Senate, Hameed Ali and the ides of March

The stage is now set for the epic battle between the Senate and the Comptroller General (CG) of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Colonel Hameed Ali (retd). But the genesis of that battle dates back to 2016.

Date was February 9, 2016 and venue was the Senate Committee Room hosting the budget defence sessions of Committee on Finance. Right before the Senate Committee on Finance, headed by Senator John Enoh, Ali had chosen to relaunch his controversial self to the Nigerian public. The man, who typified controversy when he served as Military Administrator of Kaduna State by sacking some 24,000 workers in one fell swoop pointedly told the minister supervising the Customs Service, Kemi Adeosun to her face that he does not report to her.

The shocked members of the Senate Committee could only help to manage the situation from degenerating to war of words. Adeosun had opposed Ali’s submission for increment in the salary of Customs officers and men in the 2016 budget at the Senate Committee hearing. But Ali told the meeting: “What you say does not matter.”

Adeosun had chided the NCS and described the proposal seeking an increase of pay for Customs officers as putting the cart before the horse.

She asked the agency to stop asking for pay rise at the point when the nation appears broke. According to her, there are discrepancies in the balance sheet of the Nigeria Customs Service, adding that the service must sit up.

Adeosun had said: “There is a disconnect between revenue and imports, disconnect between imports and forex demand. The Customs must sit up, you can’t ask for salary increase for your men when you say we are broke.”

Ali quickly took on her and questioned her rights to query the activities of the agency under his watch. He said he only reports to President Muhammadu Buhari and that the minister’s opinions did not matter.

Ali said: “I disagree with you on this and you know I have always told you that. I don’t report to you, I report to the president, so what you say doesn’t matter.”

Since February 2016, Ali’s actions and policies are being closely watched and it is only a matter of time before he lands himself in the wrong side of the oversighting National Assembly and that is where we are right now.

Two weeks ago, the NCS under Ali’s order issued a one month notice to all vehicle owners to update their Customs papers or risk losing the vehicles to the service. The Senate immediately passed a motion urging the service to stop the policy pending the appearance of Ali before the Senate Committee.

But the man of controversy will not stop there. He immediately asked his agency to issue a statement further emphasising the resolve of the NCS to go ahead with the policy and the ultimatum.

In a statement issued by the acting spokesman of the NCS, Mr. Joseph Atta, the Customs asked car owners who were yet to pay Customs duty to do so between March 13 and April 12.

The statement read in part: “All persons in possession of such vehicles should take advantage of the grace period to pay appropriate dues on them, as there will be an aggressive anti -smuggling operation to seize as well as prosecute owners of such smuggled vehicles after the deadline of April 12.”

Perhaps, having cowed civilian Kemi Adeosun, Ali has no qualms battling the Red Chamber, apparently peopled in his soldier-man estimation, by pot-bellied and pampered politicians.

But the soldier-man Ali only appears to have set himself on a huge collision with the powers of the National Assembly, which cannot in any way be equated to that of a supervising minister.

Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, who moved the first motion last Tuesday to halt Ali’s moves to impound vehicles on Nigerian roads, said that the move would cause significant discomfort to the teeming law-abiding citizens of Nigeria.

The chamber resolved thus: “The Senate do hereby resolved to direct the Nigerian Customs to stop all actions regarding the implementation of the same circular until it appears before the Senate Committee on Customs to explain in details the purpose of the circular to the Nigerian public.

“To direct the Senate Committee on Customs to immediately engage the Nigerian Customs Service with a view to fashioning out what can clearly be acceptable to the Nigerian public under a democratic dispensation like ours.”

The statement by Atta, a day after the Senate’s resolution was like petrol poured on a raging fire. Atta had reaffirmed the determination of the NCS to enforce the policy from April 12.

Senator Dino Melaye, a member of Customs Committee, had told his colleagues that the planned policy of Customs was an admission of incompetence, adding: “What the Nigerian Customs has done by this announcement is pure advertisement of incapacitation and incompetence.

“An innocent Nigerian, who would go to Kano or Kubwa, approached a dealer and bought a vehicle from a dealer, five to seven years ago, will now be stopped for stop-and-search by Customs.

“Whereas, on a day he is rushing his son to the hospital and they will now ask him if he has paid correct duty for the car he bought from a dealer. He was not the one that cleared this vehicle. He was not the one that imported this vehicle.

“I was thinking the Comptroller General of Customs will react to what the Senate had said that he stops wearing ‘agbada’ up and down and wear the uniform of the Nigerian Customs and be proud of it. Then he will identify and know how to do the work properly.”

Melaye’s message resonated higher on Thursday when the lawmakers reacted to newspaper reports which indicated that the CG was about to disregard their motion. The Senate promptly asked Ali to appear before them on Wednesday, March 15, in Customs uniform.

In a motion he moved, Melaye told the Senate that Ali was becoming a threat to democracy and must be subdued to constituted authority.

The Senator told the chamber: “Mr. President, democracy is standing on three legs; one of the most important leg of democracy is the legislature and Nigerian Customs cannot function without the National Assembly because they cannot spend or survive without appropriations and oversight and if this Senate, one of the most vibrant Senates in the history in this country, we take a resolution and an agency of government will have the temerity, will have the guts, will have the strength to blatantly disregard the entire institution of the Nigerian Senate. It is a very dark day for democracy.

“I am a member of the Customs Committee and I want to educate some of us today the position of the Comptroller General of Customs is a rank and as I speak today, we have deputy comptroller general of customs their next promotion, if it comes, is comptroller general of customs and we have asked this man in the committee why is he not wearing the rank of comptroller general and he said uniformed men don’t wear uniform twice and I asked under which law and I educated him by reminding him that he retired as a colonel and that General (Haladu) Hananiya retired as a General in the Nigerian Army and when he was appointed as the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), he wore promptly and daily the uniform of the corps.”

Ali’s posture in the media has further indicated that while he was ready to honour the invitation to the Senate, he might not be disposed to wearing the uniform. He had told the Senate Committee once that having worn the uniform of the Army, he cannot wear that of any other lesser agency. He said it was the convention that prevents him from wearing another uniform and that Hananiya referred to by Senator Melaye made a mistake.

But the Senate’s motion has already been affirmed and it appears there is no going back with that order. Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, who shed more light on the travails of the Customs boss on Sunday said that the Senate was out to deal with impunity and disrespect for the laws of the land. He also said that whereas the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was elected on the promise of change, Ali had allegedly been dropping the name of President Muhammadu Buhari to disrespect his supervising Ministry.

The Senator said: “The APC led Government of President Mohammadu Buhari was elected on the promise of change, adherence to rule of law and renunciation of impunity in any form. The story we hear daily is the arrogance and high handedness of the CG and name dropping of the President.

“We had it on good authority of his reluctance to be answerable to the Minister of Finance as stipulated in laws of the land. We that were elected cannot look the other way while the people we represent are subjected to avoidable hardship orchestrated by an unelected appointee in a bid to cure the inefficiencies of the agency he leads. We are in a democracy.”

Who blinks first between Senate and Hameed Ali? The Comptroller General is certainly not new to controversy, but the one this time promise an enduring one.