Relocate Customs Headquarters to Lagos - Maritime expert urges Buhari

Segun Oladipupo

Chief Boniface Okoye, a maritime expert, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to relocate the headquarters of the Nigeria Customs Service to Lagos , which according to him, will further boost the perform of the officers and men.

Okoye, who is a chieftain of the National Council of Managing Director Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA),also appealed to the President to appoint maritime practitioners who have grassroots knowledge of the industry as his advisers so as to give him accurate information about the sector.

Okoye who said this in a chat with newsmen in his office recently, stated that such information would help the president to make relevant policies that will grow the industry.

He alleged that government agencies in the maritime sector don’t equip the president with right information especially on the state of the port access road.

He advised that with the appointment of an individual as Senior Adviser on Maritime Affairs, it would help to resolve some of the bottlenecks and bureaucracy in port operations, noting that the parastatals and agencies under the transportation ministry have failed to curb the menace and anomalies in the sector.

According to him, the government agencies failed in their responsibilities to resolve traffic gridlock at the Lagos seaports, adding that shipping companies and terminal operators have no regulators that can checkmate their excesses.

He affirmed that “Since the sector is one of the highest revenue generators to the economy, the President needs to appoint someone that can give him first hand information about shipping charges, traffic situation etc.

“With constant communication between two of them , it would bring about a robust informed understanding by the president to understand the sector better.

“Because most of the agencies give half baked information and this mis lead the president .

Okoye who is the Managing Director ,Bonntex Nigeria Limited , a licensed customs agent, advised President Buhari to sanction shipping companies which failed to acquire holding bays for trucks to offload empty containers and to engage terminal operators to reduce demurrage charges.

He noted that Nigerian shippers have dumped the nation’s seaports due to the bottlenecks and bureaucracies on the part of the agencies of government.

“If the President can appoint a maritime grassroot operator; he will discover about so many things unheard of about the industry.