By Ifeyinwa Obi

THE Secretary General of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Mr. Emmanuel Opara, has made a strong case for the appointment of a career officer in the Nigerian Custom Service, NCS, as the Comptroller General.

Opara, a frontline customs agent, said a career customs officer will be able to understand and interpret customs documents when presented to him, adding that with this robust background and knowledge, the officer will be able to take the right decision on trade matters before him.

He, therefore, called for a reassignment of the present comptroller general of the Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), to some other responsibilities where his services would be best appropriate.

He accused the Customs CG of operating without enough interface with stakeholders on issues affecting them.

Speaking to Vanguard Maritime, the ANLCA scribe said, “The present CG, may be because of his military background, is finding it very difficult to have that engagement that will resolve most of these issues we are having. We are appealing to Mr. President (Muhammadu Buhari) to talk to him because we know the man is incorruptible, he is thorough, he has a fine military background but we are talking about a Custom Services that was set up to facilitate trade. It is different from running a military barracks.

“In 2017, the maritime industry wants to see a career officer from the ranks of Customs to take over as comptroller general and the incumbent can be given some other responsibilities where his services will be needed by the President without bias. He is a fine gentleman, disciplinarian, incorruptible but as we speak the man is in the wrong place.”

Some stakeholders had, at different fora, also voiced out the need for a career customs officer to be appointed to head the Customs instead of an outsider who does not understand the rudiments of trade facilitations as key responsibility of the Customs Service.