With effect from May 18, 2017, Nigeria criminalised bribery at its ports with the new executive orders recently signed by the acting President Yemi Osinbajo to rev up the country’s perceived bad image and enhance confidence.
Nigeria aspires to become Africa’s leading economy, but is considered one of the most difficult places to do business, having ranked 169 out of 189 countries in the latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business index.
“Any official caught soliciting or receiving bribes from passengers or other port users shall be subject to immediate removal from post and disciplinary as well as criminal proceedings in line with extant laws and regulations,” according to the first executive order, which seeks to promote transparency and efficiency in the business environment.
Osinbajo in mid May signed three far-reaching executive orders to ease business, fast track budget submissions and promote made-in-Nigeria products. The executive orders also stipulate sanctions and punitive measures meant to address violations where necessary.
Specifically, the three executive orders gave specific instructions on a number of policy issues affecting: the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment designed to facilitate the ease of doing business in the country; support for local contents in public procurement by the Federal Government; and timely submission of annual budgetary estimates by all statutory and non-statutory agencies, including companies owned by the Federal Government.
The executive order on the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment, which relates to ports states; “There shall be no touting whatsoever by official or unofficial persons at any port in Nigeria. On duty staff shall be properly identified by uniform and official cards. Off duty staff shall stay away from the ports except with the express approval of the agency head. The FAAN Aviation Security (AVSEC) and Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Security shall enforce this order.”
Also, “All non-official staff shall be removed from the secured areas of airports. No official of FAAN, Immigration, security agency or Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) or any other agency is to meet any non-designated dignitary at any secure areas of the airport. The official approved list of dignitaries that have been pre-approved to be received by protocol officers shall be made available to AVSEC and other relevant agencies ahead of their arrival at the airport.
“All relevant MDAs at the airports shall within 30 days of the issuance of this Order merge their respective departure and arrival interfaces into a single customer interface, without prejudice to necessary backend procedures.
Also, “all agencies currently physically present in Nigerian Ports shall within 60 days harmonise their operations into one single interface station domiciled in one location in the port and implemented by a single joint task force at all times, without prejudice to necessary backend procedures.
The order also stated that “new single interface station at each Port shall capture, track and record information on all goods arriving and departing from Nigeria and remit captured information to the head of the MDA and the head of the National Bureau of Statistics on a weekly basis.
It goes further to state that “each Port in Nigeria shall assign an existing export terminal to be dedicated to the exportation of agriculture produce within 30 days of the issuance of this Order.
“The Apapa Port shall resume 24-hour operations within 30 days of the issuance of this Order.”
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has already commenced the implementation of new security protocols in all the seaports in the country in line with the order.
Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of NPA, has already directed full and immediate compliance with the executive order by all officials of the agency in a directive which is also meant to eliminate touts.
In an exclusive interview, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enalamah, said the Executive Orders were passed as an extension of work on ease of doing business which in turn seeks to improve the country’s poor business environment across key regulations, processes, support systems, execution capabilities.
According to him, the purpose of the executive Order on Transparency and Ease of doing Business is to now make the system wide and that every agency of government should be very clear on what people need to get approvals in terms of time requirements, fees to be paid and where a person can expect an approval or a rejection. “Those should be published on their websites and public places so that people can be aware,” the minister stated during an interview with some select journalists in Abuja.
The second leg is on the modalities for approvals provisions. “What it provides for is that is for any reason you don’t get back to the people. What it means is that silence is consent, therefore, the onus is on the public servants to tell people why they don’t qualify for something, rather than the other way round where you don’t hear from me, it means you don’t qualify. It is a clear signal to the public that we are here for you. That we are here to render service. It is a clear signal that the government is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.”
He further explained that the third leg of that order deals with the principle of one government. “What that means is that if you are getting an approval from a government agency or department and there is something that is required and the original copies of the document are in another government agency, that original agency should take the responsibility to get it from the other agency because we are all agencies of one government, rather than telling the applicant to go and bring.
“All you need to do is to provide evidence that such a document exists. It could be a photocopy or any other thing and the other agency would liaise with the other,” he explained.
He said government would ensure that those orders are implemented to the latter.
“When the Acting President addressed the civil servants last week, he said that it is a new day. It’s only a person who is insensitive, inattentive or unwise that will treat these executive orders as business as usual,” Enalamah stated.
Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja
