by Lawrence Nnoli
The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Retired Colonel Hammed Ali has of recent been enmeshed in an imbroglio with the Nigerian Senate over several issues of which first on the list is the introduction of a retroactive regulation on Motor Duty Import Tariffs by the Nigeria Customs Service such that will penalize and criminalize owners of old vehicles already in use for years in Nigeria. The punishment is not only limited to impounding of such vehicles but also to prosecuting the owners thereof.
The arguments proffered by the Nigeria Customs Service in coming up with this retroactive policy were that:
- This policy if implemented will create ‘bad market’ for smugglers as members of the public will be deterred by fear of prosecution from patronising them.
- The policy will shore up the revenue of the Nigeria Customs Service which witnessed a sharp fall in 2016 as evidenced in their report in January 2017.
But these arguments were heavily flawed by superior reasoning to wit that:
- Implementation of this policy will to a large extent, amount to an admission of failure of responsibility on the part of the Nigerian Customs Service in preventing smuggling,
- Practical implementation of how this policy will work with men of Nigeria Customs Service whose primary stations of duty are the seaports, airports, land borders and sometimes the highways, will leave their duty posts to enter the Nigerian streets to stop, search and demand customs papers from all vehicles plying our local roads is unfathomable,
- The raison d’etre for such policy which essentially was to beef up the dwindling revenue of the Nigeria Customs Service betrays the ignorance of the leadership of the agency as to the real reason for their dwindling revenues which in this case was actually the effect of the new foreign exchange policy introduced by the Buhari administration which has made it difficult for importers to import goods as usual and pay their resultant tariffs thereby boosting the revenue of the Customs Service,
- Whatever pecuniary gains the Nigeria Customs Service seeks to make from this anomalous policy will pale into oblivion when compared to the chaos and corruption its implementation will bring, as its implementation will create more personal enrichment opportunities for men of the Nigeria Customs Service who are widely and arguably known to be very corrupt.
Thankfully, good reasoning prevailed when the National Assembly through the Senate waded into the matter and invited the Controller General of Nigeria Customs Service Col. Hammed Ali (Rtd) to come and expatiate more on the policy.
Instead of obeying the Senate’s invitation, the Controller General of Nigeria Customs Service hurriedly convened a Customs Management meeting to coincide on the same day that he was invited to the Senate and used his attendance to that meeting as an excuse not to honour the invitation of the Senate. Immediately after the Customs Management meeting, the Nigeria Customs Service announced that its retroactive policy has been suspended to enable it clarify the Senate on its essence and to get the Senate’s full support for its implementation.
Hell bent on having the Controller General answer its invitation, the Senate wrote a second letter rejecting the excuse offered by the Controller General for not appearing before it on the day scheduled and further re-invited him and instructed him to appear before it in his official Customs Service uniform on the following day with a threat that a warrant for his arrest will be issued if he fails to turn up as expected.
On the following day, the Controller General showed up in the hallowed chambers of the Senate albeit without wearing his official uniform as the Controller General of Nigeria Custom Service and when queried by the Senate on why he was not appearing before it in uniform, the Controller General proffered two excuses which are:
- That he is a military officer and ought not to wear the uniform of the Nigeria Customs Service.
- That he is still seeking legal advice on whether to wear uniform of the Nigeria Customs Service or not.
The Senate infuriated by the response turned him back and asked him to go and put on his uniform and come back on 22nd March 2017.
Ever since these incidents happened, several political and legal pundits have proffered various arguments in favour of and against why the current Controller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Colonel Hammed Ali (Rtd) should wear the Customs Uniform or not.
It is pertinent to point out that whatever arguments proffered by political and legal commentators for or against the wearing of uniform by the Controller General, should not go far beyond the reasons given by the Controller General himself for not wearing his official uniform as the Controller General. Hence, first and foremost, going by the reasons proffered by the Controller General himself, the following facts needs to be distilled and corrected:
- As against the Controller General’s assertion that he is a military man and thus could not wear the uniform of the Nigeria Customs Service, the Controller General should be reminded that he is a retiredmilitary man and not a military man otherwise he is an impostor. Just as retired civil servants are no longer regarded as civil servants after retirement, same applies to Col. Hammed Ali.
- Also being a retired military man, there is no law whatsoever that prohibits ex military men appointed to serve as heads of para-military agencies from wearing the uniform of such agencies.
Some individuals have canvassed that the Controller General having served meritoriously in the Army and retired, it will be dishonourable for him to wear the uniform of a paramilitary agency. And the question is, if it will be dishonourable for Retired Colonel Hammed Ali to wear a paramilitary uniform having retired as a soldier, would it not also be dishonourable for him to accept a job in a paramilitary agency and go ahead to enjoy the privileges and rights accorded to the head of that paramilitary agency?
Another valid question to ask is, at what rank did this Controller General retire in the Army? The Controller General retired as a colonel in the Army and not as a Four -Star General which is the equivalent of the rank of the Controller General of the Nigeria Customs Service which he is currently occupying.
With this analysis, on how the wearing of the uniform and highest rank of the Nigeria Customs Service could be considered a demotion and dishonourable for a former colonel of the Nigerian Army beats one’s imagination. The retired colonel’s obstinacy in refusing to wear his official uniform as the Controller General of Nigeria Customs Service is by no stretch of imagination, a show of disdain and mark of disrespect for the Nigeria Customs Service which he heads.
Still trying to enlighten Col. Hammed Ali (retd) on his need to wear the uniform of the Nigeria Customs Service of which he is the Controller General, the example of Major General Haladu Hananiya (Retd) was cited to him. Major General Haladu Hananiya (retd) was appointed sometime ago as the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and as the Corps Marshal, he wore the Federal Road Safety uniform. Major General Haladu Hananiya (retd) was a far more superior officer compared to Colonel Hammed Ali (retd) in the Nigerian Army yet he unashamedly and proudly wore the uniform of the Federal Road Safety Corp. If a retired Major General could wear the uniform of an agency like Federal Road Safety Corps, how much more a retired colonel wearing the uniform of the Nigeria Customs Service. Without mincing words, it can safely be deduced that the message which retired Col. Hammed Ali is seeking to convey to the public is that the ‘rank’ of a retired colonel in the Army is bigger than the rank of a substantive Controller General of the Nigeria Customs Service.
Several arguments have been trumped up by those canvassing and supporting the action of Col. Hammed Ali(Retd) in not wearing his Customs’ uniform. They include:
- That wearing of uniform does not determine the performance or competence of the Customs’ boss and therefore it should not preoccupy the minds of Nigerians that Col. Hammed Ali(Retd) is not wearing the uniform of the agency that he is leading.
Yes, to an extent, the wearing of uniform does not necessarily determine how efficient the person wearing it will perform but it is worthy to note that to a very large extent, it is the uniform of these Customs officers that gives them the ostensible authority to stand at the ports or on the highways and flag down vehicles. The uniform in a way grants them legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Without the uniform, no citizen is under obligation of any kind to stop his vehicle and permit a non-uniformed Customs official to search his vehicle or to allow himself to be frisked by such individual. Despite the fact that it is not written anywhere in the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) nor in any of the Customs regulations that Customs officers must wear their uniforms, it is equally pertinent to observe that no law forbids retired officers of the Nigerian Army from wearing uniforms of whatever paramilitary agency they are appointed to after their retirement. That being the case, it would not be entirely wrong for one to describe retired Col. Hammed Ali’s blunt refusal in wearing his Customs uniform as either a show of untamed pride or a show of crass ignorance of basic tenets of leadership.
- One other argument that has been canvassed by supporters of Col. Hammed Ali (retd) is that the post of the Comptroller General of Customs is a political post and not a career post and therefore the retired colonel is not bound by the rules of the Nigeria Customs Service.
The answer to this is that the post of the Comptroller General of Customs remains a career rank despite the fact that the occupier of such post is appointed at the behest of the President. The mode of the appointment does not remove the fact that the post is a career post. Such other similar career posts whose occupiers occupy at the pleasure of the President are the posts of the Inspector General of Police, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Controller General of Prisons, Controller General of Immigration etc. All the occupiers of these positions are appointed by the President despite the fact that they are career ranks.
- Further argument canvassed by supporters of Col. Hammed Ali (retd) is that since Hammed Ali is not a Customs’ commissioned officer, he cannot legally wear the Customs uniform.
The question is, which section of the Customs and Excise Management Act or the Customs Regulations says that? None whatsoever. This same group of people have drawn reference to the case of the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu who despite being a policeman was not asked to wear his uniform by the Senate when he appeared before them. The simple answer is that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as an agency has no known uniform and also its officials wear no uniform. Thus when its Chairman, though a police officer is appearing in his capacity as the chairman of the EFCC, he is not expected to be in the uniform of any other agency except the agency which he is representing and in his case, the EFCC. This logic is well understood not only by the Senate but by members of the general public thus the Senate did not bother to ask him to appear before it in his Police uniform.
For the love of our nation, if we must be non-partisan in this issue, the valid questions that will quickly resolve all these arguments and verbal bickering over the impropriety of non-wearing of Customs’ uniform by Col Hammed Ali (retd) are these:
- Is retired colonel Hammed Ali by virtue of his position as Controller General of Custom, a customs officer in law?
- Is retired colonel Hammed Ali by virtue of his position as the Comptroller General of Customs entitled to enjoy the powers, authorities, privileges and responsibilities confer on Custom officers by the laws and rules of the Nigeria Customs Service?
- Are officers of the Nigeria Customs Service expected to wear uniforms?
Section 2 of the Customs and Excise Management Act defines an officer of the Customs as “any person employed in the Nigerian Customs Service, or for the time being performing duties in relation to customs or excise”;
Section 8 further provides that “For the purpose of carrying out or enforcing the provisions of the Customs and Excise laws, all officers shall have the same powers, authorities and privileges as are given by law to police officers.”
The above two sections have clearly shown that as long as retired Col. Hammed Ali remains the Comptroller General of Customs, he is an officer of the Nigeria Customs Service and is bound by the rules and regulations of that entity and one of the rules (though unwritten) is that officers are expected to put on their uniforms.
Apart from this, ordinarily, it is expected that an invitation from the highest law-making organ of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the head of a paramilitary agency should be very formal thus requiring the head of that government agency to appear in appropriate uniform. If that is so, it becomes much more imperative on the head of that agency to adorn himself in such attire especially when such demand have specifically been made by the Senate.
When such specific instruction is deliberately disobeyed, it amounts to a gross disdain and contempt of the highest law-making organ of the government and in this case, the Senate.
Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija
This article is written by Lawrence Nnoli Esq, the Managing Partner of Nnoli Lawrence & Associates (Excel Law Chambers)
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