Smuggling goes right up to senior government officials and their wives, said the Customs on Thursday, as Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Director General, John Akanya, raised the alarm over threats to his life by the kingpins.
Julius Nwagwu, Comptroller (Import and Export, Customs headquarters) made the disclosure at the public hearing in Abuja by the joint Senate Industry and Agriculture Committee on the collapse of the textile industry.
Nwagwu told the lawmakers that there is no political will to curb smuggling, and those involved frustrate and blackmail Customs officers.
He lamented that officers are even at the mercy of smugglers as they are tenants in houses owned by them.
His words: "We are not here to say there is no smuggling. There is a lot. But who does the smuggling?
"It is done by Nigerians or with the tacit support of Nigerians. The Customs has the mandate to curb smuggling but the required tools are not available.
"Well-to-do Nigerians and their wives operate from Nigeria to Dubai as if going to Nasarawa State. Do we ask ourselves what they go there to do? When they are coming back, you receive telephone calls from quarters you do not imagine to tell you: 'please my wife travelled.'
"Somebody who travelled and is coming back in one week with 10 or 12 suit cases, are we not mouthing policies? We all are involved, we all stand accused, we are all guilty. So, it requires a holistic approach; and the moment that is done, there will be a way forward."
Nwagwu repeated that there is no political will to combat smuggling, which is capital intensive and undertaken by only those with the ways and means.
He said Customs officers at the borders are tenants of big time smugglers and the borders are porous and cannot be effectively covered.
"But we can't give up the fight," he pleaded, and the government should "empower the Customs with tools and give us support."
He narrated how officers have lost their jobs "for doing the right thing," are "labelled or blackmailed," and are accused of frustrating trade.
"You end up being blackmailed, you do not have access to the powers that be when these issues are being discussed for refusing to let a smuggler operate.
"When you are reported, the story is turned that you are not facilitating trade; but because you have refused to facilitate fraud you are labeled.
"When it is time to uplift officers you are marked down and you will not even know what is happening to you. You will not know the sector from which it comes, because you have been destroyed for insisting that the right thing be done. These are situations that most of us know."
Nwagwu said apart from the fact that there are corrupt Customs officers, there are "very many Nigerians who are non-compliant. Yet, you want to reform the Customs when you do not reform the importer.
"The importer does not reform himself because by WTO (World Trade Organisation) standards, self-compliance is the best form of compliance. When you put some of these items on the prohibition list they become very attractive, that is the mentality of Nigerians."
According to him, the Customs also has to contend with the lack of sincerity of neighbouring countries, as a lot of smuggling is done through the land borders - imported from third party countries to the sub-region and smuggled into Nigeria.
He said in some cases, government organs in these countries admit such goods into the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Trade Liberation Scheme (ETLS).
"You end up having goods that are manufactured in China with labels of Ghana which come in easily because of the ETLS protocol. It takes a taker and also a giver."
Agagwu also spoke of how goods made in Nigeria have labels to reflect that they are produced abroad.
Akanya corroborated his disclosure of a smuggling syndicate among top government circles, adding that he fears for his life as he receives death threat calls on a daily basis.
"I agree with all the customs has said regarding smuggling. Our own mandate is to check the quality of imported products, as we have problems with smuggling and dumping of substandard products in Nigeria," he added.
"When I travelled to the United States, I got the names of 14 companies involved in this syndicate of smuggling.
"NSO officers have raided and confiscated what they see. We don't expect to see contrabands from inspection. We have lost vehicles, we have lost fights where our staff almost died.
"The Customs has said there is no solution; so if the Customs says there is no solution, what can we do?
"My life is in danger. I receive threatening calls everyday in the attempt of the NSO to rid the country of substandard goods."
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