THE Customs Command, as we all knowis the hub of international and local businesses in Nigeria. In fact, as the first port of call for most Nigerian and foreign importers and exporters, the happenings in this Command will either affect Nigeria positively or negatively.

In other words, in the attempt to rebrand the country, what transpires at this Command should be of interest to all stakeholders.However, in contrast to the great expectations that we can use this Command as a focal point, towards redeeming the battered image of the country, the Customs Command has recently turned into an albatross in the Federal Government’s fight against corruption.

This is a Command where nepotism, favoritism, and tribalism have eaten deep into the organisational structure and operations. Or how else will you describe a situation where the only one tribe’s language is used as official language, whereas the majority of the clients are mainly Nigerians of different ethnic stocks.

The leadership of this Command in its desperation to make quick money now resort to seizing goods indiscriminately, whether contraband or not. As they seize people’s goods, they trample on people’s fundamental human rights by going the extra mile to lock up drivers and conductors of impounded vehicles.

Make no mistake about it, it is not the motive of this writer to support or ask the Customs to condone importation of contraband goods. Far from it. However, what is being advocated unequivocally is the adherence to rule of law and due process in the activities of the Customs Command.

Regrettably, this is not the case, as we find impunity of the highest order being perpetrated by the operatives of this Command. They have arrogated to themselves the power of life and death over the unfortunate victims of their draconian modus operandi.

Or how else can one describe a situation where the Customs’ operatives seize goods that are non-contraband, and still demand and receive gratification before releasing the goods. In most cases, such goods have been tampered with, and the victims usually do not get redress due to the cumbersome judicial process in the country.

Corruption at Customs Command is so disgusting that even a gateman is in a position to equally seized goods that have been released at the wharf, if the owner is recalcitrant in obeying his order. Indeed, such is the level of wanton corruption and impunity that it is better to dread them, than to confront them. You now begin to wonder if this is the 21st century Nigeria or the Hobbesian era when life was brutish, short and uneventful.

Definitely, time has come to do a surgical operation at the Customs Command to rid the organisation of hoodlums who hide under the banner of Customs to do incalculable damage to the collective destiny and well-being of our nation.

To be more specific, it is imperative for the authorities concerned to immediately beam their searchlight on the activities of officers who have turned themselves into lords of the manor at the Customs Command. At his behest, a businessman can lose goods worth millions of naira simply because the affected person may have refused to obey his “instruction”.

Ironically, despite all the agonies businessmen encounter in the hands of these heartless Customs officials, they hardly seek redress, mainly because it may be fruitless after all, to waste their precious time with the bureaucratic system we operate.

It is sheer wickedness for a Customs man to seize non-contraband goods, and keep them for months, only to finally collect gratification and release same to the owners. Usually these gratifications run into millions of naira.

Is it therefore not justifiable to ask the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to urgently focus on the Customs Command and fish out the perpetrators of varied degrees of corrupt practices. One sure way of doing this is to investigate the bank accounts of officials of the Command.

This call has become more urgent considering the pain importers undergo in the hands of these unpatriotic Customs men.

A new dimension has also been added to the fraudulent practices being perpetrated at the Customs Command as importers are usually subjected to multiple duty payments, thereby heaping more burdens on the consumers. This is in spite of having obtained the risk assesment report which normally prescribes the duty payable by an importer of goods. Where due process is followed the RAR (Risk Assesment Report), the report recommends the final duty payable, but unfortunately this is observed in the breach.

Precisely it is worrisome that even after clearance have bean obtained from the relevant government agencies, the importer is still compelled to pay huge sums of money as gratification. Accusing fingers are already pointing at a particular officer who has gone beyond the conventional Customs rules and regulations by hiring hoodlums as agents and whistle blowers on importers.

In most cases, as a way of impressing their paymasters, these agents provide wrong and false information about some trucks load of goods. Once these trucks enter into the dragnet of these Customs men, the journey to the unknown has begun. No wonder the premises of a particular Command has turned into somet kind like of a Tejuosho market where buying and selling of all manner of goods have become the order of the day.

Therefore, to clean the Augean stable, it is pertinent for the Federal Government to set up a high level investigative panel to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of these claims. In any case, these are daily and glaring occurrences. One verifiable evidence is the failure of the Command to show cases of impounded contraband goods that have been successfully prosecuted in a court of law.

Obviously, a check will show significant variance from the number of arrested importers of impounded goods. The records are there for verification. Investigation will also show the movement of seized vehicles and goods on the rise, in comparison to those prosecuted. The aftermath is that this has become an extortionist tactic as most seized vehicles or goods end up as the properties of the officials.

These officials end up being the direct beneficiaries of these seizures, and the Federal Government revenue generation continues to dwindle, thereby nullifying all the budget projections of government. Finally, it is appropriate to also draw the attention of the Federal Government to the multiple import duties imposed on luxury buses, which in my view runs contrary to the enabling Customs rules and regulations.

All these are done with impunity, and with the intention to line the pockets of some vested interests at the Customs Command. Government should, as a matter of urgent public interest, wade into the activities of this Command to save all of us the shame which this command has constituted for the nation.A stitch in time saves nine.

The point must be stressed that unless government reins in these unwholesome acts by the Customs, the fight against corruption will remain a futile exercise, and the country will continue to suffer the twin effects of revenue loss and image problem.
Mr. CHUKWUDI ENEKWECHI, a comentator on national issues,wrote from Abuja.