For a credible Nigeria Customs Service

THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has lately been in the news for the wrong reasons. Probably in its frantic bid to register its relevance in the consciousness of the public, its leadership has been persuaded to peddle falsehoods, almost as the fulcrum of its springboard. Or how else can the series of unfounded claims and rumours emanating from its operatives be explained?

The NCS recently claimed to have intercepted some bags of plastic rice, a piece of news that sent shock waves down the spines of many rice-loving Nigerians, only for the claim to later be disavowed by hard facts. Without any specimen of the plastic rice or an apprehended suspect, the claim became a hard sell even for the gullible Nigerian public. Till now, the NCS has not thought it fit to publicly demonstrate the apprehended plastic rice, knowing full well the negative impact of such a claim on the public and on the efficiency quotient of similar agencies like the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) which would be held responsible if such a lapse ever occurred.

The NCS’s claim to have also apprehended some illegally imported helicopters, which threw observers of the country’s security scene off balance, has proven to be an unwarranted official hysteria. The choppers were duly registered by the Rivers State governmentand had indeed been handed over to the Federal Government to assist its fight against terror in the country. However, until the hard facts became public knowledge, the NCS did its level best to discredit the River State government. Such a politically insensitive and provocative action is, we dare say, capable of derailing the nation’s democracy.

Against the backdrop of the security challenges confronting the country, the wild claim could cause confusion and it is actually ridiculous that a security agency of the Federal Government can be so neck deep in the infantile naughtiness of crying wolf when there was none. So, when the NCS recently revealed that it had also recently apprehended a cache of arms allegedly imported into the country under a false documentation and placed some of its own officers under watch, declaring them wanted, it became imperative for observers of the security sector to be suspicious because the agency had battered its credibility when it attacked the Rivers State government over the issue of the helicopters imported into the country by the latter. Indeed, while the Rivers State government had been magnanimous in handing over those choppers to the Federal Government, the NCS had altered the narrative and laid a charge of felony on the doorsteps of the benefactors. Sadly, it was a fake zealotry, giving the impression of a hyperactive agency whose shoddiness can be seen openly in the market as contrabands are regularly being displayed by smugglers.

It is indeed now pertinent to ask what the NCS intends to gain from the array of controversies surrounding its operations. Is it institutional relevance? Is the agency involved in the obnoxious game of playing to the gallery in the bid to garner some official reckoning? Agencies such as the NCS are the face of the government and their official conduct can either affirm or take a big chunk from the credibility of the Nigerian government and therefore the Nigerian state.

With the waning credibility of the Nigerian government and state, it is a disservice for any of its agencies to still detract from, instead of buoying its credibility. We are persuaded that much of the loss of credibility by the Nigerian state is at the instance of its agencies and their general conduct which reflect a total lack of discipline, vision and commitment. The NCS must change its conduct. There is nothing to gain from giving the government a bad face.  A recent survey conducted in the United States is instructive in this regard. When the respondents were asked which one they trusted more between the media and their government, the majority picked the government. If such a survey is conducted here in Nigeria, what would be the result? The answer, as they say, is blowing in the wind.