By Adekunle Adekoya

OUR country is where the unusual happens and we take it in our strides as part of normal experience, thereby creating a situation where the unacceptable, in other climes, becomes the new normal. We even go ahead, in some instances, to create industries out of anomalies. One clear example is the perennial lack of potable water in our villages, towns and cities.

When water corporations in many states failed in the delivery of their mandate, the citizenry rose to the challenge and the “pure water industry” was born, with borehole drillers smiling to the banks.

It forever baffles one’s mind why and how ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, of government default in the implementation of their schedules and the head servant of the country, on whose desk the buck stops, equally defaults in addressing the situation, serially, from government to government. It is a disheartening situation that brews a feeling of helplessness, hopelessness and utter despair at the prospects of our dear country.

One issue that has impacted the economy greatly, over the years, has been smuggling. All kinds of items are smuggled into and out of Nigeria — petrol, diesel, rice, beans, cars, frozen poultry and a host of others, and those who operate in this realm have done very well for themselves, to the detriment of the national exchequer, and by extension, me and you.

The institution of government specifically charged with the anti-smuggling schedule is the Nigeria Customs Service. Your verdict on whether the organisation has effectively dealt with smugglers is as good as mine, howsoever you look at it. Regarding the issue of fuel smuggling across our borders, Comptroller-General of Customs last Monday, during an interactive session with members of the House of Representatives, blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, for smuggling of petroleum products across our borders, averring that lower prices of fuel in Nigeria compared with what obtains in neighbouring countries makes smuggling attractive.

Ali’s words: “We have also proposed to NNPC, if the price differential is the problem, we have our banks, Zenith Bank, GT Bank, operating in the West coast. What stops us?

“NNPC or DPR should establish petrol stations in our neighbouring countries, and move these products at the cost that we sell, and sell to these people. We will make money. We have the market and by doing so we will completely diminish the anxiety or the penchant for smuggling.

 “There is hardly anything we can do to stop the smuggling of fuel outside the country because they use the creeks, they use land borders, they use virtually everything possible. We cannot be everywhere; we must begin to think out of the box.”

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It wasn’t the first time that the Customs boss would be pushing this argument. In November 2019, Ali appeared at the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), and said fuel smuggling will be contained if the product sells at a uniform price in West African countries.

His words: “We must address the issue of petroleum price equalisation. There is no way we can sell petrol at N145 in Nigeria while all our neighbours are selling it at the minimum of N300 to N400 per litre and you say these people would not smuggle it to the neighbouring countries where it sells higher. The margin is so clear and I think it is something that is worth looking at. I do not know what we will do, but we must find a solution to that, otherwise there would never be an end to smuggling of petroleum products.”

Earlier this year, on March 4, again at the House of Representatives, Ali said the Customs was yet to contain the smuggling of arms into the country because the smugglers are protected by members of border communities.

“Our biggest problem with stopping arms smuggling is that border communities gang up against us, kill us and burn our vehicles. They gang up to fight us because they think the bandits (who smuggle arms), are more important to their lives than us. We need other agencies and communities to help us. Until that is done, Customs is willing to do what it can, to stop that,” he said.

Excuses. Rationalisations. Justifications. If this is not an admission of failure at executing a major function, what else is it? Why blame NNPC? Was NNPC set up to battle smuggling? So, to stop smuggling of petrol, Nigeria should build fuel stations all over West Africa? Splendid. We should also go ahead and build poultry farms all over West Africa so that we can stop smuggling of frozen poultry products.

All those rice farms in Kebbi, Zamfara and other states should have been in Bourkina Faso, Mali, Niger Republic, Guinea, etc., to stop rice smuggling. And arms smuggling? We should just set up armaments factories in  Ghana, Togo, etc., and the problem is solved. We can take Ali’s template further into other areas of governance. To avert ASUU strike, we build universities and polytechnics in other countries.

To prevent doctors from going on strike, we should build hospitals in other countries and advertise for foreign doctors to work in our own hospitals. Just one area where Ali’s template might not work. When politicians fail to deliver on election promises, we should export them to Mongolia and bring the Mongolians here.

Vanguard News Nigeria