The Sobotkas of Lagos

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Advocates for limited government appear to have a new icon in Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's finance minister, who appears to subscribe to Ronald Reagan's fabled view on the public sector. Just check out what she's doing at Nigeria's ports, where an alphabet soup of government agencies have been fleecing importers and exporters alike for ages:

The Federal Government through the finance minister and leader of the economic management team, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala last week slashed agencies at the ports to half retaining only critical agencies that would have permanent stay at the ports. She also announced the disbandment of the Customs taskforce and directed Customs to begin a 24-hour shift operation…

The agencies issued a two-week ultimatum to vacate the ports included the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), Directorate of Naval Intelligence (DNI), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Plant Quarantine and Animal Quarantine (PQAQ). Others are National Environmental Regulatory and Standards Agency (NESREA), and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), among others. Although the finance minister said there were 14 agencies at the port, most stakeholders put the number at over 20…

The reforms, the minister said were targeted at reducing cost of doing business at the seaports, which experts believe is among the highest in the world.

Corruption is nothing new to the world of maritime trade, as anyone familiar with On the Waterfront can attest. But it's interesting that Nigeria's problem totally inverts that which plagued the U.S. a couple of generations ago; their racketeers are government employees, rather than mafiosi.