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T H I S D AY THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017
COMMENT
Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com
ALI AND HIS CUSTOMS UNIFORM
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The appointment of Hameed Ali as comptroller-general of the customs service was a mistake, argues Bolaji Adebiyi
ne of the good things about democracy is that the exercise of citizens’ freedom of expression at times provides the polity some comic reliefs even at moments of great depression. Listening to varied views on the fight between the Senate and Hameed Ali, a retired army colonel, over his customs uniform, one cannot fail to come to the conclusion that out there, there are many dishonest jesters, masquerading as public opinion leaders, who would rather turn logic on its head in order to mask their personal interest dressed as public good. Erstwhile civil rights agitators who now work for President Muhammadu Buhari have been very vociferous in setting up the Senate for the guillotine over a matter that, were they honest believers in due process of law, rules and regulations, they would have roundly lashed the president for his abuse of the discretion donated to his office by the constitution. The president in August 2015 appointed a non-career officer as the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service. This obviously did not go down well with the career officers, the top management of which sent in its retirement notice in protest of the presidential action. Of course many people familiar with the sector criticised the appointment on the ground that customs service is too technical for a non-career officer to quickly come to grasp with its intricacies, and could be counterproductive particularly when the principal objectives are to reform, restructure and increase revenue generation. One year plus, the appointment would appear to have been ill-advised as the ongoing controversy over the refusal of Ali to wear the customs uniform points. Interestingly, the uniform was a side issue; the main point of the Senate was the policy of the customs to transfer the burden of payment of unpaid duties on imported cars to the end users. The policy was borne out of Ali’s desire to increase the customs revenue profile having failed consistently in the last two years to meet its target. Believing that many vehicles in the country were either not properly assessed or not assessed at all, he felt subjecting every vehicle to a test of proper assessment would shore up his revenue profile. The policy had no cut-off date of importation as every vehicle on the road, including those purchased 20 years ago would be affected. Career officers advised against the policy on point of law and capacity. Although under the Customs and Excise Management Act, the service is empowered to impound or levy duties on goods that have made their ways into the country even when they have successfully evaded the customs at the entry point. But this applies only to goods that have not exceeded seven years. Besides, officials expressed reservations about the capacity of the service to implement the policy nationwide having regards to the limited human and technological resources available to it. Both concerns were brought to the attention of Ali who peremptorily overruled them. Were Ali a career officer or knowledgeable about the rules, he would have understood the impracticability of the policy and would have been minded to give it further thoughts particularly given the concerns of those whose mandate it is to implement it. Of course as it was expected, public objection to the policy was instant and massive,
SERIAL SOCIAL CRITICS AND CIVIL RIGHTS CONTRACTORS HAVE SINCE ENTERED THE FRAY ON THE SIDE OF AN OTHERWISE IMPETUOUS PUBLIC OFFICER WHO HAS SCANT REGARD FOR CONSTITUTED AUTHORITY SIMPLY BECAUSE OF HIS CLOSENESS TO A PRESIDENT THAT HIMSELF OBSERVES RULES ACCORDING TO HIS WHIM
attracting the intervention of the Senate, which invited him to come and defend the controversial policy. If the sponsors and handlers of Ali had been discerning enough they would have known that the Senate hearing was bound to be explosive and would have taken steps to forestall what is eventually playing out. His contempt for the customs as an institution, exhibited by his refusal to wear its uniform, had been revolting to officers and men of the service and had been an issue of public interest since his appointment in 2015. His handlers failed woefully to understand that it is part of the democratic rights of the servicemen to take their lobby for the protection of the dignity of their institution to the legislature. The resolution of the Senate summoning Ali to appear before it in his Comptroller-General uniform was probably the first manifestation of the effectiveness of the career officers’ lobby. The CG, seen as a repulsive impostor by his officers, obviously did not see this and proceeded to walk into a well-laid landmine with his contemptuous media reaction to the summons. Dismissing the uniform aspect of the resolution as a non-issue, Ali asked the Senate to concentrate more on substance than inanities , insisting what was important was that he was doing his job creditably well. Really? After an initial grandstanding, Ali reluctantly appeared before the Senate in mufti, telling the senators that no law requires him, a CG, to wear the customs uniform. If the Senate was a court of law, it would have sentenced Ali to 12 months imprisonment for contempt in the face of the court. The Senate resolution was clear: “The Comptroller-General should appear in his uniform.” His conduct, no doubt, was defiant of the authority of the Senate, which walked him out of its chambers. Serial social critics and civil rights contractors have since entered the fray on the side of an otherwise impetuous public officer who has scant regard for constituted authority simply because of his closeness to a president that himself observes rules according to his whim and caprices. They assail Senate’s insistence on respect for its authority as egoistic and without substance. Without a doubt, this is an impertinent conclusion having regards to the constitutional powers of the legislature not only to oversight the executive but to compel compliance with its resolutions. Indeed, the House of Representatives has a committee on legislative compliance. What is the job of that committee if the legislature has no powers to compel compliance with its resolutions? Interestingly, the professional agitators pretend that the Senate has not accomplished its substantive objective of compelling the abortion of the vexed policy of transferring payment of duties on imported cars from the importers to the end users. On the eve of Ali’s appearance at the Senate the custom service announced the suspension of the policy because of the legislative intervention. But the service only met the demand of the Senate half way having suspended rather than cancel the policy as demanded by the upper arm of the legislature. Adebiyi is Deputy Editor, THISDAY Newspapers (08053069321)
WAR WITHOUT BLOODSHED
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Abdulraman Sadik writes on the futile attempt to extradite Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, from the United States
hen Marxist-Leninist theorist, Mao Zedong defined politics as “war without bloodshed” several decades ago, the Chinese philosopher arguably gave no thought about the ugly events that now hold the political space of Turkey on the jugular. Since the July 15 failed coup in Turkey, politics in that country has assumed chilling dimension, with the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s led Justice and Development Party (AK Party), capitalising on every possible opportunity to nail perceived enemies and trample on the rights of significant number of Turks in a menacing manner. But the move by Erdogan and his co-travellers in the ruling AK Party to further take this persecution to foreign lands without minding international boarders and sovereignty of other countries appears to have hit a unshakeable brick wall. This is not unconnected with the Turkish government recent quest to willy-nilly extradite from the United States the highly respected Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen. The move apparently has now fallen like a pack of cards and literally suffered its well-deserved death as the Intelligence Committee of the United States (US) Congress has dismissed the
claims upon which the extradition is being sourced. Gulen is the Pennsylvania-based moderate Sunni cleric the Turkish government accuses of masterminding the failed July 15 coup, despite having no concrete evidence linking him to the aborted coup. Over the past few months, Turkey has been mounting pointless pressures on the US authorities to extradite Gulen even as it continued to clampdown on members of the Gulen’s inspired Hizmet Movement, which the Turkish government now brands as Fethullah Gulen Terror Organisation. Thousands of perceived sympathisers of Hizmet Movement and other right activists now languish in various prisons cells without trial, while many more have been forced out of government jobs. Erdogan has not stopped there, scores of charity organisations, universities, businesses, media organisations, among others, linked to Gulen or Hizmet Movement have been shut down by the authoritarian Turkish leader, who is now seeking more dictatorial powers in the executive presidency referendum scheduled for April this year. But despite the condemnations that continues to trail his undemocratic actions from far and near, especially the European Union (EU) which the country seeks membership, the
Turkish president appears to be more ruthless and highly obsessed by his ill-conceived quest to humiliate and extradite Gulen by using the failed coup as a smokescreen. But Devin Nunes, chairman of the powerful Intelligence Committee of the US Congress in an interview on Chris Wallace’s “Fox News Sunday” which was aired on FOXTV recently, made some important remarks about Gulen’s extradition quest and his alleged involvement in the failed coup. Nunes, a member Republican Party and a close ally of President Donald Trump, did not mince words in the interview when he made it clear that there is no evidence linking Gulen to the failed coup. “I haven’t seen evidence that Gulen was involved in the failed coup,” he said. Though this response can be construed as a hard knock on the stubborn head of President Erdogan, following his regular trademark boasts that the moderate Islamic cleric would be extradited, the US congressman did not end there. He continued: “The Erdogan government has becoming very authoritarian.” and added, “our relationship with Turkey is strained and going to become even more complicated as we begin to try to get ISIS out of Iraq and Syria.” Though Nunes did not elaborate why would Turkey-US relations will get
complicated as the coalition tries to get the dreaded Islamic States out of Iraq and Syria, the Head of German Intelligence Agency (BND) Bruno Kahl in an interview published recently also believes that there is no serious evidence linking Gulen to the failed coup. Despite these near foolproof views from Germany and US, Erdogan, in a clear case of a man afraid of his own shadow, is bent on using underhand tactics to get Gulen extradited. The Turkish government was allegedly said to have recently engaged some individuals and firms using third party in US to help in lobbying for the extradition of Gulen and also spy on businesses associated with the cleric. Some former Turkish generals, journalists and others have also helped press the government’s case at assorted Washington panels against what it calls the Fethullah Gulen Terror Organisation. Though it is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Turkish government would engage Washington, DC lobbyists to help out in its case to extradite Gulen in order to score cheap political point, what is clear is that the United States will not stoop so low to allow for the unwarranted extradition of Gulen under any guise, knowing fully well of the present nauseating human rights abuses and authoritarian credentials of Erdogan.
Sadik wrote from Kaduna