Hameed Ali and the engineering of chaos

Col Hameed Ali, like other top government functionaries, is about to mar a good policy through a flawed implementation.  When he announced last week that April 12 was given as a deadline for everyone to pay the customs duty on their cars, I was taken aback by what was glaringly missing from the announcement. Now […]

Col Hameed Ali, like other top government functionaries, is about to mar a good policy through a flawed implementation.  When he announced last week that April 12 was given as a deadline for everyone to pay the customs duty on their cars, I was taken aback by what was glaringly missing from the announcement. Now I do not mean to diminish his competence, which is considerable, but, the attitude of government officials leaves one wondering if they do think their ideas through or care for the people.

I thought the message was incomplete, so I tried to check from multiple sources, in case someone edited out some important information.  Here I’m going to present Premium Times version.  Maybe you can tell what is missing in the news?

“The Nigerian Customs Service has given April 12, 2017 as deadline for owners of all vehicles within the Country whose customs duty have not been paid, to do so.The Comptroller-General of Customs, (CGC) Hameed Ibrahim Ali, a retired army colonel gave the approval grace period of one month, between March 13 to April 12, 2017 for all affected members of the public, clearing agents and corporate institutions and government to comply with the directive.

“Consequently, all motor dealers and private owners of such vehicles are advised to visit the nearest Customs Zonal Office to pay the appropriate Customs Duty on them.The four Zonal Offices of the Nigeria Customs Service are: Zone A Headquarters on Harvey Road, Yaba, Lagos; Zone B Headquarters, Kabala Doki, Kaduna; Zone C Headquarters, Nigeria Ports Authority, Port Harcourt and Zone D Headquarters, Yelwa Tudu Road, Bauchi State.

The CGC therefore calls on all persons in possession of such vehicles to take advantage of the grace period to pay appropriate duties on them, as there will be an aggressive anti-smuggling operation to seize as well as prosecute owners of such smuggled vehicles after the expiration of the deadline.”

Did you find the missing logic?  No, it’s not that it’s a bad policy, actually, it’s a way of generating the badly needed revenue, it would keep people in line and it is also the single most effective way of stopping smuggling through the land borders; because if you know that your smuggled car would be stopped within the city to pay duty, smuggling would be unnecessary and you would want to import through the approved channels.

But my opinion of the implementation is altogether different.  The news listed four zonal offices at which to check and pay for duties: in Kaduna, Bauchi, Port Harcourt and Lagos.  Which means two each for north and south.  Since we have six zones in the country, Northcentral and Southeast are left out.  People in Nnewi, would have to go to Port Harcourt and those in Minna and Abuja would have to go to Kaduna just to check if their cars have the appropriate papers.  Which is crazy.

The cost and the general inconvenience alone would be mind-numbing.  Another question is, are we to do it ourselves or the agents have to do this for us?  If we have to do it ourselves, if the person coming from Sokoto to Kaduna or from Abakaliki to Port Harcourt couldn’t finish the process in one day, would he have to spend the night in a hotel?

Do our officials run scenarios on the board, on paper or even in their heads?  They must have the statistics of how many cars we have in Nigeria, right?  What is the percentage of the ones which lack duty?  Probably 50% or more.  That may number in the millions.  So, let’s imagine that all of them are willing to pay appropriate duties, can the four zonal headquarters and staff accommodate them?  Also, how much are you likely to pay for a 406 imported in 2011 or an Accord brought in in 2009?Uncertainties and more uncertainties.  And according to a theory of corruption, corruption thrives in chaotic situations.

Here’s another one.  In order to avoid harassment and prosecution, what happens if the citizens decide to leave their vehicles at home and use public transportation?  It may be a good news for the environment but bad news for our easily-offended markets. There would be a high demand for commercial transportation, which would drive up transport fares, which would then lead to increases in the cost of goods and services.

Which brings me to the first point: a policy like this shouldn’t be   an opportunity to shoot barbed daggers at the citizens or a chance to subject us to more suffering, rather, it is an opportunity to connect with the people; reminding them that government is for them.  The revenue you’re trying to collect is for them, so that they can have more infrastructure and enjoy life.  Our government also needs to keep this big picture in mind: if the objective of government is to serve the people, then it’s illogical to kill the people (sometimes literally) in order to achieve that aim.

 

The second and final point is that this chaos, this suffering that is about to come, can be alleviated with technology – in three steps.  One, put up a form online for people to check if their cars have the correct papers and how much to pay if they don’t.  A first semester student in a web application course can do that for you; so it’s easy. 

 

Two, put up a payment system online.  This one, banks can do it for you for free.  Three, if we still need human intervention to verify papers and payments, put up a queuing/ticketing system, again, online, so that you can manage the appointments of the citizens according to their convenience and Customs officers’ capacity – this way, they wouldn’t crowd and overwhelm the Customs offices.

On the whole, this point must be stressed:  governments do not exist to punish the citizens.  However, in Nigeria, whether we allow it or not, it would appear that our policies and the potentates behind them have that diabolical objective.  That sadistic attitude must change.

 It’s not all bad however, to get people to change, Chip and Dan Heath wrote in their book

(Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard), we should change three things: the situation, the mind and the heart.  Hameed Ali has only changed the situation.