The Senate and its summons

JUST when the issue of his appearance at the Senate over the recent ultimatum given by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to car owners on import duties was yet to settle, the Director General of NCS, Colonel Hameed Ali (retd), has come up against another ‘hurdle’ in the Senate. The Senate’s Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff has commenced investigation into how over N4 trillion was allegedly lost to revenue leakage in the NCS as a result of the non-implementation of Foreign Exchange forms, wrong classification of cargo under the Harmonised System Codes, non-screening of cargoes coming into Nigeria, inadequate ICT infrastructure for revenue collection, cancellation of pre-arrival assessment reports and abandonment of single goods declaration. Chairman of the committee, Senator Hope Uzodinma, said: “The committee also frowns on the level of collusion and corruption within the Customs Service. At the end of our current investigation, all these will become a thing of the past and customs revenue will be enhanced and non-oil revenue will be improved upon.”

Ali had refused to appear before the Red Chamber in the Customs uniform, citing the advice by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami, whom he said had written to the Senate, urging it to cease further action as the issue of the legality or otherwise of his (Ali’s) wearing the Customs uniform had been taken to court. Although he later visited the Senate, he did so in mufti, and so could not address the lawmakers. In a similar vein, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir David Lawal, refused to appear before the Senate pending the determination of a suit he instituted challenging his invitation. Lawal had been invited by the Senate’s Ad hoc Committee on Humanitarian Crisis in the North-East to clarify his alleged involvement in the controversial award of contracts for the rehabilitation of communities ravaged by insurgency in the region.  But he wrote to the Senate, declining the invitation on the ground that he had gone to court to challenge it. Later, news surfaced that he had changed his mind and would now appear before the Senate.

In our view, the melodrama being jointly staged by members of the National Assembly and appointees of the executive arm of government is an indication that the norms and tenets of democracy are yet to be fully embraced by the nation’s leaders. In the first instance, the National Assembly, in performing its oversight functions, is not expected to give any indication that it intends to humiliate those billed to appear before it. Even where prior investigations by any of its committees have established infractions, discussions on the floor of the Assembly should be modulated in such a way that those billed to appear and answer questions by the lawmakers would not feel that they have been convicted even before honouring the invitation. Again, we are not amused by the elevation of the issue of wearing uniforms over the real issue of the retrospective policy on payment of Customs duties on old vehicles, which would give the men and officers of the NCS the leverage to harass car owners after apparently colluding with the smugglers who brought the cars into the country. This is especially unfortunate because, as observed by the Senate, the NCS had overstepped its bounds by making policies rather than implementing them, since the power to make policies for it is vested in the Ministry of Finance.

The foregoing notwithstanding, members of the executive must be called to order given the contempt that they have shown towards the legislature. Perhaps taking a cue from the template set by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration at the outset of the current Republic when ministers, presidential aides and even the then president himself habitually referred to members of the National Assembly with pejorative terms such as “jokers”, the current appointees of the executive have been coming up with all kinds of excuses while turning down invitations by the National Assembly. Ministers and heads of agencies under the Executive must stop giving the impression that they are superior to the National Assembly, or that they are at liberty to refuse its summons. Members of the National Assembly, in inviting people to appear before them, are only standing in the shoes of Nigerians who elected them to make laws for the nation and also perform oversight functions. Indeed, if ministers refuse to appear before the legislature to answer questions on the various agencies they head, how does that advance their resume, or indeed the cause of democracy?

Inasmuch as there is no law saying that the Customs boss must wear the Customs uniform, there is also no law debarring him from wearing the uniform. The Customs CG must take cognizance of the precedent set by, for example, General Haladu Hannaniya who, after serving meritoriously in the Nigerian Army, proudly adorned the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) uniform. If Colonel Ali is ashamed of the Customs, he should not have accepted the job in the first place. Indeed, the real implications of the action of the Customs boss and the SGF were brought home forcefully by the Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, who said that it was scary that the Senate had to bow to an appointee of the executive who had needed the same Senate to confirm his appointment.

Members of the executive and legislative arms of government must learn to work together in harmony, for the good of the Nigerian public. The nation needs to move forward.