By Ben Ogbemudia
Aliyu Wamakko, a retired Custom intelligence officer on Tuesday said that the Nigerian borders are porous, coupled with that the country doesn’t have any mechanism to check the land borders.
Speaking with ThisNigeria in Abuja, he said the proliferation of arms coming into West Africa and African countries, in general, is an offshoot of what happened in Libya.
“What happened in Libya during the time of Gaddafi was that he opened his armoury and asked everyone to go in and take it. It was free. And, arms became prominent in the whole of Africa because of that. Go to sub-Saharan Africa, you will find that there are arms everywhere. Boko haram is an offshoot of the proliferation of arms.
“ISIS is everywhere too. All is a result of the proliferation of arms coming from Libya.
“We got it wrong because the time the superpowers were destroying Libya, we thought it was only there it would affect. Today, we are witnessing what they have created for us. That is why we are having all this kind of banditry, kidnapping, terrorism, and what have you.
“In fact, arms are very easy to get now in Africa because everywhere you go there are arms. Do you put custom officers around the whole of Nigerian borders so that arms cannot come in? is it possible? The arms and weapons that come into the country are through our land borders. And, with it, you cannot do anything.
He said the only thing the federal government is doing that is in the right direction is the NIN.
“Every Nigerian must be identified by his or her cell phone number.
“So, whoever commits any crime will be easy to identify irrespective of where the person is located. And, getting you won’t be a problem.
“There is no way we can get out of this insecurity saga without this NIN being effectively monitored and complied with.
“Most of the time when I was in the custom as an intelligent officer in the intelligence unit, my duty was to get information for general enforcement duty. So, I get information for them to enforce the laws of the custom.
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“The real situation in Custom today is that the government is not getting it right in such a way that it should be.
“Custom is official. And it has bye-laws and you must go through it to understand its tariffs before you will be able to administer custom. It is wild speculation and belief held by the public that it is a revenue-generating agency that everybody in custom is thieves.
“That is a very wrong signal that the people are sending. Even people who read farm husbandry are being made to hold custom, which is wrong. You cannot call a soldier man to head customs. It is wrong. You need to think from inside the box. So that you can get a meaningful development. From records, all the people who have moved customs forward, like late Dikko who was a CG of customs. He has done a lot for the customs that have come to stay. Nobody can move customs forward than a person who is a customs officer. So, the government has always been getting it wrong. It must think within the box not outside it for custom to prosper.
On the business of real estate, Alhaji Wamakko said he had been in the business for over 10 years.
“I was a customs officer before I retired in 2006 before joining the re-estate business. And, I have made my mark in the industry. I was able to produce more than a thousand housing units that are affordable to the generality of Nigerians which was made possible due to the housing deficits in the country.”
