Honourable Mohammed Musa Soba (APC) represents Soba federal constituency of Kaduna State. In this exclusive interview with DAILY POST, he maintained that Nigeria Senate lacked powers to compel Customs Comptroller-General, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) to appear before it in uniform. He described it as an attempt to create crisis between the legislature and executive, assuring that the House of Representatives would kill the resolution asking the Comptroller-General of Customs to resign when it is eventually brought before it. Excerpts:
You are quite aware of the running battle between Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) and the Senate over official uniform. As we speak, he has been asked by the Senate to appear before them in his official uniform with a rank as the Comptroller General. As a federal lawmaker and a lawyer, what is your view on this?
First and foremost, I want to state that the Senate may be, did not look at the statute books very well, because we here in the National Assembly do not have such powers to compel anybody, particularly the Comptroller-General of Customs to appear before us in uniform. When I say us, I am referring to the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What the Senate did in clear terms is ‘ultra vires’ the powers of the Senate.
The Constitution stipulates clearly that the Senate has powers to invite every organ of government or its officers to come and explain certain policies which is part of our oversight functions and part of our constitutional duties. But to prescribe the way and manner that person should appear, I think is ‘ultra vires’, particularly when there is no statute book currently in use stipulating such that somebody must wear a uniform.
For avoidance of doubt, even the Customs Act stipulates that the President should appoint Deputy Comptrollers-General from among the Custom service. I brought this simply because, from the audit of the Act, it deliberately omits and deliberately too, the Comptroller-General and that is to tell you that somebody that is not a Customs Officer can be brought from outside to be the Comptroller-General. If somebody can be brought from outside not having risen from other rank or from any officer cadre who is not an officer to just oversee that agency and somebody is now telling you that he must wear the uniform in the highest rank in that organization, then that is to look the other way.
So, the statute book has taken into account that deputy Comptroller General must be someone who rose through the rank to become deputy Comptroller-General, somebody cannot now say deputy Comptroller-General must be Comptroller-General. But the Comptroller- General has so many deputies in charge of so many things, including administration with so many names given to such positions.
Again, another thing is that Mr. Ibrahim Magu, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) acting chairman is an Assistant Commissioner of Police. Magu is not wearing uniform. He appeared before the Senate and discussed issues concerning his clearance, but the Senate did not raise eyebrow on wearing uniform. Senate did not tell him to appear in uniform. We have Chairman of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), that one too, is a uniform wearing agency, but the Chairman also is not wearing uniform and to insist on uniform for the Comptroller-General of Customs is diversionary and an attempt to bring unnecessary friction between the legislature and the executive.
Otherwise, Hameed Ali was just invited to come and explain why all owners of vehicles were made to pay car import duties which I know that the policy is draconian, retroactive and not in tandem with the laws we operate in Nigeria.
Even the Constitution does not permit us as lawmakers to enact laws that are retroactive so the Nigeria Customs Service cannot do without violating the spirits and letters of our constitution.That being the case, of course, he was wrong by saying all vehicles that is 10, 20, to 25 years must pay custom duties. No. it is not the fault of anybody that those vehicles found their way into the country. It is always assumed that once you see any vehicle on the road here in Nigeria, it is assumed the relevant custom duties have been paid. Otherwise, how did the vehicle found its way into the country and whose responsibility it is that custom duties for such vehicles are paid before they came in? It is the responsibility of Nigeria Customs. Go to any boarder, you find Customs. Go to any Port, you find customs. Import duties are paid directly into Customs, so if any vehicle found its way into Nigeria and somebody said I must follow you to your house, you should know that none of our houses is a boarder post for customs. Our houses are our houses; you cannot come to my house and say you come to collect custom duties.
So the summary of what I am saying is that the Custom boss was wrong by saying all vehicles that moves around the country must ensure that their custom duty papers must be up to date. That is very wrong.
Senate was wrong in asking him to appear in uniform because they have no such powers. No law imposes a duty on Comptroller-General of Customs to wear uniform, that he must do that and for anybody that says that Senate was right in asking Customs CG to appear in uniform, the person should show us the law that permits that. Or again to simplify things, they should also tell us whether by the virtue of the fact that he is the Comptroller General of Customs, he owed a duty or under a mandate or under any obligation to wear such a uniform and again this man rushed to court to stop the Senate from insisting that he must appear before the Senate in uniform.
Now, when you look at it critically someone would say the matter is before the Senate, and you rushed to court to stop the Senate from investigating, which is like preventing the legislature from conducting its constitutional responsibilities, which is against the principles of separation of powers, but the Comptroller-General did not rush to court to say look I was invited by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and I want you to intervene that they have no such powers to invite me. He is simply saying there is a new issue. When they invited him, he went only for the Senate to introduce a new twist that he ought to have appeared in uniform.
They told him we are not taking you today, return at another date, but come in uniform, so they have introduced a new chapter into the whole saga by telling him to wear uniform, that is what he went to court for whether by our calling, whether by the spirit and letters of the constitution or Customs Act, whether by any existing laws in the country, the Senate has the power to insist that he must wear uniform. He is not in court for anything, but to ask the court to interpret sections of laws that forces him to wear uniform. For us now to say Court has no such power to issue injunction, that is the height of legislative arrogance and the height of legislative lawlessness. We cannot make law and interpret it at the same time no matter how well versed we are, our duties is to make the laws, but once the laws are passed, their interpretation is not within our constitutional powers.
But it is said that the House of Representatives which you are a sitting member has thrown its weight behind the Senate in compelling the Comptroller-General of Customs to appear before it in uniform.
No. We could not have thrown our weight behind them because that issue is not before us. It was the Senate who invited the CG over custom papers brouhaha. So what they are saying is that they are sending their resolutions to us that he was asked to resign having been declared unfit for the position. When they send, it is after our concurrence before it becomes a valid resolution, but I can assure you it will suffer ill-fate when it is presented on the floor of the House of Representatives. By the grace of God, we will not allow that kind of self-centred resolution to see the light of the day. We know clearly from our legal experience that what the Senate is trying to do is not within the provisions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
But is the Senate right at all in declaring Hameed Ali unfit and even went ahead asking him to resign?
They are not fair to him. It is like sitting in judgment in their own case by which they are having problems with him and they are declaring him unfit. And asking him to resign, is like passing judgement in their own case which the constitution also forbids. You see, when you cannot sit in judgment over your own case, so also you will allow the court to decide in a matter pending before it, no matter how. When the case is before the court and you insist on being right, you are going against the constitution. So, the Senate should be humble enough to allow the court to interpret whether or not they can force the man to wear uniform. It is as simple as that.
I cannot see why the rush and you can see what the whole things have brought out. The Custom is saying that the Senate is after them because they impounded the vehicle belonging to the Senate President with its custom duty was not properly paid for. They said the custom papers of that SUV Jeep was fake and you see, it has revealed a lot of things. You can see that there is no smoke without fire. For the mere fact that Senate President’s name is mentioned and the Senate itself is not denying that the vehicle with fake custom duty papers does not belong to Bukola Saraki having been impounded for that offence means that a lot of things are being revealed.
Also, it is against the constitution for you to sit down and make laws that is only convenient for you. When something like this happens, you rush and pass a bill for your own sake because you felt bad, that also is against the constitution. You make laws for everybody in a manner that nobody should be a sacred cow. If you want to rubbish somebody, you go and make laws to that effect. No. They are meant to be sustained generally and to be obeyed by everybody in the interest of Nigerian society.
It seems that lawmakers on the platform of All Progressives Congress are not usually on the same page when debating on executive communications and other policies that are dear to the ruling party. More often than not, you see them aligning with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to reject Mr. President’s request, thereby making it look as if the ruling party is not competent to govern this nation. What are your takes?
You are very correct and we are seeing them clearly. Some just used the platform to win elections without having sympathy for APC. Some APC members are more of PDP. They are just APC by name, but PDP by actions and that is why you see that PDP was always gaining ground here in the National Assembly when it comes to policy making. Because they connive with those who claim to be APC to do what they want to do in order to run down this administration and there is no doubt about it. Their duty is to make sure that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is brought down. We know them. Therefore, it has gone beyond party affiliation, it is all about their selfish political interest in 2019.
If someone win elections on the platform of APC with all the promises, what do you stand to gain if you don’t work for the party, to fulfill your promises to the electorates, but what you have been busy doing here is to work against the success of that party. If you go back home, they will ask you of your achievements and you cannot tell them look, I have been so busy fighting the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
That is the unfortunate thing. We are not united as a party here in the National Assembly and they still have penchant to act as opposition even as they claim to be APC. Having won election on APC, they cannot say they are not APC, but the attitude they are exhibiting clearly leaves no one in doubt that they are not APC.
Be that as it may, what will the APC lawmakers do urgently to save the situation, foreseeing that this could jeopardise its chances come, 2019?
We are coming together. Those of us that actually believed in APC and the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari are all coming together. I can tell you, not that they are stronger than we are. It is even what we are doing that prevents them from doing more harm to the party and the government because they know that we will not allow them. No matter the angle they are coming from, we will match them. They call it politics, but I call it hypocrisy because if I don’t belong to a place or subscribe to an idea, I will express it as so. I don’t hide my identity and claim another thing, but some people like to hide their identity and then play the ostrich.
As the majority party, we will insist in doing the right thing. In the House of Representatives, we are about 221 to PDP which is fairly above 100. We are not sleeping, we are not resting on our oars and we will do everything possible to sanitise our party by mobilizing our members at ensuring that the right things are done.
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