact that the customs have exposed three illegal shipments of arms to Nigeria this year alone is sufficient to justify the show of shame going on at the airports. If that is also the argument under the watch of Hameed Ali, then nothing has changed. And that would be sad indeed.

Scanners were invented to save man-hours and do a thorough job. Our officials have a history of sabotaging scanners and security cameras so that they can restore physical contact with passengers or consignees at the ports. And we all know that it is through physical contact that bribes change hands.

Airport arrivals are joyful incidents all over the world. Our Nigeria that recently advertised its EASE OF DOING BUSINESS is busy mounting obstacles to those arriving after long flights with spurious demands and barefaced sleaze!

I hope Hameed Ali wins the war against corruption. I suggest he installs security cameras at all customs posts at the airport and watch, not Nollywood this time, but Customswood.

FESTIVAL OF RUMOURS

Last week was a Festival of Rumours of sorts following the reported clash between elements of IPOB and soldiers of the Operation Python Dance. Those who were peddling rumours of mass executions and torching of villages apparently wanted to inflame passions. The horrors of mass killings existed only in their diseased minds as attested to by one Barr Onyebuchi Ememanka who was at the theatre of action in Aba. The lawyer wrote to warn those peddling the dangerous rumours to find something better to do. Excerpts:

“I am sure a lot of us didn’t sleep because gists were flying around that soldiers and some Hausa guys were going from house to house killing our people and setting their homes on fire. I have been awake since 11pm working my phones and I want to state here without any fear of contradiction that all the hullabaloo was the product of high grade rumour mongering.

“First, I am an Ngwa man from Umule. I am an Aba person by birth, blood and ancestry. Therefore, any news of killings in Aba will naturally unsettle me. I was therefore awake all through….

“I am yet to see nor hear anyone who saw anyone being killed nor any House being set ablaze. Rumors are dangerous o…. Up until this minute, no one has come out to say that he was attacked nor his home burnt.

“The worst part is that people who live in the farthest part of Europe were on Facebook telling us how people are being murdered in their homes. This is terrible!”

 

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