Living on the fast lane

While smuggling is an age-long illicit trade, the perpetrators and their collaborators (including government agencies), especially across West African borders, make brisk money amid maximum risk, writes OBINNA EMELIKE.

It is 12 noon on a sweltering Wednesday afternoon when the orange-coloured Nissan Urban 18-seater passenger bus quietly crawls out of the baggage area of Seme Border en route Lagos. You can tell the bus is taking its time to pick up speed, as if it is still trying to determine how best to engage its gears for the tortuous journey ahead. JeJe, the 25-year-old driver, knows better. All the corners of his bus are stuffed with smuggled goods while the smugglers that paid heavily for the contrabands are seating like saints in the bus.

Sandwiched between two hard-looking passengers is an elegantly dressed middle-aged woman. Despite her elegance, her discomfort shows on her face and mannerism. She is sitted comfortably, but the weight of her smuggled jewellery concealed in her waist is weighing her down. The bulge is obvious for her fellow passengers who will easily pass the bulge as ‘tummy fat’ as the woman did not look pregnant.

As the bus makes its way from one security checkpoint to the other, manned by a detachment of military and paramilitary officers – comprising Customs, Immigration, Anti-Terrorist Squad – the elegant woman starts to display a distinct and familiar trait.

Finally, by 12:50pm the Nissan Urban commuter bus with Ekiti State registration number is making its way through the last Customs checkpoint at the Agbara-end of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, and by 1pm, it is already undergoing the “routine” Customs check there. On seeing the woman, a young custom officer notices her discomfort, but goes to a superior officer to complain and to perhaps, order a female officer to interrogate her.

Moments later, a female officer appears and insists on seeing the bulge in the woman’s wrapper.

She forcefully unveils five wrappers tied around her waist, covering assorted jewelleries, which include – bangles, necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, worth N1,000,000.

“Madam forget them, meet OC,” a yet-to-be-caught smuggler advises. She follows the female officer to the see the ‘big man’ in a shanty. Surprisingly, the passengers and the driver were not in a haste to leave, they want to know the fate of the woman and possible get the contact of the big man in charge from the woman on her arrival to enable them use it when faced with same situation.

After about 15 minutes delay, she arrives and joins the bus. Moments later she reveals that she parts with about N100,000 to bail her smuggled goods. No mind them! Chorus the passengers. Then, it becomes obvious that they were all smugglers. But most of them, especially the woman, did not look it.

The male smugglers are, of course, more daring than the women. Most of them take bigger risks concealing turkey, live bullets, arms, hard drugs and even foreign currencies in artificial holes created in the buses and cars they use for their nefarious activities.

On a trip, a smuggler, according to Stanley Ogar, a fairly-used car and turkey smuggler, can make as much as N1 million, depending on the item. With Boko Haram and insecurity in the country, the risk, according to Ogar, is even more nowadays considering the fact that there are over 40 checkpoints from Mile 2 to Seme Border with more security agents waiting to harass life out of people that use the route. The development seems to be in their favour because the money from the business keeps appreciating with such high risk.

“Smuggling is a business and livelihood for many of us today. The game is – the higher the risk, the more the money you make. We keep facing the risk because we have to survive. And our families and even the security personnel who receive peanut as salary depend on us to survive too. I was forced out of school because of lack of sponsorship. I prefer smuggling to robbery; at least, you do not take anybody’s life to earn a living,” he explains.

The last thing that comes to his mind is being caught and sentenced to jail. “I can’t be caught and even if caught, I will not go to prison because those who will catch me are benefiting. If caught, their extra income will diminish. Money must change hands to effect my release. But at worst, the customs will destroy the contraband as they always do to those who did not settle well, or the unlucky ones that were caught by some no-nonsense superior officers,” he explains further.

But, despite the money, the reckless lifestyle of a typical smuggler which hovers around the border area, nearby towns (where they offload their smuggled good) and brothels, leaves less to desire.

And the nature of their illicit business is that of a warning that there is fire on the mountain; rather than run for his dear life, an average smuggler goes to meet the fire because of his belief that ‘money must change hands’ in his favour – that is a compromise.

That conviction of ‘money must change hands in my favour’ is what is driving Moshood Alimi in the smuggling business too. Since his secondary school days, the only business known to the cab driver operating along the Mile 2-Seme-Cotonou-Togo border route, is smuggling, which he, overtime, christened inter-border transport. As early as 4.30am, the father of two is already at the Nigerian-Benin Republic border at Seme waiting for his collaborators coming from Togo via Cotonou. The fact that this is everyday routine raises the question if he ever has time with his family.

However, the craftiness and smoothness with which whatever goods his collaborators brought are crossed over to the Nigerian border marvels an ordinary mind. “The more you look, the less you see” describes the sharp practice in a very clear way. But the business will not be smooth without the involvement of high government officials who oftentimes, look elsewhere when these so-called contrabands are moved in and out of the border.

When asked why the compromise at the borders, his answer throws more light on survival and greed. “The ‘Oga’ needs the razor I am smuggling in to shave, his wife needs to cook with the tomatoes that are well packed and hidden in my seat cover, while the security officers and we smugglers need the money to survive and augment our meagre incomes,” the bold driver, says.

But the contrabands are not just fairly used clothes and edible stuffs. If so, people like Alimi will not take as much risk as they do. Oftentimes, some clients will want them to do very dirty jobs that involve smuggling illegal goods that could earn them many years imprisonment if caught.

But they will still get it done. At worst, they look for routes that are longer, lonelier but with less surveillance. “No matter the goods, pay me my money, I will move them, unless soldiers are on roadblock or you are moving them to Togo,” he assures.

In some very critical cases where the client is offering mouth-watering amount, he employs the services of disabled on tricycle from Benin Republic that will be looked upon with pity by unsuspecting officials, than subject to thorough checks.

As soon as the job is done, his movement across the over 40 checkpoints before Mile 2, his final destination, will be an easy one as long as he ‘behaves,’ settles his way.

But he despises the life afterwards because he is always on the way and cannot enjoy it as much as he wants. “From one hotel to the other, from one woman to the other at the expense of my family is not the kind of life I want to live. But I must survive and I can’t help it at least for now,” he says helplessly.

In a typical bad period, especially when new postings are made at one of the agencies that run the border, most smugglers refrain and walk like new fowl learning its new environment. If they are caught on guards with many unfinished goods to move across, they will likely resort to hanging in motels and shanties enjoying the money they had made earlier. They often end up refunding their clients when the situation becomes too critical.

But the question still remains: What is the need of security personnel and the many checkpoints when smugglers thrive, and contraband goods easily find their way into the Nigerian markets?

“We all will answer that,” Ogar concludes.