The Nigerian Senate even with good intentions, have displayed their clownish tendencies once again. When the Comptroller -general of Customs, Hameed Ali announced the ridiculous policy that all vehicle owners will be made to pay duty tax, there was a public outcry and rightly so.
The 8th Senate rose up to the occasion admirably and summoned the Customs boss to come and explain the policy. The move was applauded and for once, I said to myself, something good can come out of the 8th Senate. I applauded them too soon as the Upper House have bungled it once again. The lawmakers ignored the substance of what was really on ground and were chasing shadows. It now became an issue of the Customs Boss wearing uniform or not. If they use the sam vigour in this uniform matter to make laws bordering on the economy and governance, Nigeria will be out of recession by now.
The Senate took the issue of the uniform personal that they took two weeks going back and forth on the matter forgetting why they summoned Ali in the first place. The uniform matter is secondary, if Ali likes he can wear only boxers to work that none of my business as long as he rids customs of corruption and stops his men from mounting roadblocks on highways and harassing commuters.The Senate should forget about this uniform matter and allow Ali to appear before the senate to explain this ridiculous law.
On the other hand,Ali should also know that nobody is above the law and should also display tact in the handling of the matter.This is the second time he is showing disdain for constituted authority. I remember last year during the budget defence where he left the finance minister literally in tears when he declared that he doesn’t report to her. Maybe he needs to be educated more . The customs CG reports to the Minister of Finance as the Minister is the chairman of the board of the Customs. He has also shown disrespect to the institution of the senate, please we don’t want to have another Diezani on our hands.His stubbornness is not doing his principal, President Buhari any good.Maybe Buhari should make Ali the Sole Administrator of customs to solve this uniform matter .For now appear before the senate and shelve this idea of customs duty because at the of the day,it will not achieve its aim but will only make the corrupt customs officers richer