If there is something so dear to President Umar Yar' Adua in the maritime sub-sector of the economy, it is how Nigeria can attain the onerous task of making cargo clearance within 48 hours of arrival at the ports.

The President had earlier issued a marching order to the Comptroller General of Customs (CG), Gyang Buba, that the feat of 24-hour cargo clearance must be achieved.

Soon after the order, machinery was put in motion to ensure that the project didn't suffer any setback. Among these were the sensitisation of stakeholders through seminars, symposiums, press interviews and interactive sessions.

The customs also tutored its officers on how to go about it to achieve the feat. All hands were really on the deck to ensure the success of the project.

Even though the task seemed enormous due to some anomalies that had to be corrected before it could be achieved, the CG was always optimistic that since the task was achieved in some other countries, it was also achievable in Nigeria. He believed that nothing was spectacular in what these countries were doing that Nigeria could not do.

He started on a good note by instructing his senior officers on what to tell the junior ones on how to make the policy work and the ball was actually rolling with all stakeholders cooperating with the customs.

Though, the achievement of this proposal has not been fully attained, the progress made so far indicated that clearing processes are improving everyday, an indication that the 48 hour target is achievable.

However, with this positive impression in the mind of stakeholders in the industry, one person who believed that the project couldn't work is Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, Sanni Nuhu Abubakar. He has always raised his voice whenever he perceived that something was wrong somewhere.

He recently declared at a public function that the impression his boss (Buba) was giving Federal Government and Nigerians was wrong. He declared without mincing words to a stunned audience at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group's Policy Dialogue on Customs and Port Reforms in Nigeria held in Ikeja, Lagos that 48-hour cargo clearance is not attainable. He insisted that Nigeria has the worst fiscal policy and tariff regime in the world, adding that Destination Inspection scheme targeted at faster cargo clearance is also upside down.

His words: "The Honourable Minister of Finance recently asked the Comptroller General of Customs if 48-hour clearance target is on course and the CG said yes but when the Minister asked me, I told him right there and then that 48 hour clearance is not attainable. I listened to a lot of you talk about multiple government agencies at the ports but the truth is that you are not addressing the issues".

"The preponderance of security agencies is the effect of a fundamental issue, which no one here has yet addressed. Nigerians will continue to be non-compliant and the Nigeria Customs Service will continue to be corrupt as long as the current platform prevails".

The fundamental issue, which needs to be addressed if Nigeria desires to make any meaningful progress in the attainment of 48-hour clearance, according to Sanni Abubakar, is its trade policy.

"No country on earth has our kind of trade and fiscal policy. Our tariffs are totally punitive and sometimes I ask if they are meant for people on this planet earth. The Nigerian importers, he said, divert their cargo to Cotonou to discharge because the tariff regime there is friendly and tolerable," he declared.

Assistant Comptroller General, who is in charge of Customs Headquarters, also said that Nigeria needs to jettison the archaic idea of banning some consumer goods.

The ban, he said, enables smuggling activities to thrive.

"High tariff or ban on importation never assists local manufacturing. Over protection even if it is of your child will produce an indolent child. Why do we insist on protecting what we don't have? Whom are we protecting?" he asked rhetorically.

"Last year Philippines collected $49 billion as customs duty. With all our high tariffs and banning, we never collected more than $3 billion in Nigeria. 90 per cent of vegetable oil brought into Nigeria comes in illegally. Government is losing enormous revenue on vegetable oil because it is banned", Nuhu disclosed.