The many government agencies and
individuals, who play over-lapping roles at the airports, were recently
reported to be extorting farmers and other exporters of food products. This is
coming at a time Nigerians are being encouraged to engage in productive efforts
for exports, a major source of foreign exchange earner for the country.
Government’s specific policies
are being refocused to increase non-oil exports and agricultural production
generally. It is sad, therefore, that government’s agencies and officials whose
duty it is to ensure accomplishment of government’s policies in the interest of
the people are those perpetrating these illegal acts.
These
airport officials, who often exhibit excesses and corrupt practices even when
foreigners are involved, should be called to order by their parent agencies. In
plain terms, this is yet another failure of regulation. Why is there no
organisational structure for the airport security administration?
Why are
there so many agencies checking the same goods or doing the same thing at the
nation’s gateways? Why would there be representatives of all the military,
security and intelligence and even paramilitary agencies at the international
airports? Why can’t there be some sense of sanity and organisation within our
security and intelligence networks?
This story
of sabotage in Nigeria’s export drive is not different at our seaports where a
former finance minister had had to intervene at a time to clear the confusion
but only for reassigned officers to come back to their beats after a short
while and continue business as usual. This confirms a long suspicion that there
is indeed more to posting to airports and seaports than meets the eyes. In any
case, heads of security organisations, paramilitary institutions and indeed
those charged with the responsibility of regulating and promoting export and
revenue generation should get cracking immediately to ensure sanity in this
connection.
These
unwholesome practices have promoted corruption which the government is doing so
much to contain. In all of this, it is the economy that suffers. The immediate
implication, according to report, is that export products from Nigeria are
becoming the most expensive abroad because of the unintended costs incurred at
the nation’s ports through illegal tips. Consequently, goods from Nigeria have
remained uncompetitive in the open international market.
Government
cannot afford to allow these ugly practices to continue at the country’s
strategic gateways. Specifically, the supervising ministries, departments and
agencies (MDAs) in charge of these uniform operators should be made to address
the issue of overlapping roles at the airports. A quick survey of what obtains
in other airports, especially those of our neighbours where goods from Nigeria
are being smuggled to and exported with ease, should be conducted with a view
to imbibing useful lessons. In fact, there should be real move to reduce the
number of agencies at the airports or at least streamline their roles to
deliver good service.
Since agriculture produce or products are involved, a re-introduction of produce inspectors for quality control may not be out of place. On their part, concerned exporters should seek knowledge of what is expected of them at the domestic and international markets. At all times, they should adhere to government’s set standards and obtain international certifications where needed, to ensure that their products get the right recognition, acceptability, prices and patronage within and outside the country.
Rather than resorting to
smuggling their goods across the borders, they should engage and voice their
constraints and challenges to the relevant authorities and other stakeholders
that can offer help. While whistle-blowing is encouraged to curtail incidence
of corruption, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the apex agency in
this regard should not stand aloof as an innocent bystander when other little
foxes spoil the vines of exporters at the airports. (Guardian)
NB: Have you heard that many
exporters have been defrauded in the process of exporting goods to other
countries owing to the fact that they do not have adequate training on export
operations, export management, export documentations and methods of payment is
export business? The link below is a compilation on all the steps exporters
should follow from the point of packaging the goods they intend to export to
the point of payment. To read it, click:
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