B’Odogwu: ANLCA President Calls for Human Reforms in Customs Service

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The National President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Emenike Nwokeoji recently celebrates his 68th Birthday in Lagos.
In this interview with DAILY TREND spoke on the current modernisation programme in the Nigeria Customs Service, stressing the need to complement the modernisation with a reform of the customs officers on the field.
According to Emenike, customs modernization would not be successful if officers are still doing things the old way, in character and practice on the job.

How do you plan to sustain this peace that is already in the association?

Thank you. Sustainance of peace is in the hands of God. But as human, we will do our little best. We try to educate people too. We try to educate people to know that whatever you will become is determined between you and God. It is God that knows what anybody will become, and it’s God that crown kings.
So, if you do your best and it didn’t work out like I did in 2018, you relax and know that God is aware of what happened.
Some people that lost during the election that brought me into office, I don’t know why, by now the pain should have gone down and for them to prepare for the next election, but they are still trying to undermine all our activities.
However, we will continue to use wisdom and grace of God to overcome all these ones.
They are the people that are engineering some crisis from the back. I know there is no place you have absolute peace, but I think we have reasonable peace that we are moving forward.

You successfully conducted elections into the various chapters, but Apapa chapter had some contention, what is the situation now? And please tell us about the trouble at Lagos Aiport Chapter

What happened during the Apapa chapter election was that it was declared inconclusive. Inconclusive means that we need to go back and review the things we have done. In my bag here, I have the video. We have been reviewing it. The election was successful, it was during the vote counting that some announcements were made that triggered an uproar. However, are sorting it out.
The same thing I just mentioned to you that some persons are engineering crisis from the back. After the Apapa election, there was an agreement. It was based on that agreement that people were sworn in. People were sworn-in here from Apapa chapters, why didn’t they raise objection then? It was after the swearing-in. And you know the swearing-in wasn’t immediate. It was almost more than two weeks. So why didn’t they react then? It is because some people went back to go instigate the members.

There are some offices in Apapa that are yet to be filled, Or are they all completed?

All filled. It’s only one. It’s only the secretary position that is remaining.

What about the situation at Lagos airport Chapter?

You know that place has been incomplete. Whatever that is happening in the airport is something we inherited. It was a challenge I took personally because I like such challenges. I said, this one, I will resolve it. During my predecessor’s period, there were factions, but I said, no, this peace, I will achieve it. All I can assure you is that I will achieve peace at the airport. I will achieve peace, and you will come and take pictures of all the gladiators. I will achieve it.
When we talk about airports, why airports? There are other chapters that we are looking for people, but there is nobody. Why can’t people go there? Just because there is free money at the airport chapter, Whether you work as a chairman or not, money will come.
Some people call themselves elders, but all they know how to do, is to go and queue behind the man holding the checkbook, they will queue behind him. And when they are supporting, they are supporting people for personal gain. That’s just the problem we have.
We have thousand and one groups at the Lagos airport chapter, we have group up to village group, tribe group. Apart from that, we have Oodua, you come to Igbo, you have Abia, you have Anambra and so on and so forth. Do we have it like that at Tin Can Chapter? Do we have it in Apapa? Why the Airport? Because they know there is money that is coming in.

Some groups from airport chapter have been coming here to celebrate you, they claimed they now have seamless peace at the chapter, especially with the current man in the saddle, they are asking that you also to come visit them. What would you say to this?
Do you have something against visiting the chapter?

I have nothing against it. I have gone to so many chapters. I am still moving. The next move will be to Seme Border chapter, then I will go to Apapa chapter. When I get back to Port Harcourt, I will be going to Oil and Gas chapter, that is the only one remaining there. I was in Enugu last week, so I have been going around.
I am not scared of going anywhere. When you talk about peace, you talk about justice, If you now want to talk justice to make peace, then there should be compromises, where you would have somebody yield some grounds, you yield some ground as well, and let’s arrive on something. In that case, we would now saying let the constitution stay one side.
If you go to the Lagos Airport chapter now, you will see another group, they will tell you there is no peace there.
So, we need to apply reasonable wisdom. In my response, I told those that visited me here that, there are three gladiators at the chapter, the reasonable thing to do with your elders and all the gladiators is to tell me you have agreed on a particular stand, in that case, I wouldn’t overrule them.

When you were speaking during the election of the chapters, you said there is going to be a retreat for the newly elected officers

We have had part one of the retreat here. This other retreat now is going to be more elaborate. And we are joining it with our NEC meeting. It is never late. We need the newly elected chapter executives to settle down and raise funds. We don’t generate any fund at the secretariat here.
The chapters were inaugurated about three months ago, the retreat is supposed to be even a continuous thing, It is not a one-off thing. Once in a while you come, you retrain.
We observe, that so many of them have never been chairman before, so many of them have never even held any position in ANLCA before, so, that would tell you that they need a whole lot of education.
Very soon, we shall have the retreat, what we are battling with now is that, we need a place that is serene enough where we can relax and talk. And very soon I believe we will get that.

You have been two years in office, what would you say you have achieved? And also the major challenges

In two years, I will refer people to my manifesto. I came under the mantra of restoration. I will look at how far I have gone in restoring ANLCA, the dignity of ANLCA, the peace in ANLCA, the prestige in ANLCA, the recognition of ANLCA, if I am satisfied with that, maybe when we enter into the second half, as we usually say in football, we will change strategy and move into another area.
Before this first half, our concentration is on peace. I might just mention one. If you have attended any of our elections, in Lagos, you will know how tough it can be and you will appreciate the peace we have currently. One of our member that died recently, Obicee Okonkwo, he was almost killed daring one of the elections. They used knives to cut open somebody’s skull. At a point, our election was moved to Army Barracks In this Lagos because the first one was botched, the second one was the same thing.
So, if we have been able to conduct so many elections today, where, even the losers congratulate the winner, we have achieved something. What happened in Port Harcourt I couldn’t believe it, during my recent birthday, When I visited Onne, the man that lost election was there. When I visited Port Harcourt, the man that lost election was there, those that were disqualified were there, it has never happened before.
One thing I have tried within my capacity, is to ensure that I don’t support one particular candidate above another, I know that other people can do it, but not me. I have placed the card on the table, go there, campaign, let the people make the choice. So, I have no favorite candidate.
That is why an incumbent in Port Harcourt Area 1 was defeated by a man that had never held any position.
You saw how the Lagos hall erupted into joy when an announcement was made on the winner of Tin Can chapter election. During my election campaigns, I couldn’t campaign in Tin Can, they went up to the point of even asking the Customs Controller not to see me when we came there, a friend of mine for that matter. He said I came late.
We are doing the little we can, and leaving the rest to God.
If I had succeeded in my first year in building seven storey buildings as an extension of this Secretariat, and then the other years, there is no peace, that is not a good record.
This Secretariat was invaded many times, today, these CCTV cannot work, there is no intercom, they were all destroyed during the crisis. The things that were damaged during the crisis, we have not replaced them, so many of the ACs you see here, there are no compressors. So, the damage was enormous because there was no peace.
So, if I can now come here and sit down peacefully in my office, that we don’t screen people at the gate, then we have achieved some sanity, when there is peace, that is the only time you can relax, plan and then achieve something.
But when you are seating here and there are thugs all around, for how long will you do that?
For the past 18 months that i have become ANLCA President, I don’t know where the police station is, we have not seen any policeman walk-in here to tell us one story. So, with this, people can operate, and then we can now plan.

Are there any major challenges?

Of course there are. There are mostly challenges, one of them is what I have mentioned, where some people, instead of helping us to build, they have decided to form what we are seeing now, like what we see in political parties, they want to form opposition. Once we go this way, they want to go the other way.
For me, I am focused, such things don’t bother me.
Another challenge is finance. What we are experiencing from the chapters was something that was initiated over 12 years ago. If a man that you are asking to pay N100,000 12 years ago, and you are asking him to pay the same N100,000 now, it is not acceptable.
When I came in here, what I tried to do was adhust the salaries of the few staff we have here and treat them like human beings. Nobody lives comfortably with salary, but it should be a Living wage. Before now, with the money we have, we could have afforded a brand new vehicle, with 18million Naira, you can buy a brand new vehicle, but now. You cannot buy a bus for 40 million Naira . So, we have all that financial challenges, and then economy is bad. Even if I decide to reach out to so many big agents, for how long will you continue to do that?
We all feel the impact of the bad economy, I am being humane not to press people too much, we are looking for members, and we cannot continue to scare them away because of our demands.
But these are the normal human challenges, it is not beyond what we can handle.
Talking about the economy, for instance now, I am operating from Port Harcourt. Before now. I can rent a big place as a hotel room for 20 to 25k in Lagos, a flight ticket was 20-something thousand Naira, but now, see where the flight is.

Let’s look at operational challenges, especially the Nigeria Customs Service

What is the exchange rate two years ago? Use the exchange rate of two years ago which you can get, and use it to convert the revenue generated this year and the revenue being celebrated last year, you will know that. It’s like an ant on top of this plate, moving around and you feel it’s making progress while it’s drawing circles.
Do you know the percentage of devaluation? Use the percentage to divide whatever they claim to have generated.

We have also confronted customs with this question, but they said the modernization initiative is the major reason for the revenue increase

What do you expect them to say? There was a contract for the modernization, and the technical team are still here, so, will you say anything contrary to the people? They will definitely justify the contract of more than 20-years.
Now, they are talking about another level of modernization. If you are modernizing the system, what about the operators? The attitude of the officers, has it changed?
Customs is doing training, and retraining for officers, but all the ones they have done, are we seeing it in the officers in the field? If things have worked to that level, how come we still have people on the roads?

Some of your members have complained that you are not based in Lagos and activities of maritime are mainly in Lagos
Going into the second half, should we expecting you to relocate to Lagos?

For me to function effectively as the president, I need to be financially supportive of the association, but if I leave my office, this association cannot sustain me, they cannot. Would they pay me salary? Or would they pay me allowance? If I sit here, and this job is not a daily thing. If I sit here. Like I have sat here since morning, what am I doing? If there are files I treat them, these cannot take me one hour, and I can treat them from anywhere. If there are meetings, I attend the ones I am supposed to go, the other ones, the relevant committees can handle them.
There is no association, name any association, that their president is seating. I know people are trying to make comparison with what happened during Shittu regime, the situation is not the same now.