PRIDE, POLITICS AND LAW: Nigerian Senate versus Hammed Ali (Retd) PART TWO
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...Several arguments have been trumped up by those canvassing and supporting the action of Col. Hammed Ali (Retd) in not wearing his Customs’ uniform. They include:
1. That wearing of uniform does not determine the performance or competence of the Customs’ boss and therefore it should not preoccupy the minds of Nigerians that Col. Hammed Ali(Retd) is not wearing the uniform of the agency that he is leading.
Yes, to an extent, the wearing of uniform does not necessarily determine how efficient the person wearing it will perform but it is worthy to note that to a very large extent, it is the uniform of these Customs officers that gives them the ostensible authority to stand at the ports or on the highways and flag down vehicles. The uniform in a way grants them legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Without the uniform, no citizen is under obligation of any kind to stop his vehicle and permit a non-uniformed Customs official to search his vehicle or to allow himself to be frisked by such individual. Despite the fact that it is not written anywhere in the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) nor in any of the Customs regulations that Customs officers must wear their uniforms, it is equally pertinent to observe that no law forbids retired officers of the Nigerian Army from wearing uniforms of whatever paramilitary agency they are appointed to after their retirement. That being the case, it would not be entirely wrong for one to describe retired Col. Hammed Ali's blunt refusal in wearing his Customs uniform as either a show of untamed pride or a show of crass ignorance of basic tenets of effective leadership ...

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