The extortion of foreign cargo airlines

BECAUSE its monoculturalism has long been identified as the bane of the Nigerian economy, no one doubts that diversification will go a long way in freeing the country from the clutches of dependency on oil. As a result, every successive administration in the country, military or civilian, has extolled the virtues of diversification and talked the talk of giving the necessary backing to non-oil exports. To that extent, the current administration has been no different from its predecessors, as both President Muhammadu Buhari and his top economic advisers have at one time or another expressed a strong desire to wean the economy off oil revenue.

To say that the reality on the ground has not matched official rhetoric would be an understatement, and the latest grim reminder of how far the country is from achieving its diversification aims can be seen in a recent report which vividly depicts the situation with respect to cargo exportation at two of the major airports (Lagos and Abuja) in the country. The gist of the report, based on investigations conducted by a major media outlet, is that the imposition of a litany of fees and charges, ranging from the dubious to the outright extortionary, has more or less crippled the cargo export business, leading to a situation in which major airlines prefer to fly out of the country cargo-less than be subjected to these insane charges.

According to the report, perhaps the most disturbing thing about the situation is that various government agencies have come to see the process of clearing cargoes for export as a bazaar for extorting illegal monies from desperate agents and exporters. Thus, in addition to official charges by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), exporters are expected to cough up unofficial charges levied by the Anti-Bomb Squad of the Nigeria Police Force, the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).As such monies do not find their way into the government coffers, the officials who collect such non-receipted monies are effectively participants in a state-licensed extortion racket.

This endemic malpractice hurts the country in at least three ways. First, because it imposes an onerous and unnecessary burden on exporters, it disincentivises exportation of local products, something that is key to economic diversification. Second, monies that should have gone into state coffers end up in private pockets, making the government poorer. Third, these sharp practices hurt the country’s image, portraying it, not incorrectly, as a country trapped in the sewage of corruption. Truth be told, the situation at the airports is a mere capsule of what goes on daily at innumerable legal and illegal checkpoints, government offices, and other official spaces across the country.

If the country is serious about diversifying the economy and restoring investor confidence, it cannot allow the atmosphere of intimidation at the nation’s international airports to continue.