The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) honours its vibrant and youthful officers for their exceptional dedication and patriotism
By Innocent Chukwu
Indeed, they come with unusual suave, patriotism, and determination to make impact and usher in positive changes in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). In the past one and a half decade ago when they and their likes enlisted in the NCS, they have proved that there are born and gifted leaders, there are also made leaders. Yet, a combination of natural leadership endowment and character development through hard work produces a masterpiece in public leadership.
Thus, Deputy Comptrollers (DCs) of Customs NI Miko, OO Afeni and Abdullahi Maiwada, have become a symbol of the modernised NCS. Any wonder they stole the show at the just concluded NCS Comptroller General’s Conference held in Abuja in November 2025? They were duly identified, commended and bestowed with awards of honour by the NCS management in recognition of their contributions to lift the Service to occupy a notable place in the comity of world Customs Services.
Maiwada was also honoured with a one-step promotion which has elevated him to the rank of a DC.
The NCS National image maker, Maiwada, has worked hard to elevate and promote Nigeria Customs Media Relations and public interface to all time high, most cordial and most effective in the history of the Service, ostensibly outperforming the best of his predecessors since 1999 when the country embraced the nascent democracy.
In fact, under the current management of the Nigeria Customs headed by Dr Adewale Adeniyi, the Service has contended with numerous image-denting issues which could have affected its public perception negatively.
But Maiwada deployed uncommon Public Relations prowess to help the NCS navigate through these crises without attracting negative media attention. Many stakeholders attributed his Public Relations expertise to academic studies, while others stressed that Maiwada is naturally gifted with leadership potential which he has nurtured through years of training, experience and inner resolve to achieve leadership excellence in his chosen career.
Miko is a revenue expert whose knowledge of lost revenue recovery is second to none in the rebranded Nigeria Customs. It is being said that DC Miko learned financial management from infancy as a result of his family background. According to genealogy, Miko’s business mogul patriarch had instilled financial discipline in the family bloodline when he would introduce his offspring to one line of business or the other before they would choose their career path.
For this reason, having found himself in public finance management in Customs, Miko has always ensured that government revenue must not be cornered, he has also worked assiduously to recover revenues lost to the business community. Available record indicates that in a matter of weeks, Miko’s Revenue Office at the Apapa Area Command recovered over N200 billion lost revenue which would have entered private pockets.
It is this kind of revenue recovery that earned DC Miko the enviable performance award at the CGC’s Conference. In the Service today, Miko’s listening ear is infectious and commands respect. His exalted office, youthful exuberance and position in the NCS do not change his personal relationship with the business community who have formed a cult of followership around him. Miko deploys diplomacy and friendliness to convince the public who throng his office daily to transact their business.
Afeni’s background is said to be elitist, and he conducts himself along that track. Three phenomena define elitism-education, wealth and influence. DC Afeni is said to be in possession of a full dose of these phenomena from his background. Afeni is calm, gentle as he is charming, traits he imbibed from his upbringing. These he has brought to bear in his job as a Customs officer. At the Zone ‘A’ office of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Ikeja Lagos where he serves, DC Afeni is a force to reckon with. Working from the background, he has become indispensable in combating smuggling activities in the South west.
In the near future, the NCS is going to witness a transformation that will make it a model agency, courtesy of the discipline these young, new-generation officers are bringing into the Service.
As the management of the NCS has honoured these vibrant officers, and a few others, with awards of excellent performance and deserved special promotion, the gesture has indicated to the rest officers and men that there is value and reward for hard work, dedication and patriotism in the public service.
