Task Govt on National Single Wingle

Dr. Segun Musa
Chairman/CEO, Global Transport Policy

The Chairman and Chief Executive of Global Transport Policy, GTP, Dr. Oluwasegun Musa has called on the federal government to review its economic policies, tinker with and make them people oriented.

Addressing a wide range of issues during a media parley with members of the Association of Maritime Journalists of NIgeria, AMJON, Dr. Segun Musa the present economic policies are not formulated for the good of citizens.

According to him, “What we are re doing presently is killing the economy, not building the economy. If you look at all the existing policies now, they are policies that kill economy, none of the policies drive and grow economy”

“Number two, we don’t have any barometer to measure that the intention of government will actually advance the development of the economy. There’s no barometer to measure it. So we operate on what we call theoretical agenda that is far from reality. You know, when you put something on black and white, and you’re just reading to the public without any action backing it up it is just hypothesis-trial by error method if you like”.

“There is no country in the world that developed through taxes. It is only a government that lacks capacity to think that resorts to taxation because taxing the people is the laziest way to raise revenue”

National Single window, NSW

The GTP Boss said the NSW,  being   the center point of national synergy for economy and security must be handled by persons with very high integrity.

“I’m happy to be one of the pioneer non-state actors that attended the training when it came up for discuss under a Customs training at Gwagwalada, Abuja.  I hear that government has handed it over to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, unfortunately, the Federal Inland Revenue Service does not have the integrity to superintend the NSW”

“What we’ve proposed to government  is to have a committee of the state actors and non-state actors with maximum integrity to superintend over it because that is the only way we can convince the international community that we are serious”

“In business circles, first thing the international community will do when you launch you Single Window is to check the background of the private sector, agency, ministry or whoever is going to be superintending over it. If there’s a question mark, they will lose interest”

Dr. Segun Musa argues that the integrity quotient of the operators of Nigeria’s Single Window, would determine its success or otherwise.

“The issue of integrity is very crucial and very important because integrity  is a scarce commodity. So if you are going to base superintending the single widow on integrity, who or which agency has that integrity to superintend’?

“The solution is to bring people of integrity from among the private sector to also be there because they have a stake, if anything goes wrong, it affects their investments”

“For instance, if you bring in Otedola, Adenuga, Dangote and other such  persons  that have huge  investments,  if anything goes wrong, their investments and businesses will be affected. How much do you want to bribe them with? They would not want to have anything to do with the integrity of their business empire. That’s how to put checks in place. But for a civil servant to protect what they have nothing to lose from, no matter what happens, the worst case scenario is that you sack them”

“So it’s not a platform that you just outsource to all those civil servants that have nothing to lose and that’s why i propose to government that there must be a formidable committee that will include the state actors and non-state actors and let’s see who is going to compromise the integrity on such platform”

These names that you have mentioned  will not be there in person…?

“I Know. If you are the chairman of a Board in any company, regardless whether you are a multi-billionaire or anything, even if you’re don’t preside over the Board meeting, you put somebody there by proxy. If anything goes wrong, you must take responsibility. And that’s why you must ensure that whoever is going to be your proxy must be of high integrity.  You look for the best hand to represent you if you won’t be available”

Are you saying the single window is best handled by private sector?

“Both;  the state actors and non-state actors it must be a kind of committee  of persons with high Integrity. I know it is working in Ghana and other countries. All we need to do is to put deterrence in place. When you are setting up a committee, if there is no deterrence, everybody will play the way they like. But if there are deterrents in place, if there are checks and balances, the NSW will succeed; that’s how it works all over the world and they are not better than us. They have deterrents, checks and balances unlike here where men get away with so much and sanctions are very scanty”