The Nigeria Customs Service must keep its officers in check

Prompted by the critical challenges of food security and the soaring costs of essential food items, the Nigeria Customs Service (NSC) recently launched an anti-smuggling operation to prevent the unlawful exportation of vital food items across many of Nigeria’s porous borders. The NSC comptroller general, Adewale Adeniyi said the measure will safeguard food availability within the country and pave the way for a more prosperous future. We endorse every measure that will help placed food on the table of many Nigerians at these difficult times. But there are many challenges ahead, including the ones posed by those charged with the responsibility of manning the country’s borders.

The duplicity of the NSC officials at the border posts remains a critical issue. They have shown all over the years that they can be easily compromised. Barely a day after it launched the strategic anti-smuggling operation to prevent the unlawful exportation of vital food resources for individual economic gains, the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) released a damning report which revealed how some unscrupulous NCS officials take bribes from smugglers and betray their colleagues. According to the report, the journalist successfully imported illegally into Nigeria 100 bags of rice from the Republic of Benin “by doing what it takes.”

There is no doubt that something must be done urgently to contain the food drain, particularly grains, across the borders. As a result of the sharp depreciation of the nation’s currency, the Naira, many traders now prefer to take their foodstuffs to neighbouring countries of Niger, Cameroun, Chad, Benin Republic, Mali, and others where they make more money. These countries common currency, the CFA franc, has appreciated and strengthened remarkably, now exchanging more than twice against the naira. For the traders, therefore, it makes more economic sense to sell their goods in the neighbouring countries and earn CFA franc.

Last Sunday, for instance, the NSC declared that it had intercepted 15 trucks loaded with food items, and heading out of the country through the Sokoto State border. Indeed, Vice President Kashim Shettima revealed while addressing a conference on public wealth management in Abuja that the federal government had uncovered 32 routes in the Ilela local government area of Sokoto State used to smuggle food to neighbouring countries. But mass smuggling of Nigerian foodstuffs is not restricted to Sokoto State or the north. Indeed, the business is thriving in many border towns and villages, including the Nigerian and Cameroun borders in Cross River State as traders deal in foodstuffs and other items to earn CFA franc.

For years, smuggling activities have posed serious threats to the nation’s economy and security. Many of the small arms and light weapons in the hands of non-state actors are shipped into the country through many of the country’s borders. These weapons give life to all kinds of criminal activities including insurgency, kidnapping, and general banditry which in turn threaten the peace and stability of the nation. The crash of the Naira has prompted the smuggling of rice and many other food staples on a large scale in reversal of the dumping of these goods.

We have consistently advocated the need to establish a special border patrol unit that will be well equipped with modern high-tech surveillance gear. Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo stated last year that efforts were being made to provide the required tools and gadgets at various border posts to monitor real time the movement of people and goods as done in many other climes. But for now, something must be done about officials whose duty embodies securing the country’s numerous borders in order to make the current efforts by government meaningful.

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