Today, we gather here to mark the beginning of a new era in the Nigeria Customs Service. I stand before you as the newly appointed Comptroller General, humbled and honoured by the trust placed in me by our esteemed President, His excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR. This call to duty signifies a great responsibility, a responsibility to serve our nation as trade facilitators and enforcers of government policy. It is a delicate balancing act that demands professionalism, integrity, and the highest ethical standards.
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It is common knowledge that taxation plays a vital role in the economic development of every country whether developed, developing or under developed, and Nigeria is no exception. Government at all levels depends on the tax it collects to run the affairs of the State and it is the duty of every taxable citizen to contribute their quota to this effect. Without taxes, there can be no country.
A cursory look at the Oil and Gas host communities in Delta state reveals an area tensed up with a lot of issues, intrigues and hiccups. Their anger in the present moment, going by media reports, is precipitated by the alleged opaque manner the former governor of the state, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, managed the 13% Oil Derivation Fund that accrued to the state.
The struggles in Adamawa are never exceptional ones as senior politicians in the political party of the All Progressives Congress has since began to scheme out their ways to the next appointment. After the Secretary to the Government of the Federal luck shined on the former Governor of Benue State (SGF), George Akume, and the National Security Adviser (NSA) appointment went to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who is from Adamawa state. The next political appointment many are waiting to hear and politicians are struggling to get is the ministerial appointment.
Since the return to a democratic system of government over two decades ago, Nigeria has witnessed unbecoming violent attitudes that were seemingly tolerated by the society, before they later snowballed into the nightmarish monsters that we have today.
In Nigeria, the shortest side-track or scheme to stardom is to take an appointment with the Government. No matter how private, quiet or inconsequential one is, the minute he or she picks up an appointment with the Government, particularly political appointment, he or she has become a prey for the press, who may turn him or her into a punching bag, out of whom a harm must be made. Yes, be a political appointee in Nigeria and get ready to be turned into a patsy by the members of the pen profession, the primary constituency of yours truly.
Since the announcement yesterday, Thursday, 15th June, 2023, by the State House Director of Information, Abiodun Oladunjoye, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had named eight persons as Senior Special Advisers, SSA, amongst whom is the retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, and the pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the minds of many Nigerians, yours truly inclusive, went into a frenzy of bewilderment, because of the uncertainty of the position of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. The question everywhere is, as Adviser Security, is he going to be the familiar National Security Adviser?
It’s all done and dusted and today, May 29, 2023, stands out as a day with a difference, for reasons that are numerous. However, because of time and space, I can not deeply underpin the significance of the day, except to buttress one aspect that puts it beyond the conventional democracy day. In doing that, I would bring forward the bizarre behaviour of Nigeria’s brand new President, His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the 16th sworn in President of the country.
It was Sir Hubert Henderson, the British economist and Liberal Party politician that said, there is a merit in being unimportant, which he paraphrased in a book under the caption, “The Importance of Being Unimportant.” Sir Henderson expressed the idea that, under the right conditions, it is desirable to be a very small part of something big. One needs not be an expert in English language to understand that Sir Henderson was talking about the goodness or distinction of modesty, particularly with respect to the righteousness of rectitude and the enviable quality of being moderate in behaviour. And precisely that is the quality that I think is missing in the displayed attitude of the now suspended Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Chief, Godwin Emefiele.
In 2020, one of the reputable national newspapers in Nigeria in its editorial comment among other observations noted that Nigeria would be facing another round of fiscal headwinds this year with the mix of $83 billion debt; rising recurrent expenditure; increased cost of debt servicing; sustained fall in revenue; and about $22 billion debt plan waiting for legislative approval.