Leadership ‘Customs CG Has No Fixed Tenure’ By: Isaac Aimurie, Juliet Alohan, Samson Echenim on July 30, 2013 - 2:58am The chairman of the House Committee on Customs, Sabo Mohammed Nakudu, has said that the office of the comptroller-general of Customs is not subject to a fixed tenure. Nakudu’s comment is coming against the background of recent moves by desperate lobby groups to force President Goodluck Jonathan to remove the comptroller-general of Customs, Abdullahi Inde Dikko, on the grounds that he would be four years in office on August 18. Nakudu told LEADERSHIP that neither the 1958 Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) currently governing the Service, nor the provisions of the Customs and Excise Management Bill 2011, fixed a limit on the CG’s tenure. “The appointment, tenure and removal of the CG is purely the decision of the president,” he said. Toeing the same line in a separate interview, a highly placed source said, “It has always been an open appointment. The President can appoint and terminate the CG’s appointment. The only provision I know provides that the Customs Board shall nominate to the President who is supposed to appoint a CG from among the nominees. “But that, to the best of my knowledge is only in theory; no CG has ever been appointed based on the nomination of the Board. It is totally at the discretion of the President,” the source added. The source listed some former comptrollers-general who had served more than four years, including the present Gbom Gwong Jos, Jacob Jang Buba, who was Comptroller-General for five years. The source added that Ahmed Aliyu Mustapha served five years; and Maj. Gen. Samuel Ango retained the seat for six years. Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday expressed satisfaction with the on-going reform programme of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). The minister, who commended the Nigeria Customs Service after a meeting of the board of the NCS in Abuja yesterday, disclosed that in a few months the Service would take full charge of all its responsibilities. “I think from what I hear that it’s going relatively ok, it’s not easy. I don’t think there’s any organisation that goes through a transition period without some pains. I think the Customs is handling itself fairly well and I count on the CG to ensure a smooth transition. And it’s only a couple more months, two three more months and customs is in charge. So I am sure that everybody is gearing up,” Okonjo-Iweala told LEADERSHIP. Media reports had claimed that the outsourcing of destination inspection was a sore point in relations between the minister and the CG. Dismissing speculations over a possible postponement of the planned handover of Destination Inspection to the Nigeria Customs Service, the minister said she does not waste her time on propaganda, stressing, “I don’t spend my time on that. If you open the newspapers, everyday there are articles saying finance is doing this, they are blocking that trying to postpone and all kind of false stories, I am not focused on that, I don’t work that way. I just do my job and when the time comes the evidence will show for itself.” Commenting on the revenue drive of the organization, Okonjo-Iweala said, “We are really looking forward to everybody being charged up to take care of this revenue issue so that we can be on the upswing again. So the CG is going to be working on it full time.” Other stakeholders have also commended the reforms carried out on the watch of Dikko. They maintained that considering the current programmes initiated by the Dikko-led administration, continuity of leadership was crucial to the successful completion of a number of the projects. In his opinion, the national president of the Association of Nigeria Licenced Customs Agents, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, said, “Dikko has done what others didn’t do; that has earned him more enemies than friends. I will advise that government gives him more time to see the digitalisation of Customs process and international trade to a reasonable conclusion.” Another operator, who pleaded anonymity, said, “The driver of the reform, usually motivates the team to deliver optimally. A change in leadership could affect trust and commitment and could generally derail the vision.” In response to the dire need of digitalisation of the international trade process, the Service has begun the single window trade platform for importers and all other relevant government agencies to ease the process of trade and that of revenue collection. The platform would eliminate direct interface between Customs officers and importers, and will involve more participants in the international trade process, including the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). Apart from the computerization, monthly revenue collection on Dikko’s watch has risen from N30billion monthly to N90billion. He also played a major role in designation of the Customs College Gwagwalada as a regional training centre by the World Customs Organisation.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 08:36:52 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015