Comptroller Frank Onyeka, the Customs Area Controller (CAC) at the Tincan Island Port Command, Apapa, Lagos chooses to make the media his close ally in his pursuit of the mandates of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at the Command he oversees
By Innocent Chukwu
Comptroller Frank Onyeka is an unusual Customs chief. He comes with visible suave, and radiates passion and enthusiasm. He never tolerates any dull moments, as he carries on his duties in a manner that depicts absolute loyalty and patriotism.
Friendly, jovial and charismatic, Onyeka embodies leadership trend of the 21st century which helps him achieve incredible results where others failed. He came to Tincan as the Customs Area Controller (CAC) when the trading community was yearning earnestly for real leadership change that could impact their businesses positively.
At the time of his taking over, disenchantment and frustration were visibly written on the faces of most stakeholders of the command who bemoaned their ordeal under the leadership Onyeka inherited. Then, not a few importers had begun to move away their imports from the Tincan Island Sea Port due to what they described as leadership failure.
The decision of these importers to divert their cargoes to other ports began to take a negative effect on the revenue generation of the Tincan Island Customs. At that point, Onyeka came to the rescue. Tincan Island Port now wears a new look with runaway importers returning in droves.
Comptroller Onyeka does not want to work in isolation, he makes his achievements known to the various publics interested in the activities of the Customs, including the media. Hence, when he invited journalists to a lunch on Friday, June 20, 2025, it was not the usual press conference as often replete in most Customs Area Commands spread across the country.
Rather, it was time to say a big ‘thank you!’ to the journalists from across the numerous beat associations whom he described as ‘partners in progress that has been my driving force to success’ since he assumed office at the command, barely six months ago.
It was a serene atmosphere when the invited guests-journalists trooped into the conference room of the Command, jokes were cracked, and banters thrown in observance of the host’s declaration of the event as an ‘informal gathering of friends across a launch table’.
Onyeka had insisted that the lunch was not cut out for news gathering, yet his many years of interaction with journalists must have informed him that he could not host such events with the media without giving them a piece of their primary responsibility as newsmen. And what better contemporary issues in the Customs parlance could have come in handy than the Customs recently introduced trade facilitation module codenamed, B’Odogwu.
While describing the B’Odogwu as a home grown Customs innovation, Comptroller Onyeka said the module which was launched recently across the nation’s strategic customs formations by the Controller General, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, was an unprecedented move in providing solutions to contemporary issues militating against cargo deliveries at the ports, just as the novel media launch time signalled a new era of transparency and media engagement within the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Interestingly, the event marked the first time in the history of the Command that such an informal engagement with the media was organised for a sitting CAC to entertain members of the fourth estate of the realm.
During the lunch, Comptroller Onyeka expressed gratitude for the support he has received from the media since assuming office early this year as a Deputy Comptroller before he was promoted to the rank of a Comptroller, a rare feat in the Command’s tradition which has mostly witnessed the posting of a fully ranked Controller of Customs to man the command.
The B’Odogwu, Onyeka said was a locally engineered response to the inefficiencies of the NICIS platform, noting that it was conceived, developed, and managed entirely by the Nigerian Customs ICT professionals without foreign input.
Onyeka also said that the “B’Odogwu was a deliberate formation whereby we are addressing issues before they even arise. It’s not perfect, but we’ve solved over 90 per cent of the problems we inherited.”
The Project Manager of B’Odogwu and Assistant Comptroller Abbas Oyindamola, who joined Onyeka in addressing the media, emphasised that the new platform would provide real-time solutions to trade-related bottlenecks and help reduce delays that lead to demurrage charges at terminals.
‘The narrative that every delay at the port is caused by Customs is no longer tenable. B’Odogwu enables faster processing, transparency, and accountability. Our ICT unit is fully involved, and our officers have embraced this digital transformation’, Abbas added.
