Based on the recent unbiased submissions of numerous pundits in Nigeria’s shipping business sector, two Comptrollers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) stand tall among their many colleagues of equal rank in the Service’s painstaking pursuit to uncover hidden revenues needed to meet, and if possible exceed, its 2024 revenue target of N5.1 trillion. Tentacle takes a closer look at their trajectory in the Service and how the Federal Government can harness their untapped potential to help the NCS generate unequalled revenue in this era of economic downturn in the country
By Innocent Chukwu
In this dismal atmosphere of economic uncertainty in the country when the Federal Government uses the proceeds from the petroleum sector to service the country’s piling debt, the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is seriously sourcing out funds from other available sources to run the country. Among other viable sources of revenue generation available to the Federal Government to finance its programmes and build infrastructure, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) readily attracts the government’s alternative revenue eye.
In the recent times, the Nigeria Customs has remained a solid arm upon which the Federal Government rests its head whenever the country’s revenue earnings get tough. And the tax collecting agency has never been found wanting. Consequently, the National Assembly had pegged the Nigeria Customs revenue target for the year 2024 at a whopping N5.1 trillion, an amount that appears like the proverbial hard nut to crack considering the dire economic situation that has been ravaging the country since last year when the Federal Government removed subsidy from the premium motor spirit (PMS). Added to the devaluation of the naira which has seen thousands of naira exchanging for one dollar, many importers have stopped importing foreign items into the country. Some importers who became resilient and elastic, have run to neighbouring countries’ ports to try their luck to avoid losing their capital in Nigeria.
To this end, importation into Nigeria has reduced drastically, compelling the customs management to begin to experiment possible avenues through which the Service can meet its revenue target for this year. At this point, customs analysts have posited that the management of the NCS needs, now more than ever, the deployment of the best hands in the Service to ensure that the three basic assignment of the parastatal to wit, anti-smuggling, trade facilitation and revenue generation, are placed in the care of selfless, genuinely patriotic, effectively hard working and service oriented officers especially at the grade A Commands and formations of the NCS if customs management wants to achieve the revenue target.
Watchers of customs activities unanimously agree that there are, ostensibly, more able hands in the Service than others, and these insist that neglecting those more able hands in the Service to man critical revenue generating and anti -smuggling Commands, in favour of those whose eyes are mainly on what they could grab for self enrichment, may be counterproductive at this moment when the Federal Government is heavily relying on the NCS to shore up revenue to fund the 2024 budget.
Thus, within the league of Comptrollers in the Nigeria Customs under the present dispensation, there exist two gentle, unassuming, yet hard working Comptrollers in terms of selfless commitment to achieving desirable results, in the Service. The Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi has also ably recognized the almost untapped potential in these two gentlemen officers, and had posted them to different strategic Units within the NCS where they have, and still are rendering impersonal services to the nation.
Yet, in the estimation of many watchers of customs events, these two distinguished Comptrollers are urgently needed most by the country at this critical stage of Nigeria’s economic travail to overseer, lead and manage the most strategic revenue generating Commands in Customs if the Service expects to shun all manner of inefficiency in its quest to meet up with the revenue target. In the estimation Jude Udenna, a critical supporting ally of customs who is involved in the business of clearing and forwarding in the Apapa area of Lagos, Comptrollers Hussein Ejibunu and (Dr) Babatunde Olomu are two distinguished Comptrollers of Customs whose outstanding performances and indelible footprints in the history of the NCS cannot be over rated. Speaking to Tentacle on the strategies the customs management can deploy to meet the revenue target, Udenna stressed that among others, the nation can rely on the ingenuity of these patriotic officers to shore up customs revenue in 2024 if they are deployed to high yielding revenue commands because of their track records.
For example, late January 2024, Comptroller Ejibunu was visibly blushing when he was conferred with the World Customs Organization’s (WCO) prestigious award for unparalleled performance. The WCO measures performance in terms of selfless and patriotic tasks that are performed in the most humble manners without the performer arrogating prowess to themselves.
Comptroller Ejibunu is currently the Customs Area Controller (CAC) in charge of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Lagos. The Command has remained what stakeholders commonly refer to as the smugglers’ nightmare since Ejibunu became the CAC in 2021. Since then, the Command has tightened the noose on all forms of trade malpractices at the international borders and ports in the South west region of the country. This move has helped the revenue generating Commands in the South west to be generating huge revenues because the business community has been engaging in honest declaration of their cargoes to escape the prying eyes of the FOU Zone A Command under the watch of Comptroller Ejibunu. Ejibunu who had recorded seizures which Duty Paid Value (DPV) amounted to almost N12 billion in one year, has consistently reiterated his most cherished resolve for the Federal Republic of Nigeria: To ensure the economic protection and advancement of the country through his little contributions.
Early in the year when he was promoted to Comptroller, Ejibunu had assured that his way to show gratitude to God and the country for his promotion was to work harder to protect Nigeria’s economy by facing squarely all forms of illegal trade practices and sabotage that are capable of destroying the nation’s economy.
Comptroller Ejibunu said optimum revenue generation to the Federation Account by customs formations in the region he operates motivates him and his officers to continue to engage in countless risks on daily basis to ensure a watertight surveillance and security around the South west region. Prominent stakeholders in the shipping business sector said if Ejibunu can be taken to revenue generating Commands in the country, the management of Customs and Federal Government can go to sleep over the customs revenue target for 2024.
Comptroller Olomu is practically an incorruptible officer, according to his admirers who also maintain that he can, metaphorically, squeeze water out of stone when it relates to customs revenue drive. Dr Olomu was the personal assistant to one of the finest customs officers the country ever produced, Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) Sani Nuhu Abubakar (retd). When the NCS was at its lowest ebb in the year 2004, then President Olusegun Obasanjo had recognized the untapped potential in the youthful Abubakar and specifically requested the then CGC, Aliyu Mustapha to create and deploy him and his group to a special presidential task force to work across the country to arrest all kinds of illicit trading activities that cost the country huge revenue losses.
On account of the performance put up by the Abubakar-led special presidential task force team, the Obasanjo government had elevated Abubakar to the position of the pioneer ACG Headquarters next to the office of the CGC in terms of status. Customs’ lost glory at the time was promptly restored. Abubakar had become a household name in customs for the 2004 to 2008 reforms that hit the NCS. Dr Olomu was then the ACG Abubakar’s engine room as his Personal Assistant (PA) who helped the latter to manage the ACG Headquarters office successfully. The rare successes recorded in customs during those four hectic years in the trajectory of the NCS couldn’t have been possible without the ACG Headquarters office where Dr Olomu was the defacto manager. Comptroller Olomu had received the best of tutelage and exposure from his two immediate betters, CGC Jacob Gyang Buba (retd) and ACG Abubakar (retd).
Since he became Comptroller of Customs a few years back, Dr Olomu has been operating at the background, but with such impactful dedication that cannot be ignored by any nation. Remarkably, last year, Dr Olomu stunned the nation when he revived the almost moribund Warri Seaport in Delta State. Many Comptrollers posted to the Warri Seaport had either sought prompt redeployment or resigned to fate and left the seaport in its moribund state. But when he was posted to Warri Seaport in 2022, Comptroller Olomu never complained. He settled down to work unlike his other colleagues, and by the time he was called up for another assignment at the Customs Headquarters Abuja last year, Olomu had revamped the seaport beyond recognition.
The revamping of the Delta Seaport, Warri by Dr Olomu is not in mere rhetorics and media hype. No. He made the port concretely three times better than he met it in terms of revenue generation. Dr Olomu took the Warri Seaport revenue generation from less than N10 billion to over N30 billion annual revenue. The feat excited the current CGC, Adeniyi who magnanimously deployed Dr Olomu to head the Special Duties Unit of the Service at its headquarters in Abuja.
Olomu has been described as simply the Customs revenue wizard, a rare gem in the history of the NCS endowed with enviable talent and capability to help the Service attain its highest potential under President Tinubu administration if given the opportunity to serve in key revenue Units of the agency. This assertion, customs observers insist, is not without a concrete proof. As the Comptroller Special Duties, Dr Olomu has remained a workaholic, assisting the CGC in many special ways. For example, the tranquility that has enveloped the current auctioning of the overtime cargoes in the Nigerian Ports has left many stakeholders wondering the kind of natural gifts God bestowed upon Dr Olomu. Unlike in the time past when customs auction had been shrouded in secrecy and eroded by corruption scandals, this year’s overtime cargo auctioning by customs has been adjudged the best of its kind since the advent of the nation’s democracy in 1999.
Mr Godwin Aguddah, an Abuja resident, is still full of gratitude to whoever is responsible for the smooth and seamless auctioning of customs overtime vehicles. Though Aguddah may not have met Dr Olomu one on one, he has been sending goodwill messages to the Comptroller in charge of Customs Special Duties, Dr Olomu, and by extension, the CGC, for his effrontery in conducting a balanced, unbiased and impartial online auction in 2024.
Mr Aguddah said this year’s auctioning, which he described as near-perfect, has improved customs public image and endeared the Service to the heart of numerous low income citizens who won the bidding. Aguddah said further that he was skeptical when he started bidding, and never believed in his heart that he could win until when the documents were handed over to him. Aguddah has become a mouthpiece for the customs calling on other Federal Government agencies to embrace transparency, technology, efficiency and integrity, such as were deployed by the NCS in the overtime cargoes auctioning, in their different line of duties. Similarly, Mrs Mariam Sowemimo, a Lagos -based worker, would not spare encomiums on the customs management for the speed with which winners of the online auctioning were declared. Likewise, Miss Wunmi Oshineye who won the bidding said she had participated in previous online auctioning bid by customs, but never expected that the current auctioning could be as genuine and sincere as it became, thus enabling her to win a car. Miss Oshineye said based on her experience she would recommend the customs auctioning to young Nigerians because it is honest and genuine, all hail to the Olomu initiative.
At the last count, over N556.7 billion has been generated into the Federation Account via the auctioning of about 462 overtime vehicles in the first phase of the online bidding, without anyone raising an eyebrow or corruption scandal emanating from the sales. Numerous stakeholders recommend that Olomu be given a higher calling in the area of revenue generation in the customs especially in this critical economic period in the country.
Comptroller Olomu, an academic, is a rare customs officer, de-tribalized, highly desciplined, incorruptible, humble and result oriented. His admirers insist that the NCS can reap huge rewards in deploying him to strategic areas to achieve the Service’s revenue target.
There Are Hidden Revenues Everywhere – Prince Julius Ologbese, CEO Ogbese Marine Services Ltd
In his advice to the management of Customs to deploy the best hands in 2024 in pursuit of its revenue target, a veteran shipping expert and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ogbese Marine Services Ltd, Prince Julius Ologbese, said he was sure that until now there are hidden revenues in some commands that demand discipline and hard work to fish them out. Thus, extolling the character qualities that stand Comptrollers Ejibunu, Dr Olomu and Kunle Oloyede out, Prince Ologbese said even though these are not the only ones in that category, the Customs boss should act like President Tinubu who closed his ears and went for the very best of the people he knew would help him achieve his administration’s objectives without fear or favour.
Prince Ologbese said, “Concerning customs revenue target for this year, I’m not saying only a few Comptrollers can do it alone. My point is that the very best of the officers should be put in the right places to get the hidden revenues. The Federal Operations acts as the police to make sure that every Area Controller sits up and does the right thing, to make sure that things are working, to make sure that clearing agents are doing their job accordingly, following the laid down procedures.
“With all these in place, revenue will come because the goods are coming in, though at present the foreign exchange issues are not favourable, yet customs are collecting their revenue. Comptroller Ejibunu is a responsible and disciplined customs officer.
“Apart from being an Enforcement officer, Comptroller Ejibunu is also a revenue officer. So, being an Enforcement officer does not limit him to enforcement alone. They are all trained customs revenue officers.
“It was the system Ejibunu met on ground that he has been improving upon, but the difference is that he is being more disciplined, he is very disciplined in the way he carries on.
“Look at how he has repositioned the Federal Operations Unit, unlike before when vehicles were littered everywhere in the premises. But immediately he came in he said owners of those vehicles should pay their right duties and pick their vehicles. That is the difference between him and other officers.
“Ejibunu is disciplined, it’s lack of discipline that we’re suffering in this country today. That’s why politicians are behaving the way they do. If customs officers are to be behaving like politicians, this country would have finished.
“As for Dr Babatunde Olomu, you know Olomu is a disciplined officer too. I can tell you that Olomu is a prudent officer, not that he does not like to spend money, what I mean is that Olomu is not corrupt. When an officer is absolutely, absolutely not corrupt, that money that would have been shared up and down would go to government purse.
“Have you not seen how Olomu is handling the overtime cargoes auctioning? No noise, no accusations, no misdeeds, that is who Dr Olomu is for you. I know him closely, he’s a highly disciplined officer.
“I remember there was a time Olomu was posted directly from Abuja to Lagos to take over a position in Apapa Command, I think the Revenue office then.
“But by the time he got to Apapa they denied him the posting and people were saying he should fight for the posting and he said no and walked away. If it were others alarm would blow. That is the personality of Olomu. Those who did that to him at the time thought they had hurt him but Olomu did not take it serious.
“We pray that some of these Revenue officers be posted to the presumed vacant offices because, there are hidden revenues, I said there are hidden revenues that are not entering government purse and disciplined officers have to bring them out.
“I, Alaye Baba, am talking with all sense of responsibility, there are some hiding revenues which only disciplined, hard working officers can dig out; people like Olomu, people like Kunle Oloyede, people like Ejibunu.
“My fear is that the powers that be do not allow these officers to come in, it’s not only happening in customs, even in political service. That is why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu knows the right people to help him generate revenue, and he is putting them in those places to function without minding because some people know the secret of breakthrough in politics.
“But the moment the right people step legs into the right places, spoilers will emerge. So it is everywhere, the spoilers would not allow the real performers the chance to perform. That is why they don’t want the rescue mission of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to work out”.
