One important aspect of the training regimen of immigration and customs officers the world over is about being courteous to visitors.
Being representatives of the state and the people of this country, they meet visitors at our frontiers and leave lasting impressions about us. They are the first line of contact for visitors, especially those coming to the country for the first time.
A couple of days ago, a video showing a customs officer commenting about the seizure of fake dollar notes hit social media. Both Ghanaian and Nigerian patrons of social media saw the video. There is no doubt that the customs officer caused the video to be captured and disseminated. He was crafty and avoided having his visage captured in the video leaving only his uniform and voice for viewers to grapple with. There was no doubt, however, about his Customs uniform and his lanyard.
We salute the customs officer and his team for the wonderful work of stopping the fake currency from being smuggled into the country. Of course, that is their work and we do not expect them to sleep on their statutory assignments otherwise they should not be addressed as customs officers.
We are constrained to express regret, however, that the customs officer in his bid for self-glorification went overboard making remarks which for an officer in uniform are inappropriate.
Some Nigerians having received the video sent same to their friends in Ghana and the general comments from educated persons in both countries are uncomplimentary.
Perhaps he underestimated the power of social media and uttered the remark ‘fear Nigerians.’
We do not deny the fact that bad elements enter the country from Nigeria and other countries such as Asia into Ghana. That is a trend every country faces because every country has good and bad persons. It is for this reason that customs and immigration officers are part of every state, their responsibilities being the denial of bad persons and goods entry.
No country can shut its doors to the rest of the world. If others can pass such uncomplimentary remarks and get away with them not so with state agents such as customs and immigration officers. Being measured in our remarks is not the preserve of diplomats but other state agents who meet foreign nationals in their day-to-day assignments.
Those who are used to international travel will attest to the importance of courteous conduct from immigration and customs officers.
A snobbish and insulting customs or immigration officer does not represent the interest of a country. Our tourism industry will suffer negatively when we have discourteous state agents at our points of entry.
The management of the Customs Division in our opinion should identify the officer in question and counsel him to be mindful of such generalization.
The negative activities of a few bad Nigerians in our midst should not be used to paint all Nigerians as the customs officer did. ‘Fear Nigerians’ as he said is inappropriate in a civilized society such as ours.