GOVERNMENT SHOULD DECLARE STATE OF EMERGENCY ON HUNGER, ENCOURAGE IMPORTERS, MANUFACTURERS OF CONSUMER GOODS
—- BARR. CC OGBONNA
Recently, The Prestige Blended Magazine team engaged Barr. Chinedu Christian Ogbonna, in an exclusive interview in his Lagos office, the cerebral Retired Public Officer cum Legal Practitioner, had a robust time to speak on Government Economic development plan, the palliative programme and the need to effectively address the challenge of hunger, insentive grant to importers and manufacturers of consumer good and the opening up of Apapa Port corridor
Enjoy the excerpt !
ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ECONOMIC POLICY
We have to look at the trajectory of the Federal Government on the economic policy and what they intend to achieve vis a vis vision and reforms.
Without the knowledge of what the Federal Government intends to achieve, we may not know from what perspective to share our views, is it the economy, manufacturing, agriculture or health; we have to know the economic trajectory of the Federal Government. What’s the short, medium and long term plans of the Government towards the economy. What is the role of Customs even with the new Act, does it carry the people along, is it intended to achieve trade facilitation. Trade as a tool for wealth creation and distribution must have a trajectory. We can not isolate the plans and vision of the Government. The Comptroller General of Customs is to work to meet the objective; he cannot have an identified plans outside this trajectory. Right now, l can not confidently tell you that this is the blue print of the Federal Government or this is what they intend to achieve in the next two or four years because they have not sold their blueprint to Nigerians. Until they sell their plans to Nigerians and we buy into it and have the roadmap, for instance, the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, has sold his blueprint to the good people of Abia State. What he intends to achieve in a couple of years and has started working on them. He has listed the things he wants to bring to the table that will definitely transform Abia within the time frame. As we have seen his blueprint, and bought into it, there will be little or no resistance to achieving it because he has a goal and everybody seems to be buying into the vision. If we follow the trajectory of the Abia Governor in the next four years, there will be a transformation and it is people driven, it has a target, it also has a destination. Some people may not be happy with Abia State Governor so long as he intends to do well or he is doing well, it is not every body that will be happy with him.
Now back to the Federal Government, before we talk about development, what is the short, medium and long term development plan of the Government and what is the role of Customs. Customs must fit into that trajectory, but we have a problem as there is a disconnect among the ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Customs. And this disconnect is that for the fact that every import commences with a proforma invoice before you go and open a Form-M. The Form-M approval date which is the commencement date of transaction, with the exchange rate as at that date, irrespective of what happens, whether the dollar goes up or comes down, it still has to be honoured because when a person comes for issuance of Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), the officer in charge has to check the commencement date of the transaction, if the exchange rate is 490 or 952, why would the PAAR office give 1.2 or 1.5 as exchange rate even when it comes down to 1.300 So you can see that there is a disconnect because all of them must work in synergy, the Ministry of Finance, the CBN and Customs as the driver of the fiscal policy.
There is hunger in the land and what is Federal Government policy on food security, is it about distributing palliative, which l see as robbing Peter to pay Paul. When we talk about food security, according to United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security, it means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Okay, let’s talk about agriculture; if you bring in a greenhouse which ordinarily, should be duty free, or if Government wants to be fair, we can say 5% , but here, it pays 20% . Installing a greenhouse in a farm factory is very expensive because of the components and need for an irrigation system. Why should someone import such item and you peg it at 20% duty value, are we now more interested in the money or in the food it is imported to produce. If we are not interested in the money, then, we have no policy because the policy should encouage people who invest in this area and not to discourage them.
Nigeria is producing Cocoa, what is the short term plan, especially, for the Southwest and places like Ogoja and Ikom, we are still selling and exporting cocoa seeds while as we can encourage chocolate production in Nigeria, if the equipment needed for chocolate production should be allowed in at 0%, imagine what good it will do to our economy. If we allow those who want to invest in chocolate manufacturing to bring in machineries for their plants at 0% and commence production of quality chocolates, in the next three years, we would have made huge success in that area, Government can recoup the revenue from its export potential, if the machines needed for the production are duty free, in the space of three to four years we would have migrated from exporting cocoa seeds to massive production of chocolates, and we will get back our money fast.
As far as l am concerned, there is no synergy between our Agricultural potential and our investment on it, because it has to be managed. The CBN must be strongly involved, the Ministry of Finance and the Nigeria Customs would drive it. Yes, the CGC is doing his best but he has not been given a blue print on agriculture and that is why they still go on to collect 20% duty on agricultural equipment and machineries, what is the target when we have a huge number of unemployed people and no industries to engage them, and that’s because we are only paying attention to money rather than job creation. As far as l am concerned, the CGC was given an office but was not given the investment potential of what we want to achieve.
We have no fiscal policy, no national development plan. If we have a national development plan, we can say this is what we want to achieve within the next 6 months. It’s like going to school to do a Bachelor’s degree programme, in the first year, you have course content which you must conclude to begin another in your 2nd year until you get to the 4th year then you graduate from the University. But the Federal Government has no graduation time frame in its development programme. Budgets are supposed to be prepared with the economic blueprint of the government. After 4 years, the government is supposed to have achieved an economic agenda and sustainable growth. That is why every tariff is supposed to expire after four years. As we say, trade is a tool for creation and distribution of wealth. Every economic development programme of the Government is supposed to be four years, but here they tell you that government is a continuum and people use that to embark on white elephant projects and all sorts of shenanigans and once they leave office they go scott free.
ON GOVERNMENT PALLIATIVE PROGRAM
Palliative is a deception; Customs has no farm, the Federal Government has no farm, so l insist that it is robbing Peter to pay Paul. You seize Mr. A’s goods and give it to Mr B as palliative, it is wickedness; we need to be honest about it. The only short and medium term plan should be to allow people to import rice with a maximum of 10% duty, and no VAT, because food under VAT exemption of 1993 should not pay VAT. Let them remove every obstacle and stop weaponising hunger , l assure you, within two months, there will be sufficient food that everyone can comfortably afford and not palliative . Allow food importation for a period of 18 months to reduce hunger because when hunger is conquered, people will be more productive. Has the Government been buying food from Farmers all these years. Insecurity is not allowing for sufficient food production, people need to go back to their farms and that is why some of us are supporting the establishment of State Police. The hardship is yet to start because the Government is not yet ready to fight hunger. There should be a national emergency on hunger, people should be allowed to bring in food at 0% or at 5% duty value. We can not continue like this, people are going through severe economic pains.
OPENING UP OF APAPA PORT CORRIDOR
The Team that enforced the opening up of that corridor are wonderful, it is a commendable achievement, they have managed to knock of the criminality on that road. And until we knock off the criminalities in our economic system, things will not go well. Before now, truckers used 10days to access the port to offload empty containers, and today, you can drive from Apapa to Mile2 within 10mins. I hope that a day will come when CCTV will be installed along that corridor to check defaulters, people breaking the law must be sanctioned. Formally, they were collecting over N30,000 to allow trucks ply against traffic. As it stands presently, in the event of fire outbreak, fire fighters can drive freely to the scene, and in case of emergency, people can freely find their ways, l am giving kudos to those who enforced it, over the years it seemed impossible, but we can now see that it is possible. If what was done on the road can be replicated in other sectors of the economy, l don’t think we will remain like this as a nation, what it takes to right the wrong is the will power and courage to say enough is enough .