Your world is a living expression of how you are using and have used your mind.—Earl Nightingale

IT  is imperative we begin to address our minds to issues that undermine our well-being given that today fraud is evident at almost every office you go to for one reason or the other. Indeed, one wonders if there is any government establishment that is devoid of corruption.

That is the case at every arm or tier of government, whether  state, Federal, local council or the National Assembly. In fact, national law makers are under obligation to establish their innocence after being described by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a bunch of robbers and crooks.

Obasanjo’s assertion in this regard may be interpreted to mean a call on Nigerians to rise against what is generally perceived as the stealing syndrome in government. The raging palaver over the padded 2016 budget and Constituency projects makes it morally mandatory that our law makers help us  change our ways and our perception of criminal or illegal practices.

Last May, the Senate uncovered a N447 billion waiver fraud involving many big Nigerian companies which import different products into the country. The fraud was allegedly perpetrated in the administration of import duty waivers, concessions and grants by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government.

The Senate Report blamed the flagrant abuse of the waiver process on lack of synergy among MDAs charged with the responsibilities of administering import duty waivers, concessions and grants.

It specifically named the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Federal Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment; the Nigeria Export Promotion Council,NEPC; the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, as agencies responsible for the loopholes.

“Customs duty waivers and concessions have been used by the Budget Office of the Federation to entrench a very destructive patronage system to our economy, whereby very few operators in the economy were singled out for favours resulting to unfair competition in the system,” the Report said, and recommended that rice importers would remit over N23 billion, while those for sugar over N48 billion.

Most of these companies did not meet the criteria for import waiver, yet they got it. They, with their collaborators, exploit the system, mess up good government programmes and effectively sow the seed of corruption in government establishments.

They know the Nigerian system and will repeat same irrespective of who is in Aso Rock and his political party.

While this scam may have been uncovered in the course of probe of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, it is a welcome change in direction. It will help us to look into our civil service, especially the synergy between our MDAs in order to plug the loop holes that breed corruption, wastefulness and unfairness against the generality of other Nigerians in import businesses.

The poor synergy between the National Budget Office, National Planning Office, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Nigerian Customs, the NEPC and   the Nigerian Standards Organisation appears to benefit the big importers and companies and their connections in these offices at the expense of the country.

For example,  the Nigerian Customs which is the chief enforcement agency for import waivers, duties, etc, has no robust synergy with other arms of government involved in the administration of these waivers. Customs officials do not care, being majorly concerned with what goes into their pockets.

They even collect import duties from charity organisations for used items donated by citizens of other nations to help the poor and less-privileged in Nigeria under the pretext that President Buhari cancelled all waivers !

When a waiver is granted through an agreement between the importer and any of the MDAs involved, say the National Planning, they would forward such agreement to the Ministry of Finance, MOFI,  which will in turn issue the Waiver Certificate to the importer. But MOFI will not act on it, especially if it has to do with charity for obvious reasons. MOFI will dribble the waiver beneficiary until the containerised import arrives our seaport, without release of the waiver certificate. Then a Customs official will wake up, slam import duty and work hard to let the container go into what they call ‘Seizure’, so that their accomplices may buy the container and sell through their warped auction exercise.

At the SON office, you get the same hard shoulder. They appear busy, but essentially doing nothing but looking after themselves.

None of them will accept to connect with other officers in other MDAs involved. Visits to their websites contain nothing on how to process waiver or apply for one.

Federal Government offices connected with importation seem positioned to exploit the importer irrespective of his purpose, even if it is for charity.

The shipping companies are not left out. They have their varied policies on release of cargo and refund on container deposits, some calculated to sit on the monies of Nigerian importers and their clearing agents. Yet no one will speak up !

Now, over 50 percent of the clearing agents in Apapa and Tin Can Island seaports are Igbos, and I am asking as an Igbo man,   what is the purpose of all this ?

Government has not helped matters from the lack of synergy between the Customs, the CBN and MOFI as it affects foreign exchange, FX, policies. Since the new open FX policy this year for government transactions, for example, Customs pegged the FX rate at N285.5 per dollar. But this week, without notice, stakeholders and operators were shocked as Customs announced that the rate has changed to N313 per dollar, and worse still without any explanations except to recite that they were implementing ‘directives from above’.

Who is benefitting from these topsy-turvy FX policies? When will this lack of a clear and consistent direction on FX policies be corrected? Let no one be blamed for thinking that all these are aimed at killing importation to impoverish some ethnic groups.

• Mr Clement Udegbe a legal practitioner, wrote from Lagos