Supremacy row: Buhari backs Customs boss against Finance Minister

By SEGUN ODUNEWU

THE supremacy battle between the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, and the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, retired Colonel Hameed Ali, is taking unexpected dimension as the Presidency takes side with the Customs boss against the minister.

Sources in the Customs Service and the Presidency revealed to National Daily that the job of Adeosun, the finance minister, hangs in the balance because of the close affinity the Customs boss has with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Accordingly, the Customs CG and Finance Minister supremacy row may lead to Adeosun lose her position as Chairman of the Nigeria Customs Service board, our source disclosed.

According to him, the federal government plan to restructure the board is just an icing on the cake. The main reason is to put to rest the supremacy battle between the Ali and Adeosun
The friction began during the screening of the Ministry of Finance budget before the Joint committee of the House. And Hameed Ali, an ally of Buhari, had called the bluff of the finance minister by telling her he reports only to the president.

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And, really, the CGC has been a law unto himself since Buhari appointed him to head the Customs last year. Ali has been promoting, demoting, and dismissing men and officers of the agency without getting a nod from Adeosun. The board has yet to meet either since he took over from ex-CGC Abdulahi Dikko.

Meanwhile, this impasse is coming at a time the president is yet to overcome the trauma of the 2016 budget padding which caused serious embarrassment for his administration. The finance minister is among the members of the Federal Executive Council being blamed for the budget controversy and for whom the president is believed to have commenced search for their replacement.

By the provisions of the CEMA Act, the NCS as one of about 600 government agencies comes under the supervision of the finance minister who doubles as the chairman of the NCS board. And based on that, Ali is answerable to Adeosun.

But, as the restructuring takes effect, the odds are still in favour of the customs boss. The finance minister will have her power whittled down; a competent source told this newspaper.

“It will remove the minister as chairman of the Governing Board of the service, contrary to the provisions of the CEMA, which is the enabling legislation for the service,” the source said.

President Buhari might be sacrificing legality on the altar of expediency now. And he’s got reasons. The NCS is one of Nigeria’s top money-spinners. Between January and October last years, the service raked in N904billion, falling shy of the N944 billion target the federal government gave it. Between 2011 and August 2014, the service generated N3.1 trillion in revenues from import and export.

In the same vein, the Customs is among the most corrupt and porous of government agencies. Industry watchers believe that was the reason Buhari brought in Ali, who believes there are some bad eggs within, to head the agency. And the CGC boss has since been carrying on like reformist.

“The minimum jail term for corrupt officers is five years, but I will make sure that any officer found to be corrupt gets the maximum jail term of 10 years,” he said when he came in last year.

And he seems to be getting all the support he needs from Aso Rock. Under the new dispensation, the current CG, who is not a serving Customs officer, will now report and take orders directly from President Buhari, a process which also contravenes the provisions of the CEMA.

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It was, however, not clear as at the time of filing this report who would head the customs board since the powers of the minister to that effect has been withdrawn.

This development might create a vacuum in the scheme of things as well as causing some distortions in import and export trade administration in the country.

Stakeholders have however argued that apart from the distortions that would trail this current restructuring would cause to the system, it would also destroy the structure of the service itself, since authority flows from the Minister through the board to the management headed by the CG.

“It is enough that the president forced an army officer retired more than 20 years ago on a professional organisation like the nation’s customs administration in the name of fighting corruption,” a stakeholder said.

“But to move towards making the CG report directly to the president would distort so many things in the international trade administration in Nigeria.”

According to him, apart from being illegal, the current move would lay a very bad precedence in the system where the CG of the service would report directly to the president of the country, which he insisted was an aberration.

He also wondered that situations arise sometimes when the minister and the CG of Customs need to take decisions on import and export policies, a role that be played by the president would play now, especially given his tight schedule.

Many, however, insisted that whatever the president would do in the light of the proposed restructuring would remain in the realm of illegality. Otherwise, he needs to amend relevant sections of the CEMA, which spell out duties and functions of the minister as the chairman of the board and the CG, who is the Chief Executive officer of the service.