Nwabunike urges port users to shun false declarations

The National President, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Iju Tony Nwabunike, has charged maritime stakeholders, especially importers and freight forwarders, to be law-abiding in their dealings at the ports to boost the nation’s economic growth.
   
He enjoined importers and freight forwarders to make sincere declarations of goods and pay taxes in form of import duties, as ways of reducing rising unemployment and contribute to national development.

Nwabunike gave the charge in a statement made available to The Guardian to commemorate the 2021 Easter celebration.
   
He said port users should follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who demonstrated the best example of compliance with rules through voluntary payment of tax and declaring his status without waiting for the state to come after him.
   
The ANLCA President also said that increased compliance at the port could generate more productive employments, which would help reduce the rising unemployment rate in Nigeria that increased from 27.1 per cent from second quarter of 2020 to 33.3 per cent in the last quarter of the same year.

Nwabunike urged importers and international traders to avoid bringing things that compromise the health of consumers or inflame society such as hard drugs, arms and ammunition and unwholesome or expired consumables.
 
“The maritime industry still holds the ace for supporting other economic activities and as participants in this sensitive sector, let us rise to be counted among those who improved our economy in our time.

“Many are active but not productively engaged due to possible factors such as greed, causing fewer persons to appropriate common wealth, while active workers are mostly underpaid. Let’s make sacrifices for common good, be forgiving, avoid greed, run away from acts of betrayal and shun lust for earthly wealth at the detriment of the common good.”
 
Nwabunike also called for mutual love, forgiveness, and sincerity among maritime stakeholders, saying it is time to resolve all differences, just as he has forgiven those who had hurt him in the past.