Worried by the uncontrolled influx of arms, ammunitions and the worsening security situation in Nigeria, a maritime expert has made a strong case for the intensification of security surveillance at the nation's entry points especially the seaports and land borders.
A frontline freight forwarder and former chairman of Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, Mr. Tony Nwabunike, who spoke against the background of the Federal Government's practice of giving the Nigeria Customs Service annual revenue targets, noted that the current security situation in Nigeria calls for a serious security surveillance at the entry points into Nigeria particularly the seaports and land borders Nwabunike, who is also managing director of Mac Tonnel Nigeria Limited, a freight forwarding firm spoke in an interview in Lagos, shortly after a technical site acceptance test conducted by the Nigerian National Nuclear Regulatory Authority at the new fixed scanner installed by Global Scansystem Limited, a fully indigenous service provider under the Destination Inspection scheme.
He noted that for too long the government has placed too much emphasis on revenue generation and trade facilitation and argued that what should dictate the tune of what happens at these entry points should be security first and foremost while revenue and trade facilitation should be secondary.
"You will agree with me that the security situation in Nigeria has not been this precarious in the history of the country and it therefore requires that government takes extra step towards curbing this situation, which is currently threatening the corporate existence of the country", he said.
"We all saw the large cache of arms seized by the military somewhere in the Northern part of the country. No body has pondered where and how these dangerous weapons find their way into the country, but I bet you most of them come through the seaports and borders and so government must do something urgently now to save this situation now", he insisted.
He noted that the global trend in cargo inspection is to adopt the use of modern facilities such as scanning machines to inspect all imports into the country, which is reliable and efficient in addition to saving time and money.
He warned that a situation whereby Customs would insist on 100 percent physical examination on a larger chunk of the consignments was no longer acceptable, arguing that mere human efforts cannot be as efficient and cost-effective in terms of time as much as modern cargo inspection as tools.
He warned that if the government does not take urgent steps to address the situation, it might escalate further, thus threatening the corporate existence of the nation, especially given that 2015 is all around the corner when politicians would want to do everything humanly possible to win elections.
On the part of the freight forwarders, he noted that time has come for them to be sensitised on the need to ensure that their consignments are scanned at the ports and land borders, which saves them time and avoidable cost.
"We need to adequately sensitise our freight forwarders so they will in turn insist that their importers opt for the scanning of other consignment, which saves them embarrassment from the public and the shame of being called all sort of names", he argued further.
On the allegation that most importers prefer that their consignments go through physical examination: "Any importer who prefers 100 percent physical examination is a smuggler and should be treated as such because it is easier and more convenient to scan than to do physical examination".
Nwabunike, who is also a chieftain of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents and a one time national secretary of the association also noted that it is not proper for an importer or his agent to dictate as to whether his consignments will go for physical examination or scanning.
National Mirror