The Nigeria’s Customs Comptroller General, Col. Hameed Ali (retd) inexplicably rebuffs the appointment of a substantive National Public Relations Officer (NPRO) for the service amid rising tension, but his aides insist “there’s no vacuum in our public Relations Department”
By Innocent Chukwu
The refusal of Col. Hameed Ali (retd), the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) to announce the next substantive spokesperson for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is raising dust within and outside the paramilitary establishment. Curiously, some close aides of the incumbent customs boss insist that whether or not the CGC approved a substantive National Public Relations Officer (NPRO) for the NCS, there is still no vacuum in the service’s image making department.
However, Tentacle learnt that a vital aspect of the Nigeria Customs job-public interface-is being toyed with by the CGC’s action or inaction which has left the Public Relations Department of Customs at the national level to be groping in the dark. What nauseates many observers is that despite spirited concerns by numerous stakeholders on why the PR Unit has no identified official handler, as well as calls on the CGC to do the needful, his (Ali’s) adamancy has got many tongues wagging.
Since 2015, when Ali joined the service, the Nigeria Customs National Public Relations Unit cannot be said to have fared completely well under the retired soldier- turned customs officer’s watch. At a point, a retired Comptroller of Customs, who once oversaw the Customs Public Relations Department as the NPRO was compelled to admit conservatively that Ali does not give a damn to whatever stories the media carried about Nigeria Customs.
This assertion may have formed expression in Ali’s current disposition towards Customs Public image. Notwithstanding, under the Ali CGC, two competent hands have managed the Customs Public Relations Department as NPROs. These are recently retired Comptroller Joseph Attah and the current Customs Area Controller (CAC) at the Kiri-Kiri Lighter Terminal Command, Lagos, Comptroller Timi Bomodi.
Despite Ali’s perceived below average concern about Customs Public image under his leadership, the two officers struggled to deploy their professional experience to achieve an all-round robust relationship between the service and its various publics, especially ensuring that negative media against the Nigeria Customs were warded off.
Under Ali’s immediate predecessor, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde, Customs Public Relations had been professionalized, almost especially at the national level, with a succession plan that ensured that as one NPRO was promoted or retiring, his immediate assistant would take over the job.
With such plan by Dikko on the appointment of the NPRO, the service did not content with any qualms when now Deputy Comptroller General (DCG) Wale Adeniyi was promoted to the rank of Comptroller and redeployed from the Public Relations Department. Wale had headed the department for many years under several CGCs, including Aliyu Mustapha, Jacob Gyang Buba, Hamman Bello Ahmed, Bernard Nwadialor and Dikko. Attah, who was next in rank to wale as Assistant Comptroller and the deputy NPRO, stepped automatically in the shoes of Wale.
Curiously, the current CGC, Ali, sought to destroy this succession principle in the service’s Public Relations Unit. For when Attah was elevated to Comptroller rank, the rest of his deputies in the Public Relations Department were ignored by the Ali-led management which brought Bomodi, a former PRO of KLT and Apapa Area 1 Commands respectively, to head the Department as its NPRO.
Early in the year, Bomodi was promoted and deployed to KLT Command as its CAC, but Tentacle’s findings indicate that he failed to hand over to AA Maiwada, a Chief Superintendent of Customs (CSC) officially because Ali did not give such instruction or directive. Maiwada was the next in rank to Bomodi and now the most senior officer in the department. Curiously too, two months after Bomodi’s exit from the department, the CGC has declined to confirm Maiwada the substantive national image maker of the NCS.
What breeds tension in the ensuing saga is that virtually all the closest aides of Ali in the service stoutly defend what many regarded as the CGC’s insensitive action by insisting that Maiwada cannot even be declared the acting NPRO for the NCS. Yet, Tentacle’s investigations reveal that Maiwada may not have the customs management’s authorization to speak, implying that he (Maiwada) cannot be quoted in any instance by the media.
Another development that may have orchestrated the delay in announcing Maiwada as a substantive NPRO by the CGC, Tentacle gathered via credible investigation, is the issue of seniority in the Public Relations Department of the service generally, including the various commands’ PR Units. Investigation revealed that a female command PRO at the Tincan Island Command, Mrs. Nkiru Nwala, a CSC, has a service number that is senior to that of Maiwada who is at the headquarters. Thus, if Maiwada is confirmed the NPRO, there is the implication for Mrs. Nwala to vacate the office of PRO at the command level due to her seniority to Maiwada. Nwala is regarded as another erudite Public Relations manager in the service.
Feelers claim that both Nwala and Maiwada are at par in terms of intellectual and experience acquisition in managing Customs Public Relations. Their admirers in the service claim that both officers are refined in their rights and are capable of managing the department if given the opportunity. However, feelers further claim that the CGC, Ali would not favour the choice of appointing a female as the NPRO.
More worrisome is the feeler indicating that the customs management may be contending with the confusion on how the service would lose such a refined female Public Relations manager, Nwala, from its Public interface unit should Maiwada be confirmed the NPRO in the era when the service is working to professionalise the department. This fact is in contention with the CGC’s alleged unfavorable disposition to appointing a female NPRO. Investigation points to these issues as being responsible for the delay in appointing a substantive NPRO.
A visit to Customs headquarters in Wuse 3, Abuja by this medium, proved that although Maiwada does not have the authorization to speak for the service publicly, he remains the acting NPRO. This fact emanated from confirmation by some close aides of the CGC who craved anonymity, that there is no vacuum in the Customs Public Relations Department. Efforts to access the CGC for comments on the contentious issue proved abortive as officers remained highly cautious about issues that concerned Ali and Customs management.
But one credible customs source at the headquarters insisted that Maiwada is the acting NPRO and would readily handle all aspects of the customs interface with its various publics. When reminded that Bomodi would not hand over officially to Maiwada because there was no such instruction from the CGC, the aide responded calmly with confidence, “There is no vacuum in our PR Department. The system makes it automatic that as Bomodi was promoted to Comptroller, the next officer in rank takes over. Maiwada can handle all issues relating to customs PR. So, you can’t say there’s vacuum. Anything you want to know about customs, ask Maiwada and am sure he will respond to you”
Asked if the management was concerned about Mrs Nwala whose service number is senior to that of Maiwada, the CGC aide replied, “Whatever will happen to the appointment of our national PRO remains a pure management decision which I cannot comment on”. However, the source pleaded that the media should give the management time to take appropriate decision on who becomes the next NPRO. Tentacle gathered further that the management may be considering the confirmation of Maiwada as the substantive NPRO which might result in redeploying Nwala to other units. Still, those who favour Mrs Nwala as NPRO argue that her appointment will make history as the first female NPRO since the advent of the nascent democracy of 1999.
