A factional leader of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) and the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Otunba Gani Adams has called on the federal government through the Comptroller-General of Customs to work to reduce import tariffs to encourage imports into the country.
Adams who was speaking as a guest at the swearing in ceremony of the new President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) in Lagos last weekend noted that as a traveller, he felt the pains of Nigerians in diaspora who were paying through their noses to import goods into this country which he said should not be so.
According to him,” By and large, as a regular traveller and I have a message for the group of clearing and forwarding and at the same time, the agency which monitor the in and out of goods in Nigeria which is the Nigeria Customs Service. My appeal to the Nigeria Customs about the tariffs of the incoming goods to this country is to please reduce it.
“I am very glad that the Comptroller-General of Customs has his representative here because as a leader of an organization in diaspora, apart from OPC, we have another organization abroad called the OPU which is in eighty-two countries for now but any time I travel, they are feeling the pain of bringing goods into this country with the high tariffs and let me tell you the representative of customs, most of our people working abroad, they make sure through their wages or salaries, they contribute for a period of one year and at the end of the day, they will buy some vehicles and try to bring it to this country with their money and at the end of the day, what they have been saving for a period of two years are dissuaded to continue that business.
“So, most of them that we thought that when they travel to abroad, they supposed to support people in the homeland, they are feeling the pain, they are even expecting from us to support them in diaspora.
“Without taking too much of your time, I will appeal to the Comptroller-General of Customs to hearken to the yearnings of the masses of Nigeria about the tariffs and reduce it so that we will encourage our people to import legitimate goods to this country so that our economy can flourish”.
He however reminded the new President of ANLCA, Hon. Tony Iju Nwabunike that a good leader should be able to weather any storm saying,”If you be a democrat, if you want to be a good leader, you should not have the impetus that I have been in the power, I can take a sole decision on behalf of others”.
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