By: Samson Echenim on September 8, 2013

The menace of smuggling at Nigeria’s land borders appears unstoppable in spite of the untiring efforts of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). The trend recently turned worse, with some Customs officers losing their lives in addition to the multi-billion naira losses already being recorded annually. SAMSON ECHENIM, writes

Stemming the tides of smuggling at Nigeria’s porous borders has always been a challenging cause. Even with the very obvious activities of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), especially the various Federal Operation Units (FOUs) and borders commands of the revenue cum security agency, the business of smuggling is growing and appearing increasingly unabated.

One obvious factor that is fuelling the ugly trend is the multiple entries and exits around the land borders, which are generally unchecked, in a manner that suggests that the country lacks the wherewithal to block these inimical and illegal exits. The NCS defines smuggling not only as a forceful passage of imported goods through the borders, but also as false declaration and concealment of goods.

Smuggling also refers to “willful under-payment of Customs duties, trafficking in prohibited or restricted goods and use of unapproved routes and ports. Forging of Custom documents, touting in Customs goods and documents,” according to a Nigeria Customs statement are also smuggling related crimes. Indeed, smuggling is a worldwide problem and those who engage in it are considered economic saboteurs. Smuggling is a destroyer of the economy and robs the nation of her revenue hence; it affects provision of social services to the entire citizens of a country.

Smuggling can also leads to acts that are capable of destroying health of citizens through importation of expired, fake, and other drugs that are prohibited by government. The list of harm the menace can cause can be a long one with far reaching negative implications both on the individual and on the State. Smuggling paralyses the local industries and can be a drain on the foreign earnings of the nation. It encourages acts of criminality that can lead to armed robbery and other heinous crimes, even as it remains an unpatriotic act that can lead one into jail.

Common goods as prohibited goods

It is a fact that most Nigerian traders who go to the neighbouring countries to buy goods lack the understanding that they are engaged in importation. For them, it is a normal domestic trading that comes without restriction, but this is wrong. For obvious reasons, the federal government has placed certain goods on prohibition lists. Such goods are not to be imported. They may range from mere domestic consumable to confiscated goods.

According to experts most of them are so prohibited because of the need to protect the local industry. “This will lead to a vibrant production state and generous job creation, which Nigeria envies to become,” says Customs Area Controller, Seme, Othman Abdul Saleh. According to the NCS, the following goods make the import prohibition list: Live or Dead Birds including Frozen Poultry; Pork, Beef and Birds Eggs; Refined Vegetable Oils and Fats, but excluding Linseed, Castor and Olive oils.

Crude vegetable oil is however, not banned from importation. Others are Cocoa Butter, Powder and Cakes; Spaghetti/Noodles; Fruit Juice in Retail Packs, Waters, including Mineral Waters and Aerated Waters containing added Sugar or Sweetening Matter or Flavoured, ice snow; other non-alcoholic beverages, but excluding energy or Health Drinks; Beer and Stout and Bagged Cement.

Some common medicaments are also prohibited from importation. They include drugs made in the country such as Paracetamol Tablets and Syrups, Cotrimoxazole Tablets Syrups, Metronidazole Tablets and Syrups, Chloroquine Tablets and Syrups; Haematinic Formulations; Ferrous Sulphate and Ferrous Gluconate Tablets, Folic Acid Tablets, Vitamine B Complex Tablet (except modified released formulations).

Others are Multivitamin Tablets, capsules and Syrups, Aspirin Tablets, Magnesium trisilicate tablets and suspensions are also on the list. Others under medicaments are Piperazine tablets and Syrups, Levamisole Tablets and Syrups, Clotrimazole Cream, Ointments –Penecilin/Gentamycin; Pyrantel Pamoate tablets and Syrups, Intravenous Fluids and Waste Pharmaceuticals. These drugs are available in the country and are not to be imported.

Also highly prohibited are Soaps and Detergents in retail packs; Mosquito Repellant Coils; Sanitary Wares of Plastics and Domestic Articles and Wares of Plastics, but excluding Baby Feeding bottles; flushing cistern and waterless toilets. The Customs also prohibit importation of “Rethreaded and used Pneumatic tyres but excluding used trucks tyres for rethreading of sizes 11.00 x 20 and above.

“Corrugated Paper and Paper Boards and cartons, boxes and cases made from corrugated paper and paper boards; Toilet paper, Cleaning or facial tissue, but excluding baby diapers and incontinent pads for adult use; Exercise Books.” Others are Telephone Re-charge Cards and Vouchers, Textile Fabrics of all types remain under import prohibition; African print, Nigeria wax and English Wax and Carpets and Rugs, but excluding the Lace Fabrics, Georges and other embroidered Fabrics.

The list includes Made-up Garments and other Textiles; All types of Foot Wears and Bags including Suitcases of leather and plastics, but excluding Safety Shoes used in oil industries, Hospitals, Fire fighting and Factories, Sports Shoes, canvass shoes all Completely Knocked Down blanks and parts.

Also not to be imported are Used Motor Vehicles above 15 years from the year of manufacture, Furniture, but excluding Baby walkers, laboratory cabinets such as microscope table, fume cupboards, laboratory benches, Stadium Chairs, height adjustments device, base sledge, seat frames and control mechanism, arm guide and head guides. Also excluded are skeletal parts of furniture such as blanks, unholstered or unfinished part of metal, plastics, veneer, chair shell, etc. Also excluded are Motor Vehicle seats and Seats other than garden seats or camping equipment, convertible into beds. Ball Point Pens are however, not to be imported into Nigeria.

There are only eight categories of goods currently under the export prohibition list. They are Timber, Raw hides and skin, including Wet Blue and all unfinished leather; Scrap Metals, Unprocessed rubber latex and rubber lumps; Artefacts and Antiquities, Wildlife animals classified as endangered species and their products, such as Crocodile, Elephant, Lizard, Eagle, Monkey, Zebra and Lion, among other; and of course all goods imported.

Loss of lives of security officers

In trying to battle smugglers, it is no longer news that many Customs officers and members of other security agencies have lost their lives. At the busy Seme Border two weeks ago, it was a harvest of death for the Seme Border Command of the NCS, in which two of its officers were reported to have been killed by a mob incited by some smugglers. Customs has however, clarified that it lost only one officer, Mr John Motojehi, a Superintendent of Customs, who was murdered in cold blood by the mob made up largely of villagers at Ashipa area of Seme.

The smugglers-incited villagers were also reported in same mayhem to have looted imported goods at the Seme Border before setting ablaze a cargo-loaded truck and other vehicles at the border. Loss of lives of security operatives, especially those of Customs and Immigration officers is not uncommon at the borders in the northern part of the country, leaving several of the borders and illegal exits without security personnel to check movement of people and goods.

For example, the Nigeria-Niger border at Birnin Kuka, Katsina State is known for its porousness with no meaningful security operatives to check movement of people and of goods. At this post, officers of the NCS manage to engage “Camp boys”, a term used to describe locals of any border post or out station recruited by officers of NCS to help them. At this post, only logs of wood are used to demarcate the border. It is reported that with as little as N100, anyone can conveniently and comfortably cross the border to the other side.

Multi-billion naira loses and seizures

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime Services, Mr Leke Oyewole has revealed that Nigeria loses about N847 billion annually to unrecorded ship movements and under-declaration by vessels calling at the nation’s seaports. This is one aspect of smuggling. Oyewole who revealed the figure in a chat with journalists broke down the figure to include a daily loss of $15 million (about N2.4 billion), which amounts to N70 billion in a month and N847 billion in a year.

“It is so sad that the Nigeria’s economy is losing such a huge amount of money due to the activities of some dubious shipping companies, but we are closing in on them and we will soon block all the loopholes,” he said. The Nigeria Customs in its good effort has continued to seize several contrabands that enter Nigeria from neighbouring countries by traders. At the same time multiples of billions of naira are also reported to be lost to the act of smuggling in its entirety.

In 2012, Customs sources said Nigeria lost N32 billion to rice smuggling only. But Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (RMIDAN) say the country loses about N36 billion in tax revenue to rice smuggling.  The amount is the $11 million tax revenue per month due to smuggled rice imports, which the RMIDAN says it is capable of adding to the government coffers if rice smuggling and importation can be put to stop.

The President, RMIDAN, Mr Tunji Owoeye, said in Abuja during the presentation of 150 operational vehicles to the NCS that the huge revenue loss to the country as well as the need to protect the N106 billion investments in backward integration by the association’s members made it imperative to donate the vehicles. Nigeria’s yearly consumption of rice is about 5.5 metric tonnes. While 1.8 million is produced locally, the country relies on importation to make up the balance of 3.7 metric tonnes.

But Owoeye said 50 per cent of the imported rice was being smuggled into the country through the porous borders. “The quantum of rice being smuggled through our land borders from the Republic of Benin is increasing on a daily basis. An estimated 30,000 metric tonnes of rice is being smuggled on a monthly basis into Nigeria. A survey of our local markets will attest to this fact as most of the rice products you see on display for sale are smuggled into the country through our land borders.

“By simple summation, 30,000MT is smuggled every month. This means that the Nigerian government would be losing over N3 billion worth of revenue monthly,” Owoeye said. Yet, there is another N1.8 billion lost to illegal imports of poultry products in three years. According to informed sources, the imports, which were smuggled into the country through the Republic of Benin, between 2009 and 2011, weighed about 3.05 million metric tons. They include chicken and turkey.

The Director-General, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Onallo Akpa, indicated that out of about 3.2 million metric tons of livestock exported to Benin, 95 per cent of the commodity were still smuggled into the country, despite strict measures by men of the NCS. The imports per year include 843,277MT in 2009, 1,136,440MT in 2010, and 1,237,643MT in 2011, summing up to 3,217,360MT.

According to Akpa, these volumes represented imports from Europe alone, excluding those from Brazil and the United States. “If 95 per cent of these exports end up in Nigeria through smuggling, it then translates that three million metric tons of the products are sold in the market, thereby translating to an economic loss of about N1.8 billion to Nigeria,” he stated.

An ignorance-based problem

Most traders who import goods from neighbouring countries do without a sound knowledge of the goods under the prohibition lists. Many are petty traders who import consumable and food products with high demand in Nigeria, without the slightest knowledge that they are prohibited.  An interaction with some of the traders at the Seme Border reveals a set of business people who do not understand the legal aspect of the business in which they are involved.

These traders are helped by experienced drivers who are old in the business of moving prohibited goods, an act simply described as smuggling. “There is nothing wrong with me going to Cotonou to buy wares to sell in Nigeria. When I buy in Cotonou, I make good profits because they are cheaper there,” says Roseline Umeh, a middle-aged woman who buys frozen chicken, rice, vegetable oil and soaps from Cotonou to sell in Nigeria.

Umeh say sometimes, she uses other routes around Seme, where she is helped by the locals. “Customs people are wicked. If they see my goods, they will seize them. They are happy to put us out of business. They say we should not buy rice from Cotonou but we are not producing rice in Nigeria,” Umeh adds. Seme Border remains Nigeria’s busiest land border with immense business activities, through which up to 60 per cent of imports and exports by land come, or leave the country. A large chunk of the products, including cars are smuggled into the country.

The Coordinator of the Trans-border Traders Association, Alhaji Mikky Okunola says villagers who joined smugglers to unleash mayhem at Seme Border recently acted wrongly in sympathy of smugglers, suggesting further that the villagers are largely unaware of the criminality of smuggling. “You know that humans react negatively at the sight of people killing another man. So, these villagers do not know that the smuggling is a heinous crime and that those who do it are criminals of the State,” Okunola says.

“Smuggling is like a normal trade around here. People don’t see the crime in it and they always come against the Customs whenever there is a confrontation between the Customs and these smugglers. Some of the villagers even aid smugglers in their criminal act,” Okunola notes.

Stemming the tides of smuggling: education and access to information

One way to confront smuggling according to experts is continuous education of traders to keep them abreast of goods they must not import. Although, the Customs Service maintains the prohibition list on its website, it is not well publicised for an average trader, who is semi-literate to know. “There is nothing wrong with the various Customs border commands to maintain an information point at the border, where traders can consult at first hand to know what wares to buy,” says Ayo Adesanya, a clearing agent at Seme Border.

According to Adesanya, this can do a lot to check smuggling as it will help traders to trade on the right wares. When the information point is maintained, he says, “Anybody who trades on prohibited goods will first be brought to the information point to show him or her, the sin they have committed,” he notes. “Gradually, this will go round and anyone who is still interested will have to first consult the point of information,” added Adesanya, who has been working at the border for 27 years. He also suggests that from time to time, Customs should invite the traders for an awareness programme at the borders.

Another step to take, which is also related to education is Community awareness, notes Johnson Igbile, an indigene of Seme, who is also a clearing agent. “At my level, I have changed the mentality of many of my people, because, naturally, they do not see anything wrong with a woman going to buy goods, such as cloths and rice in Cotonou to sell. It is hard to point out the criminality in the act of smuggling. But, the story can change if they are made to know that people must not import certain goods.

“But again, outside these goods that are not to be imported, nothing is left,” Igbile says. Igbile however notes that a good number of the locals are known to be helping the Customs, which has from time to time sought the cooperation of leaders in the village, but stresses that “there are still bad eggs.”

Inter-agency collaboration and national security

Truly, there is evidence of inter-agency collaboration at fighting smuggling at the bothers. This is evident in the various road blocks mounted by men of the Nigeria Immigration Service, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and the Police in addition to those maintained by the NCS. A roadblock with personnel comprising two or more security agencies is also observed.

However, merely staging a road block may not be just what is needed. Informed sources say there are several other exits that are not manned. And some stakeholders suggest that the men of Armed Forces should be deployed at dangerous and notorious areas. They also say a good part of the N922 billion which the federal government voted for security this year should be used in building durable and befitting border structures, as this also forms part of, if not the most important aspect of national security.

“Since this N922 billion was budgeted for security, how many border posts have been built? Nigerians are not asking the relevant questions,” Austine Chukwuyem, a Lagos-based security expert said. Chukwuyem stressed that the task of checking smuggling is not that of Customs only, but also of the Immigration service and the military. He explains further, “At a time we were told that many members of Boko Haram, who were being used as suicide bombers, were not Nigerians. Given this fact, where do they pass to come to Nigeria?

“Given the budget for security in 2013, what security checks are evident at the borders with Chad, Cameroon in the east, Nigeria in the North and Benin in the West? This government needs to do more. Remember that Customs is not a core security agency. It is a revenue agency. But in checking security at the borders, government would have helped the Customs to raise its revenue marking.”

Be it as it may, the Customs Area Controller of Seme Border, Othman Saleh, in the face the ugly challenge and the killing of his man, leaves Nigerians a beautiful assurance: “Let me emphasise that we are not relenting in the discharge of our duty as we will not allow the darkness of criminality to dampen the light of our service to our great country, Nigeria.” We, in collaboration with the police and other security agencies, hope to arrest and bring the perpetrators of this crime to book,’’ Saleh said.

Source: Leadership