By Rotimi Ajayi

Nigeria Customs Service is riding on top of the waves. The Comptroller-General, Mr Dikko Abdullahi is certainly one man who is proud at this time to be at the head of the organisation. In this interview with some journalists in Abuja, the CG talks about what makes the Customs different in its performance role and what he expects to achieve in a few years time.

 It appears that the Customs has not been generating appreciable funds of late, what could be responsible for that?

Contrary to your belief, the Customs is actually generating more. As I have always pointed out, in 2009 we collected N30bn in the whole year. But, today, we collect several times more. For example, in June, 2011 alone, we collected N61.5bn. The truth is that in the past, our officers were not Internet-compliant and computer literate. Naturally, the job suffered.

They did not understand how the system worked when we started. They adhered to the pre-shipment inspection and so lost grip. During the pre-shipment regime, goods were inspected at take-off point and bills of laden and other documents only came here as evidence that the inspection was done properly.

*Mr Dikko Abdullahi: The Comptroller-General

What usually happened here in Nigeria was that the Customs officer would merely call the importer to the office and agree on something as the tariff.  Essential duties like classification and valuation were done abroad.

The point is that when we practised pre-shipment inspection, our men just dropped their guards and never studied anything on their duties. They were reduced to people who merely opened containers and shut them back. When we operated that way, our personnel were actually uninitiated or uneducated in the new ways of retrieving Customs duty.

But we have trained quite a lot of officers and that training has led to the increase in revenue that we are being praised for. We have motivated our personnel with an increase in take-home pay. This has improved the attitude of the average officer and the results are there for everyone to see.

When we started, we inherited a revenue figure of N30bn monthly collection and as I told you, that was under the pre-shipment inspection regime which rendered our officers redundant and less effective in discharging their statutory responsibilities and all the Customs officer did was to open a container and examine it and that was all.

But with the coming of destination inspection, things have changed as goods are assessed in Nigeria and valued here as well.

So the duty that importers pay has risen. To begin with, we went for a total revolution in capacity-building by first making our officers knowledgeable in the fields of classification, valuation and assessment and other related statutory responsibilities of officers.

If you look at training, we have educated 12,000 of the 17,000 officers and we have embarked on training the trainers on courses that are germane to the Customs and things are looking up now. Our revolution on capacity- building has educated officers on where and how to value imports and that has helped in driving up our revenue profile in the country. Customs officers have come of age.

They are motivated because we have undergone various reforms since 1978 but never before have the officers become more motivated than now when we collect over N61bn monthly. We have more than doubled the monthly collection and our target before December is N100bn monthly and hit our target of N450bn annual target before October and what we collect thereafter would be a bonus collection.

 How much impact does the revenue you have been collecting have on the average Nigerian?

*Mr Dikko Abdullahi ...The Customs officers are being trained regularly and we have ensured that anyone who goes out to train is attached to someone at his host country

This is a good question. The tariff we collect is usually divided into three parts. The sum goes to the three arms of government namely: the federal, state and local governments. No Nigerian can claim not to benefit from our efforts.

The Federal Government takes care of federal roads and other services like electricity; the state government provides education and fertilizer while the local government does the rest.

No matter who you are, you must enjoy something that the Customs tariff contributes to and that is why we fight smugglers because if they desist from smuggling, revenue will grow and government will fulfil more of its responsibilities to the population.

In my view therefore, it is important that people pay their dues and tariffs as at when due and in the right amount so that the government will shoulder more responsibilities for the people to benefit meaningfully.

We learnt you were in Brussels for a crucial conference, of what benefit is that to the Service and the country?

The Nigeria Customs Service was in Brussels, the global Customs Headquarters where we meet annually. It was a good outing for us as we ran away with the coveted prize of a Regional Customs Staff College where officers from all over the continent and beyond will learn the technicalities of the profession.

Because of the concept and format of the institution, the World Customs Organisation decided to take over the institution and sustain it. Their involvement will improve Nigeria’s image abroad and their input and material contribution will enhance the quality of training one receives from the institution.

The trainees will comprise mainly of senior officers who would be taught how to offer responsible and responsive leadership. We were also granted the right to host the WCO which is the Customs’ apex governing body.

About 30 countries entered to secure the hosting rights but Nigeria was chosen. China hosted the body last year and by the 7th of December, the 42 countries and 25 businesses and international organisations will be in Nigeria for seven days.

It is a week-long meeting where the WCO will work out its roadmap for 2012. These two achievements, I believe, will sign-post the dawn of a new era and they are in fact epoch-making.

The institute will open new vistas to foreigners who have never been here and their visit will disabuse their minds on the negative information that they hear about the country. I am sure that those who used to think that Nigeria was nothing will have a change of heart.

Are you not worried that the wars on the African sub-region are likely to cause arms and ammunition to flow into the country through our borders?

As far as I know, the Customs, police and the army are all present at the nation’s borders and there has never been any case of the seizure of ammunition at the nation’s borders or shores. In any case, it is not the responsibility of the Customs to go after the people in the hinterland to impound ammunition. There are agencies that are responsible for that.

What about the guns in the country, how did they get in?

I have just told you that there are soldiers at the borders too and at no time has any one of the other security outfits made any substantial arrest or seizure at the sea shores or the borders as to justify the claim that arms and ammunition are in the country because Customs has not been doing its job. And if there were any arrests at any time, then the credit would go to both the Customs and the others and not a single agency.

We have scanners that inspect goods at the ports and since they got here, the smuggling of arms and ammunition has gone down drastically.We have perfected the use of scanners that check goods that are coming into the country.

But that does not mean that our men can ensure a 100 per cent surveillance of what comes into the country. Our borders are very long and, therefore, to be fool-proof is impossible since we are dealing with human beings. Nigerians should also help with information regarding such entries that are not within the reach of our system.

The public can help but I am confident that, as of now, it is extremely difficult to bribe a Customs officer to allow dangerous ammunition and contraband into the country no matter what one offers.

What gives you the confidence to speak glowingly about your men?

The Customs officers are being trained regularly and we have ensured that anyone who goes out to train is attached to someone at his host country to see first-hand how the Customs work in those countries so that whenever they return to Nigeria, they will not allow anything that will damage the image we have built for ourselves.

We still have a long list of people to train. But one thing I must add is that in the last one year, I have not read any report in the media involving a Customs officer doing some heinous things.

Moreover, the removal of Customs roadblocks throughout the country has reduced the negative perception of Customs. We have evolved several strategies to hinder smugglers from having a free reign and they are working. We have also ensured that we surprise people who smuggle goods into the country.

Remember whenever smugglers have their way, the revenue accruing to the country through the Customs would sink to the lowest ebb and whenever Customs is effective, the revenue jumps. So, this is a simple yardstick for measuring whether Customs is working or not.

What have you done to take the Customs Service to the level of other services in the world especially in the area of detecting hidden weapons and other scientific material that are smuggled into the country?

Actually we have officers that work with nuclear regulatory agencies but we decided to have them work without publicity in order to keep the people’s minds at rest. We do not want the nation to begin to fret over whether or not we have nuclear weapons coming into the country. But they are working effectively and discretely.

What is the target that the Federal Government expects from the Customs?

About N450bn per annum and you can already see that we have achieved close to that in the middle of the year. So our men are not doing too badly.

One key motivation for us is the increase in salary which I requested from the President and Commander-in–Chief, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and he graciously acceded to it and since then, things have been good for the men.

Your revelations on training show that about 12,000 men have been trained. How do you select people for the courses?

Since my assumption of office, I made sure that each and every Customs officer who deserves training in his field is on queue to attend one course or the other. We shall leave no one behind and the intention is to have all the men of the service trained.

And so, when others return from courses that we think need to be imparted on their colleagues, we allow them to teach others and this has spread the training broadly.

Everyone is training including me. I am serious about the broad-base of the training we offer and we take training and valuation seriously because we want to operate in the same vein as any Customs anywhere in the world.

We are intensifying efforts along the train-the-trainers lines to widen the scope of our professionals and the idea is to have everybody on the same page. We have areas of specialty like rule of origin, classification and valuation techniques.

These are specialized fields where we want our personnel to excel. Some goods for example originate from say Ghana on their bill of laden but they may in fact be produced in the USA and when they get to our borders, we would have to waive their duties.

But the point is that by the time our people are well vast in the field of identifying such things, they would charge appropriate duty on every import and revenue will rise tremendously.

When do you think Customs will achieve paperless environment operations as done in other parts of the world?

By January 2012, we hope that all Customs agents and all other operators at the ports including the concessionaires would hop on to the next level and meet the Customs half-way so that each and every one is on the same page. We hope that by that period, importers would not have to leave their homes to clear goods and that could be done in record time. That is where we are headed.

It is imperative that all operators at the ports move in tune or tandem with the Customs and in two weeks, we intend to induct the Customs agents to understand that when we inspect their goods, we would be sure who is where on our integrity profile and we intend to incentivize the service of Customs agents so that those who minimize the risk of smuggling we shall partner with because of integrity and reward adequately. Those who fall foul of the law will be severely punished.

For your information, I am travelling to Canada soon to understudy the risk management profile system where those who do business with integrity would be on the green line so that whatever they bring into the country would get priority because they are known to be honest and decent clearing agents and those who fall foul of the law would be seriously rebuked. That is one way of managing the routes effectively and it can only be achieved through the re-education of personnel beginning from the top.

In a lighter mood, the late Mamman Shata had sang a song for an officer who he praised for doing his work without fear or favour, would you describe yourself as that type of officer?

I am even worse. The issue of trust is for one to face any national assignment squarely. I am not in any way bothered about how people perceive me once the job is done.

My assignment is to ensure that the nation gets its dues from people who import goods into the country and if you do it right, we could have a smooth and decent relationship and I would respect you.

But if you cheat, you can never see my good mood. You see, every Customs officer is an economist and should ensure that whoever comes into this country to make profit does so within the ambits of the law and the Customs officer must ensure that whatever people bring into the country would also benefit us.

That is all I stand to project and to also protect my country. And let me make this categorically clear to all and sundry now that the opportunity has availed itself courtesy of your question, anyone who tries to sabotage the national economy should not expect anything favourable from me.

I will deal decisively with all those who attempt to sabotage this country and I will do so without blinking. So, be forewarned. My officers and I are rallying hard to be on the same page on this and so Shata’s song says it all. We shall serve without fear or favour.