The National President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Mr. Lucky Amiwero has called on the incoming government of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to take step towards reorganizing the entire maritime sector of the economy.
Amiwero who made this known while speaking with newsmen in Lagos stressed that the maritime sector was capable of generating between 2, 000, 000 to 3, 000, 000 jobs for the teeming population of this country if well harnessed adding that for this to be possible, Nigeria must change its trade terms as was the case in America and other nations of the world.
He said,” we must hearken to the will of the people because if you don’t change your trade terms, your trade component will be re-allocated and government must begin to look for experts. Government will not look for politicians like what happened in Jonathan’s time when politicians were being paraded up and down but who don’t understand the ports”.
“We have people all over the maritime sector that don’t understand maritime at all, most of the parastatal heads are people who are strange to the ports; NPA, NIMASA, Customs, they don’t understand it”.
He maintained that there are experts who have been in the maritime industry for quite a number of years but who hardly make noise about what they know adding that the government should discover those people and use them to develop the sector.
“Look t our coastlines, we have the best coastlines in the world. Even those political people don’t understand what a coastline is. You don’t just pick people and put them there. Yes, you can put them in the board and all that but you bring somebody who understands the rudiments that can create employment and generate wealth”.
“There are experts who God placed in the field, they are there and you know them. God have them everywhere in the world and you use them to develop your economy. If you can talk about the maritime sector, it is a sector that can generate 5, 000, 000 jobs if it is properly harnessed”, he said.
The NCMDLCA boss claimed that if the incoming government wants to succeed, the first task it needed to tackle head on was the Nigeria Customs service arguing that if the customs was not reorganized, it would affect every other agencies in the maritime sector.
Amiwero who is also the Managing Director of Eyis Resources Limited hinted that the Nigeria Customs Service was using power it did not have contending that it did not have the power to do most of the things it was doing in the sector calling such power a political one which he said was illegal and useless.
He continued,” when you look at the customs, customs is not a force, it is a service. So, when you see them parading with guns and arms, that is not customs because customs supposed to operate in a civil area and with civil people. You can only see them with guns when they are dealing with smugglers. What are you finding guns inside the ports for? Is that what you see in Ghana or in other places?”
“It is an archaic customs, they need reforms, they need to change the system, it need restructuring, refocusing and repositioning of the Nigeria customs because it is an international trade expert, it must classify, interpret, treat and apply principle. It is not a loader. So, customs is key”.
