50% Of Corruption in Nigeria Emanates From nation's Seaports - Dr. Segun Musa

... Says Automation Solution To Corruption 

By Ewrhujakpor Godfrey Bivbere 

Harboursandport.com: Lagos - September 16, 2024: 50 per cent of corrupt activities in the country emanates from operations of the nation's seaports, transport management and logistics expert, Dr. Oluwasegun Musa has said.

Dr. Oluwasegun Musa.

Musa disclosed this in Apapa at the monthly stakeholders meeting for September held at the secretariat of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria, MARAN.

He noted that until the government is able to control the cargo clearing processes at the ports to ensure it is corruption free; the cost of goods cleared from the ports will remain expensive in our markets.

Musa who is also the Chairman/Chief Consult, Global Transport Policy, blamed government agencies in the sector for contributing to the high level corruption in the sector.

According to him, "50 per cent of corruption in this country emanates from the ports. If you are able to manage corruption in the ports, you would have eliminated 50 per cent of corruption in the country. If shippers are moving their cargoes out of the port cheaply and easily, commodities in the market will be very cheap."

He stressed that the way to eliminate corruption from the maritime sector is through automation of all operations, both private and public operations.

Explaining that automation of Customs processes and procedures will eliminate corruption, he said "Every company must have a code and their name must not appear on the license but the company code. So the Customs officer that is reading my job will not even know it is me, talk less of calling to tell me that he had done one job for me or he had done two jobs for me. 

"They don't know I am the one running the entry, they will only see the code. And when the entry gets to their table, it must be attended to. If you don't process the documents and you don't quarry it under five minutes, you will be quarried. That is how to facilitate trade, I don't need to go to Customs or go to the terminal, gone are those days.

"The world has moved beyond that now. We cannot continue to be in the back, I represented Nigeria at the Economic Community of West Africa States, ECOWAS, as president none state actor in charge of the borders, and l relate very well with most of my counterparts over ECOWAS. 

"They have gone far, we're still lacking behind. We don't want to know Customs, my job must not be known to them because I know the procedure of Customs. My job must not go because I know the Controller in the port. I don't need to know them, they don't need to know me. 

"I insisted everybody should be treated based on merit. No special window should be open for anybody. let everybody do their due diligence. 

"After all we charge our importer our agency fee. So at the end of the day, we will be able to facilitate legitimate trade. If you say agents are doing this, they are doing that, they are the ones sorting, they are doing illegal business. Now we say we don't want to do it again, so the only way Customs can help us is to automate their system. If they automate their system, the shipping companies automate their system, the terminal operators automate theirs too; let's see where corruption will come in," he concluded.