Our Reporter
A former Deputy Comptroller General (DCG) of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Afolayan Jejeloye, has said Nigeria would have had one of the best Customs service globally, but for alleged politicisation of the activities of the agency.
He advised the Federal Government to embark on reorganisation in the NCS to rise to the challenge of raking in enough revenues that make up for the shortfall in oil revenues due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking with reporters on the ills of the underutilisation, corruption and inefficiency in the NCS, Jejeloye said that the agency could have been more effective as a revenue generation body, but for lack of motivation for its personnel.
He regretted that the career of the NCS was heavily politicised to the extent that many officers can’t get to the pinnacle of their career due to politics and interference.
“The Federal Government must spend more on the training of personnel. They must be made to acquire the right training in the areas of anti-smuggling techniques, revenue generation drives, border protection, import and export management and others.
“We know there is corruption in the system and Customs can’t be an exemption, but NCS operatives are not the one doing smuggling or bribing people to compromise at borders.
“If you secure employment into NCS, you are not sure that you will get career progression. You don’t know when your employment will be terminated and this accounts for the corruption in the system.
“Let me say this, today in the NCS, most of our men at the borders are not given transport or any other allowance and if they see someone who can give little stipend, they will gladly dive and grab it,” Jejeloye said.
“I have never seen a situation where someone was brought from outside to be Inspector-General of Police or Chief of Army Staff or Comptroller General of Prison, but this happens constantly in the NCS and it is destroying the system.
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”Our officers must be encouraged. When you don’t know when your career will cut short abruptly, you are bound to misbehave. Even the corruption they are talking about, NCS is not the worst in Nigeria.
“It is high time the government allowed the NCS to run. We have to restructure the system to allow for dignity of labour.
“The government must bring that ray of hope that our officers will have bright careers in NCS, that they will have good welfare package, can rise to the pinnacle without ceiling, they will be ready to stop smuggling, be more effective at ports and generate more revenue for our country,” Jejeloye said.
He said now that the nation is experiencing a slump in the prices of crude oil in the international market, there is need to diversify and strengthen the non-oil sector, where he noted that the NCS will play a pivotal role.
The former NCS boss said that the economy would suffer collapse if proper restructuring was not carried out in the organisation’s revenue generation exploits.
“The sudden sliding of our economy into recession is a lesson to all of us. It teaches us that we must be prepared all the time in proper planning for steady economic growth and putting up proper strategies to solve any sudden economic challenge, like Coronavirus.
“We must learn how to maximise profits in every opportunity available to us. If we have diversified to develop, the Coronavirus issue can’t be a serious issue.
“NCS is a source of income generation in our nation and we have to make judicious and maximum use of it through personnel restructuring, that is, putting the right persons in the right positions, good welfare and incentive packages and bright career progression,” he said.
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