Appointment of Customs CG now subject to Senate confirmation

• NASS to raise teachers’ retirement age to 65

The Senate has, in a new law passed yesterday, subjected the appointment of the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to its confirmation.

While making it mandatory for the President to appoint the Comptroller General from officers within the Customs Service, it also scrapped the governing board of the Service and replaced it with the NCS Commission.

The Commission, would be headed by a chairman, who would be a retired Comptroller General or Deputy Comptroller General, who would also be appointed by the President for a period of four years.

The appointment of the chairman of the commission is also subject to confirmation by the Senate, and the tenure is renewable once. The Senate Bill tagged: “ A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Customs and Excise Management Act, to establish the Nigeria Customs Service, reform the Administration and Management of Customs and Excise in Nigeria,’’ was passed following the adoption of the report of its Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff.

The bill consolidates into a single reference document, the NCS legal authority which is scattered in multiple enactment, and to bring the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) 1958, in line with modern day reality and international best practices.

And from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, comes an assurance that the retirement age for Nigerian teachers would be raised from 60 to 65 years.

Dogara told a delegation from the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) who paid him a courtesy visit that the initiative was aimed at retaining experienced teachers in public schools for pupils to benefit from.

The Speaker assured that the raise in retirement age being enjoyed by lecturers in tertiary institutions would surely be backed by a legislation of the National Assembly soon.

He also advised the union to channel their request for salaries of teachers to be handed over to state governments or paid from first-line charge from the federation account through the Universal Basic Education Commission to the Constitution Review of the House of Representatives for consideration.