Despite Massive Seizures, Smuggling Persists?

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By Francis Ugwoke
Over the years, the common understanding of smuggling is when some traders or importers conceal their goods in whatever form to bring them into the country without allowing these items to go through examination by the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) or other agencies empowered to do so. The smugglers use porous borders or bush paths to bring in such goods. Some would simply bribe their way to bring in these items even by using official routes through ‘arranged’ declaration of these items in the case of prohibited goods under cover. Smuggling is the reason why prohibited goods enter the country and could be purchased by consumers. Prohibited goods could be found in any part of the country despite all the efforts to check such trend. Just think of the roles of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), NAFDAC, among others in checking importation of substandard goods into the country, and one will discover that what they are supposed to stop from coming in are everywhere.
But smuggling has advanced and sophisticated importers now do so through the seaports or airports. As experts explain, concealment, under-declaration, under-valuation of goods by many importers are now classified as smuggling. Despite seizures of these goods, the importers do not appear to be ready to change. The Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, recently disclosed that the Service recorded 3,806 seizures with a Duty Paid Value totaling N16, 049,023,262 last year. He said these “confiscations encompassed a diverse array of contraband, including arms and ammunition, artifacts and antiquities, illicit drugs, expired food produce, and endangered species of flora and fauna”. He also disclosed that “the NCS achieved 52 convictions, with 11 specifically linked to the illicit trade in animal/wildlife”.
Out of the N16.049bn seizures, the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Lagos, alone seized goods worth N10.3bn.
The goods include 139 trailer loads of rice, 132 tokunbo vehicles and other prohibited items. The 139 trailer loads of rice were 83,170 bags of 50kg.
This was disclosed by the Controller of the unit, Comptroller Kehinde Hussein Ejibunu, who added that the unit made a total of 1,119 seizures for the year.
Such massive seizures are recorded year-in-year out with importers suffering huge losses. Yet, those involved in such trade malpractices do not seem to have learnt their lesson. This was despite efforts by both Customs and associations of customs agents to educate importers to avoid trade malpractices.
Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam described this trend as unfortunate.
Aniebonam while noting that some of the traders may be unrepentant, however, opined that it was left for the Customs to do their job.
He told SHIPPING DAY, “That is why they (Customs FOUs) are there. They are intervention force. If human beings are patriotic, if we are doing things within the ambit of the law, we don’t even need customs in the ports, you can as well go to bank , pay and carry your goods and go. But government is aware we are going to cheat, because we are human beings, that is why government now says, okay, Customs come and protect the interest of the government. So, what would have happened if government is not there? It means no generation of revenue for government as far as imports and exports are concerned, because Nigerians will not pay, nobody wants to pay tax.
“When you discuss matter of this nature, the first law of God is choice. And when you are dealing with human beings, you are not in a position to know what they will do. Some people are greedy and a business man is going to business to maximize profit. And so, if he sees any way he will maximize profit, he will do that. Again, that is why the checks and balances are there. So, expectation is not normal but in all form of business, these things are bound to occur. But what is important is the capacity of the agents of the government to respond and make sure that the interest of government is protected”.
Similarly, the former President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu who on the issue said the latest trend in smuggling in Nigeria is unfortunate.
He said, “ It is unfortunate that Nigeria is now a smuggling route. And the smuggling we are talking about is boldly performed. Because those days, you don’t smuggle through the ports, you go to the bush and smuggle… But now as it is experienced abroad, including America, they are battling smuggling because these cartels are so powerful and the power is not based on the fact that some of them are not identified. I give you example, if you go to the airport, in fact, when you hear the huge number of seizures going on in the port, you will be wondering, you mean some people will just take the bull by the horn to smuggle hard drugs, under-declaration and want to do whatever it is that is not allowed. The reason is that if you don’t get corruption out of people, it is not easy for a corrupt person to change, to say, I am no longer corrupt. Once they get into them, they fine-tune, no matter the obstacles you put on the way, they find a way to go about it. That is why this smuggling thing gets intense in the last one or two years. You see that Nigeria is now being seen as a road map being used by cartels as trading route to supply heroine to Asians and Arabian countries. You will always know that the final destination of all these drugs are not African countries. And it has to do with money. It is not only the customs themselves that are fighting smuggling, there is law that says any vessel that brings prohibited items should be impounded. How many vessels have you been able to impound ? Because when these goods are landed, they are kept in storage with the terminal operators. Terminal operators will not risk their businesses by allowing their terminals to be used for smuggling, but some how smuggled goods appear which means that the foreign end, the freight forwarders over there who know what they are loading, that is where this smuggling really occurs”.
On whether there is the possibility of some unscrupulous officers encouraging smuggling at the resident ports leading to such massive seizures by the operatives outside the ports, Shittu gave more insight on the current scenario of how smuggling occurs in the ports.
He explained, “there is something you need to take note of, smuggling through the border is different from smuggling through the ports. Smuggling through the border is when some people are physically carrying some prohibited items, drugs across the borders and we expect that officers will be manning the borders. Probably they are collecting something to close their eyes, let it pass. That is not easy to control. Most officers should be deployed to the border areas. More equipment should be given to them to be able to track. But smuggling through the ports, no officer or agent knows the content until when it is presented for examination. Well, some officers will say, because I am an examining officer ….. May be because of corruption, some of them would have been hinted. I get something there, I have something for you, what is the bargain. All those ones happen. But that one is not as common as the one you don’t see at all. Collusion is normal in all operations, whether government or whoever and because releasing officers have powers to say he is not convinced about what your declaration is, when you go to the oga, the oga asks you to go and reposition. Something, you have done before. It costs money to position a container. In some of the terminals, they are finding it difficult to position a container within a week. That is demurrage for the importer. So people are in hurry to carry their containers because they don’t want to pay demurrage. And that is why those things are able to pass, because people are impatient to carry load. Officers are also impatient to clear this one, because another one is there. And from there, you see people take advantage and these things pass. Even though customs went further that all your port operations as you are approaching the exist gate, you start another process of verification. And finally, anything can go on there. Nobody can tell a cat where the dry fish will be kept and the cat will not go there. And when you go to the gate, you find your way out of the gate, and when you are on the road, you still have officers. You will ask them, why are they having multiple checkpoints, they say multiple check is to counter wrong declaration, dugs. Go to Ikeja FOU, the place is flooded with either under-payment or what they discover. So, those steps slow down trade. But what is the alternative. The alternative is for Nigeria to be flooded, that even when you go to the market you will be buying drugs, so government needs to de-emphasize revenue target. When government has given the right to say what is wrong is right, and people concur because na we we, espirit de core, some of those things will be happening. And when a man says government asked me to meet a target of N1tn and in the process, he knows they can make N1.5tn, they make sure they make for the government N1tn. What stops them from making their own N.5tn and we say they are corrupt. So, we need to de-emphasize revenue generation, and go more for trade facilitation. That will help us a lot”.