‘I Suspect That Customs Act 2023 Was Padded’- Oduntan ANLCA VP

The Vice President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Segun Oduntan in a chat with Pinnacle Time newspaper said some of the apparent policy and operational back and forth in customs trade may not be unconnected with the suspected padding of the Customs Act 2023.

Prince Oduntan who also spoke about other sundry industry issues slammed the Ms. Zahrah Audu led Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) for neglecting to carry ANLCA along in its recent industry workshop which  X-rayed the seamless integration of the Single Window project for enhanced, robust data sharing amongst stakeholders.

The respected association number two leader spoke on the proposed unification of clearing agents and freight forwarders groups, on the wobbling and fumbling Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) , B’Odogwu, Eto Call-up system, the inconclusive Apapa Chapter election, and many more. Excerpt:

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

The Customs boss, Adewale Adeniyi called for the unification of freight forwarding and customs clearing groups recently, when the Nigerian Maritime Journalist gave him an award.  As the leading, foremost group, how has ANLCA helped in the actualization of this appeal to make customs agents more purposeful in its advocacy drive?

Yes, I think it is a good development. You know, there is always strength in unity and you know what we have been having in this regard; so it is like an uphill task that if surmounted, we can do a lot more. And l think this sincere appeal boils down to the truth about himself being skeptical in relating fully with us. There is a saying that while a bunch of broom is difficult to break, it is easier when the broom is in pieces because we don’t speak with one voice. You journalists too are in the same pond with us, we heard that you made efforts to come together to confer the Maritime Personality Award on the CGC as a single body. You know, you people are like us, you have different groups, AMJON, MARAN, MAJAN, LEAGUE, SCAN, so it is the same politics and quality of character that is playing out in our own and your own. So we all need a reverse but even at a that we have always been playing our roles, all the trillions in revenue and the declarations and the revenue target you are talking about, you can see that it has always been our work. What you see when the custom service is saying that they have met their target…we agents must have done close to 18 to 21percent of the said target because we are the ones doing the collection on customs behalf, l hope you understand. So to respond directly to the CGC’s appeal, ANLCA as the parent body with many children have been making some efforts because if we move together, we gain together. Working from different camps and at cross purpose doesn’t pay anybody. So we hope we all see reason in that direction so that all of us can benefit more from what we are doing in the customs clearing and freight forwarding industry.

Okay, can we quickly look at the inconclusive election at Apapa chapter where some offices are believed to have been filled and others are still pending? What is left to be done for the chapter election to be concluded?

That is part of the reasons you saw the NPS came in now to say its time for our meeting. It is an in-house thing, the board, the elders, principal officers of the association have met and are looking for a political solution to settle the matter. From my reading of all the efforts ongoing, l believe that the other offices will be filled soon, through harmonization and dialogue. We are on top of it and everybody is cooperating.

What about the Lagos Airport chapter where crisis appears to be brewing afresh as the chairman there, Ashiru Balogun recently accused the national leadership of not working hand in hand with him.

How does anyone stand alone, ANLCA is one and l can assure you that there is no crisis anywhere. The chapter has just emerged from a crisis and the national leadership and board together with the chapter executive are discussing how to return the chapter to its formal big status in the association. There is no crisis my brother.

Let’s talk about B’Odogwu, a proud home grown project, particularly the support it has enjoyed from ANLCA as the parent freight forwarding association; especially given the successes it has recorded in producing its PAAR and the issuance of From M. So how much support did this process enjoyed from ANLCA?

You see, from Day 1 if we did not support it, B’Odogwu wouldn’t have been able to fly, do you understand. We were consulted and we supported it when it was launched. During the consultation stage, we explained our fears and skepticism and they allayed our fears. We told them that when PAAR was launched during the regime of Abdullahi Dikko, we also supported it only for NCS (Nigeria Customs Service)to turn around later to say PAAR was no longer the decisive instrument for cargo release but a provisional report. But initially they told us that once you have your PAAR, it was the final release document…pay your duty, carry your goods. So when we raised those past issues, they assured us this one is everything in one. Let me not lie to you, whether it is , M’Odogwu or Kai’ Odogwu, the Nigerian factor is still there. You know this one is an indigenous one, so we are praying because everything we are talking is about sincerity. If there is no sincerity of purpose, you can bring a system operated in Europe, it will have to be adjusted to the Nigerian system, otherwise they will not allow it to work. So ANLCA does not have any issue , we have been supporting and will continue to support customs and the system but what we are saying is for us not to go back to the old days which they can’t defend, and which will be like another charade. Because whether we like it or not, the single window project is part of the system and part of the problems we are talking about, because if all these things work together, the result will be fantastic. But part of the starting point…just like the PEBEC thing that they started….can you imagine the flaws in it? You are to determine what and what that is happening at the port, we were not invited. Yet our president is part of the Committee on the Ease of Doing Business when the current Minister of Industry was in that position with former Vice President Femi Osinbajo as chair person. Now they excluded us and you went into that type of dialogue to determine how the industry should run and this people went to write reports to provide direction for the industry without us? Is that sensible? Let me tell you, Hassan Bello former ES Nigerian Shippers’ Council was able to perform very well towards in office because there was this committee on Nigeria Port Process Manual (NPPM)…do you know what happened, they called them that time to submit their standard operating procedure (SOP), which they did and it was integrated into the NPPM. We said no, all these things these people wrote here are all lies. When they give it to Hassan Bello to peruse, he said no, you know…there’s all this rivalry between NPA and Shippers Council and the NPA(Nigerian Ports Authority)  at that time was always having this attitude to be the lead organization…so for Nigerian Shippers’ Council to get the facts, they invited some of us. I was there; Oga Emenike was there, with two of their EDs and a lawyer. We visited Ghana Shippers’ Council and Ghana Tema Port and by the time we sat down to write our report, they were amazed. That was what Hassan Bello relied on to write his report to say it is true. That was when they set up the Joint Task Force upon that recommendation, and they put Moses Fadipe as chairman and appointed ICPC and the Nigerian Police into the enforcement unit. It was a focused, knowledge driven task force, they whip you back on line if you step off out of line, they arrested government officials including customs and immigration. It was at that period that our rating in the international maritime industry went up. Before that time, ship captains and sailors don’t like coming here because of harassments by our and rummaging they want to do it individually. So when this one enters the vessel they harass the crew…‘ehen wetin de here?’ they will open the captain’s cabinet to remove items, remove rice, as if they have not eaten. They will pack foreign drinks…and you know those people can stuck food items and drinks to last them months at sea. So they made it a point that NPA must provide a vehicle when the vessel comes, all of them do joint examination at the same time so that the vessel can leave as at the scheduled time. So in summary our association have always supported the national growth same way we have been supporting B’Odogwu.

I thought you wanted to relate the NPPM thing to the recent PEBEC meeting with NPA in Lagos where you said ANLCA was not invited.

Yes, we are not invited, I don’t know if any other association was invited…but you also know that if ANLCA was not invited, the freight forwarding industry was not invited. If we don’t speak NAGAFF will not talk, especially now that ANLCA is back on steam. If l am lying, please tell me, you have been around for awhile, you know the industry and the commitment of ANLCA and the breakaway groups. We all know that NAGAFF is always a yes, yes group, sometimes as a useful partner that is contracted by government agencies to oppose ANLCA that has the capacity to chart a direction for freight forwarders and clearing agents.

So you think that PEBEC got it wrong by excluding ANLCA from its dialogue on how to make the single window project, work.

Yes, totally wrong. They will not get anywhere because only ANLCA can support the initiative with a purposeful, focused presentation. So PEBEC started on a very wrong footing.

Okay, looking at the freight industry generally, how satisfied is ANLCA, do you have any recommendation for policy or operational adjustment, vis-a-viz your expectations against policy implementations?

I will tell you that our work has to do with operations and there is no way you can be satisfied, or you can be completely okay with the job that has to do with operation. You always have to ask for more improvement, you understand. You can never say this is the cost of this and that’s the total, no. But I expect the issue about entry into the port to have a simplified model just like the Ghanaian ports,   where you can access the port seamlessly; you don’t have to be delayed. The driver takes his truck with his biometric and is able to access the port and load your cargo out. This issue of Eto truck call-up system is embarrassing. Today it is Eto,  tomorrow  it is Eto…price increase today, price increase tomorrow, l think we have gotten to that stage that these things are supposed to have been stabilized if not for anything, for a straight whole year without disruption. We have seen that the price of diesel and gas has been a bit stable in the past nine months now, why the wide differential in the cost of transportation?

Are you saying that the fuel pricing debacle is artificial?

It is…it is artificial because after meetings, changes are often negotiated, businesses don’t run that way. People don’t have the interest of achieving stability in the national economy, by now transporters should be sitting down in their offices to operate seamlessly, without much struggles and stress. So as per government policies, customs service is trying, trying to improve on their own. Why can’t NPA do a 24 hour service if FAAN is doing it. Why are some terminals still operating manually? If this Eto call-up company is not penalized, if they don’t have what it takes to take us there, they should get out. Why is NPA finding it difficult to take a bold decision on this matter?

But the NPA has been championing round-the-clock port operation. During the PEBEC/NPA meeting on single window, some stakeholders claimed that even when the ports are opened weekends, importers and their clearing agents don’t come, how do we reconcile this?

Did they say that, go around and do your own check, find out whether their staffs are on duty. Let me tell you, l don’t think that the claim is correct. Why didn’t they invite us to talk about it? They know what they are doing, if there’s no flight schedule at the airport at a particular time, does that mean that the airport workers will not be on their seat? So that excuse is not tenable. If you go to airport at a particular time, you will see that the counters will be free, but when it is time to start booking, you will see everybody…the counters will come alive, people will be doing their documentation.

There is an ongoing quiet agitation for a review of the Customs Act 2023 that the act was not properly done, and there are calls from some quarters for an urgent review, including areas such as customs autonomy, and the tenure of the CGC.

Well, ANLCA supported the debate and made very useful contributions, so we don’t have problem with the Act.

But you are aware that your members often speak about disagreements as it affects the freight forwarding business. Today you’re ANLCA number two man, why did ANLCA fail for instance to air these concerns during the debate?

We don’t accept this blame, there can be a budget now…is it not when somebody get there that we later get to hear that budgets have been padded. I think that some padding was done on the document after the debate, so it is unfair to say we didn’t engage in making informed contributions during the Act.

President Tinubu has banned some category of employees from patronizing foreign goods. What do you think this will achieve since those making the laws don’t patronize lots of local goods?

As far as we are concerned that should not be ANLCA’s problem, we are clearing agents not senior government workers.  Let’s leave ANLCA out of national politics.

Could you speak on the stillborn nature of the CRFFN that appear to be continually crawling?

You know about the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM), they called them (CRFFN) at the time to submit their SOP and they submitted, all agencies submitted and it was integrated into the NPPM. So if the CRFFN is still struggling, it means something is fundamentally wrong with the concept and design, and the only advise is to tell the government to go back to the drawing board. A Yoruba adage says if a man who embarked on a journey realizes he has missed his way, the proper thing to do is to return to where he was coming from so that he can find out at what point he missed the road and to start afresh. I think that everybody made mistakes in the matter of the Council, we should not be ashamed to return to the boardroom because if it is not working, it is not working. I also think that recent politics have contributed to making an already bad case, even worse. I don’t want to talk more about this matter because ANLCA is in court over certain disagreements.