Nigeria: A nation that never considers its own

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE

Dear Sir,
We have created and employed over 3.5m job seekers since May 29th, 2011′’ say government representatives at various fora, but the statistics and specifics are kept in the vault of imagination.

World all over, maritime is the greatest employer of labour, and nations of the world protect and exclusively allocat that sector to their nationals, or at best to those that have naturalized.

In the sub-region of West Africa, no non-indigene enters the sea/airports as well as the boarder stations to do the transactions of clearing, forwarding or transportation. Such issues must be handled by the indigenes  who are authorized by their agencies to execute the jobs.

Those nations base their reasons on provisions of employment to their citizens, as well as ensuring the protection of their gateways (security-wise) as well as insulating their officials from corrupt tendencies. But reverse is the case in Nigeria. Our senior Those affected corruption virus, transmitted into them  by the system,  bask in the euphoria of worthless chairmanship epulate, been accorded them by the foreigners.

Today in Nigeria, all the sea, air and boarder- Area commands, of the Nigeria Customs Service, are invaded by foreigners who do the job of clearing and forwarding as well as haulage, creating dire consequences to our economy.

As these foreigners who have made incursion into the clearing and forwarding industry continue to bulldoze their ways unchecked, by the regulatory agencies, like Immigration services as well  as NIA, our officers and men at the various commands, are exposed to all manner of vices. They boast of their contacts in high places and display the pictures they had with men of earthly powers, who they claim, are their partners.

By the indices of Nigeria Customs Service, prio to this invasion, indigenous clearing and forwarding agents were up to 20,000 in the roll and each had in its employment an avarage of 20 workers with minimum salary of N25,000.00 per month (20 X 20,000 = 400,000 workers)  (20,000 X 20 X N25,000.00 per month) =  N10,000,000,000.00 (Ten Billion Naira). All these have gone, and yet import profile has gone up tremendously.

Indegenous Agencies have retrenched their workers and some can’t even renew their License – No thanks to the system that has betrayed them.

Crime wave has taken the front burner because as the indigenous agents are forced to close shops, their erstwhile staff resort to aiding and abetting smuggling and falsification of import documents to make ends meet.

It is imperative that Nigeria learn to empower its citizens, by ensuring the safety of its gateways as well as protecting the values of humanity.