The senate on Thursday summoned Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of customs (CG), for an explanation on his removal of rice from import restriction list and the re-introduction of import duty payment at land borders.
The Goodluck Jonathan administration had banned the importation of rice through the land borders to check smuggling and stimulate local production.
But Wale Adeniyi, public relations officer of customs, had argued last week that over the years, importation had been restricted to the seaports because border authorities found it difficult to effectively monitor and control importation of rice.
“When the decision to ban it (rice) was taken, it was not an effective measure because smuggling of the product thrives with people using different means of conveyance, including small trucks, bicycles and even animals – putting them on donkeys and some actually carry it on their heads,” he said.
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“These new measures will be for customs to re-organise their anti-smuggling operations in the border areas and ensure that all those importers through the borders bring their rice through approved routes and pay their extant duty.”
At the senate on Thursday, Muhammad Aliero (Kebbi central) moved a motion that was co-sponsored by 30 senators, observing that the “ban on rice imports through the land borders had reduced cross-border smuggling”.
While pointing out that the customs “lacked the capacity and machinery to effectively monitor and control the importation of rice through the country’s porous and extensive land borders”, Aliero said Ali had no powers to reverse the ban on rice importation.
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He explained that the lifting of the ban would hamper local production, adding that Nigeria was heading towards self-sufficiency in the production of rice.
Debating the motion, Dino Melaye (Kogi west) urged the senate to invite the CG to explain why he took the decision, insisting that he had a right to fair hearing.
“We must listen to the comptroller-general of customs to know why he took the decision,” he said.
Also, Kabir Marafa (Zamfara central), argued in favour of Ali, saying his decision must have been informed by good reasons.
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1 comments
It is not by banning the importation of a product that will promotes local production but other factors. The rice farming for instance can be encouraged by various method both culturally and technologically. The animals such as birds and grass cutters are quite destructive to rice farming in many part of the country. We have a culture that is not friendly to animals thereby making it difficult for them (animals) to bear our selfish request that they let our crops alone be granted. Where have all these ban and unbanned taken us to? How many Nigerians buy local rice? It is rice flour that everyone will buy not minding if it is local or not. The truth is that corruption have eaten deep into our system that almost nothing is working. Every Nigerians today both those that voted for Buhari and those that did not vote for him supports his move to fight against corruption. Nigerians pays less for labour and farmers are almost tax free. My question is Why is it that the price of locally made rice is almost more than that of the foreign rice? Take a learning example from Italy that have almost the highest in the list of countries that export tomatoes. They did not ban the importation but they only check the quality of the tomatoes that you are bringing into their country.All the bans are to give way for the paid officers to enrich themselves by forcing the said importers to pay almost the value of the product to them illegally. For example second hand cars. If Nigeria must move forward, The Alagbon should be renewed to eliminates every corrupt officers be it police customs, navy, soldier and so forth. The problem is that a true Nigerian is always in a hurry. and you can hardly achieve sound result that way. China today overtook the world but not in one day. The controller general idea to unban the rice importation by land is good but the custom should fix the duty rate per weight so that everyone can dance to the tune of the same music.