The leadership transition process going on within the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) arouses bickering and murmurs due to clashing interests, even as President Bola Tinubu backs the formation of new management by the 2009 set of Deputy Comptrollers
By Innocent Chukwu
Except President Bola Tinubu acts fast to arrest the brewing crisis within the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) over its lingering leadership transition issues, many analysts predict that the nation’s economy may run into some hitches. Their prediction is not unconnected with the fact that the agency is the second largest revenue earner for the country after the oil and gas sector.
The current leadership succession issues at the NCS had been predicted due to the inability of the Service to recruit officers between 1992 and 2008, a period of about 17 years. However, it absorbed some individuals who represented the Service in sporting activities in 1994, 1995 and 1997. These individuals are considered not capable of running the affairs of the Customs due to the circumstances surrounding their adoption as officers, including the limited level they can attain in promotion.
Until 2009 when the Service commenced normal recruitment, its old-generation officers are now due for retirement en-mass till January 2027. The current management of the Service has put some measures to ensure a seamless leadership transition, however many watchers of Customs events have warned that Tinubu needs to step up action to avoid destabilizing the system when the Dr Wale Adeniyi management expires February 2027.
Background
When President Tinubu extended the second time the reign of Adeniyi as the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), it was revealed that he had specified in the extension letter that the 2009 set of senior officers who had risen to the rank of Deputy Comptrollers (DCs) should be prepared for the takeover of the management after Adeniyi who will exit the job in February 2027.
Upon the instruction, Chairman of the Committee on Customs in the House of Representatives, Leke Abejide, had rallied round some powerful individuals in government who wield influence on the President, and convinced him to approve his alleged cousin, DC H Olorunfemi, as the next CGC after Adeniyi without carrying the latter and others along. Olorunfemi, a 2009 intake, is currently the Officer-in-Charge (O/C) of the Export Seat at the Onne Area Command, Rivers State.
The Honourable Abejide coup collapsed because there was stiff opposition to his choice which did not align with the choice of the Customs Management. Though Olorunfemi was dropped, he is still so much in contest for Adeniyi’s replacement.
Petitioners had raised the alarm that Civil Service Rule prescribed that DCs will spend four years on the rank before their elevation. Former CGC Hameed Ali had sought and obtained a waiver from Tinubu for the new-generation officers to be elevated after two years on a particular rank. The waiver made it possible for the Olorunfemi and others to be promoted to the rank of DC last December.
But defending why he convinced Tinubu to appoint Olorunfemi as CGC in waiting, Abejide said that there was no forced retirement of officers, no senior officer bypassed; Olorunfemi’s appointment as Customs CG after Adeniyi’s six-month transitional tenure is lawful, it closes the 16-year generational gap without further extension, while over 1,500 officers from sets 41000—43000 will retire statutorily under CSR 100238, insisting that claims of family ties with Olorunfemi were false.
Abejide: “Nigerian people should know that the Nigeria Customs is challenged. They have 16 years of generational gap. The current DCs of 2009 set is the set that will take over from the current CGC without anybody being compulsorily retired, because they have attained the age of 35 years in service or 60 years of age.
“So, it is not by compulsion, it is by law, the Civil Service Rule says that. By thinking that if they pick anyone of them (as CGC) they will all be retired, there’s nothing as such.
“The truth of the matter is, Customs are challenged-for 16 years there was no recruitment-16 years gap between those who are currently full Comptrollers 41000 number, 42000 number, 43000 number.
“It means all of them now are of the same age and same service years; they’re all going at the same time. You see, among all these ones, without anybody saying anything, by September (2026), none of them will remain in the Service.
“Secondly, I have no relationship with the person the President appointed (DC Olorunfemi) to take over from the current CG. In fact, as a matter of fact, his name is here. I don’t know his parents. He has never been anytime close to me.
“And I have worked with Customs for 34 years, but I have never met him until this year (2026). We’re doing things to make the Service to be stable, and close the generational gap. That’s what the President prefers, to close the 16 years gap.
“The only way to close the gap is to pick one of them from the 2009 set which is what the President has done.
“After them, no any other number. Customs work with number. 41000 number, they’re all going, 42000 number, they’re all going, 43000 number, they’re all going. The next number is 44000 which is the 2009. This is what Customs are made up of. That is the correct information”.
The Abuja and Casablanca Training
In preparation for DCs to succeed the Adeniyi-led management, 30 DCs of the 2009 intake were taken to the Customs Command and Staff College in Gwagwalada Abuja for training. From those DCs 26 would be chosen to form the next management. But the CGC was to increase the number to 50, including a few of the 2012 DCs who got special promotion and working directly with the CGC.
These 50 DCs were taken to Casablanca in Morocco for another round of training preparing them for the management role. But some serving management officers criticized the training as unnecessary waste of funds and duplication.
A credible source who claimed the Morocco training was a waste of resources said, “The 150 (?) DCs that were taken to Morocco for the three days training have since come back but the irony of the training is that the same Resource Persons that trained the same DCs at the Command and Staff College Gwagwalada with the Training Facilitator, are the same people that went to Morocco to do similar training, the difference is just a change of venue.
“Also, the same Certificate that was issued to every participant at Customs Colleges at Gwagwalada and Lagos, was issued to the participants at Morocco and the same Facilitator, a Nigerian, signed all the Certificates, both that of local and that of Morocco.
“This is where it called for the rationale behind the jamboree trips. It’s pertinent to state that if the trips were sponsored by NCS ICT Consultants, is it not a foundation of corruption being laid, to co-opt the DCs being trained to take over?”
Investigation revealed that before the last meeting of the Customs Board, the CGC had planned to recommend the 26 management officers and others to be Promoted to Comptrollers to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, for approval, including the few 2012 set of DCs who got special promotion working directly with his office without the consent of other management officers. According to investigation, some of the management officers who have the ears of the minister had divulged the plan to him before the said meeting of the Board.
At the meeting, the CGC, it was learnt, and other senior officers in the management team were singing discordant tunes in convincing Oyedele on the modalities to choose officers for promotion. It was gathered that the minister had frowned at the disagreement, promoting him to insist that all DCs, including the CGC’s 2012 set of DCs and the old-generation DCs would sit for a promotion examination, after which whoever performed credibly would be chosen to be promoted to the rank of Comptroller and onward to Assistant Comptroller General (ACG), Deputy Controller General (DCG) and one officer among them chosen to occupy the CGC seat.
The decision of Oyedele for the Service to conduct promotion examination for all DCs is alleged to have negated President Tinubu’s specific instruction that only the 2009 set of DCs should take over the management role after Adeniyi’s management expires next February as was said to have been specifically noted in the six months extension letter which President Tinubu gave to the CGC. Sources said if there was no bickering within the system, there would have been a seamless leadership transition devoid of the stress of promotion examination.
It is alleged that some officers have begun to panic due to the perception that the promotion examination may not be fair due to vested interests which can deprive some DCs who may perform credibly the opportunity to be promoted to Comptroller rank, while those that have backing but not intelligent enough to scale through the examination would be promoted.
Another lacuna occurred, which is that the DCs are not ripe for the next promotion since they needed to have spent four years on the rank of DC before promotion to Comptroller rank. Sources volunteered that Oyedele had suggested that the retiring management officers and Comptrollers should have their service years extended for one or two years to allow the DCs mature for promotion, a suggestion that did not sink well with the CGC. Thus, Oyedele had to settle for general promotion examination for all DCs. It was revealed to this medium that Oyedele had also promised to obtain a one year waiver from President Tinubu for the DCs who will emerge successful through the examination to be promoted upwards.
Mgt Officers Seek Extension
Precisely on September 25, 2026, not less than 10 ACGs will be leaving the Service on retirement. By January 2027, all the old-generation Comptrollers and DCGs will retire, leaving the NCS in the hands of the 1994, 1995 and 1997 officers who joined the Service through sports, and one female general duty officer from the South east (names withheld), as the most senior officers.
But the retiring management officers, investigation revealed, are pushing hard for the extension of their Service years for one or two years, and make one of them the next CGC. They hinged their argument on the two times extension given to the incumbent CGC and the claim that the upcoming DCs need more experience to graduate to the management cadre.
Investigation revealed also that the management officers seeking service extension are calling on the President to replicate the change of batten in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), in the NCS. President Tinubu had replaced Kayode Egbetokun with Tunji Disu as Inspector General (IGP) without allowing the former to complete another four years tenure. But what is striking is that Adeniyi has less than five months to complete his last six months extension, and his admirers said he is leading the Service in the right direction. Whether there will be extension for the retiring management officers or not remains the prerogative of the President.
Vacant Mgt Offices
At present, the offices of DCGs SR&P and HRD are vacant since the last occupants retired. Similarly, the office of ACG Zone D remains vacant since its last occupant retired. As another 10 or 12 ACGs will be retiring this month, their offices may remain vacant because this medium gathered that the CGC is not disposed to appointing new ACGs and DCGs who would spend few weeks and months before their retirement and attract huge retirement benefits cost to the NCS. Given this disposition, there may be just a few DCGs and no ACGs to run the NCS affairs between now and February next year when Adeniyi is expected to quit.
But retiring management officers have latched on the impending vacuum to continue to lobby the President and Oyedele to consider their extension plea in order to preserve and sustain the progress of the Service, as well as to forestall the collapse of any of its Units and Departments.
The CGC Seat’s Lobby
In the meantime, retired management officers have, on their part, intensified efforts to lobby the presidency to appoint their candidates as the next CGC. Tentacle gathered that the retired Customs Chiefs are passionately marketing their candidates before those who have influence on Tinubu and Oyedele, including Abejide’s Olorunfemi.
What is not certain yet, is the region where Adeniyi’s successor will come from. Although the permutation at present favours the South west which is the region of President Tinubu, analysts have said that the winner of the presidential election of 2027 may sustain or alter the permutation. If Tinubu wins, surely, they believe, the South west will produce the next CGC. But in the event any of the frontline opponents emerge victorious, Adeniyi’s successor may come from another region.
As days go by, it is important to note that the next meeting of the Customs Board will hold on September 26, 2026, one day after the ACGs would have retired. For now, it is not yet known if their wish to remain in the service beyond their retirement date would be granted by the Chairman of the Board, Oyedele who would forward the recommendation to President Tinubu for approval.
Their major setback in this pursuit is that, based on credible investigation, Dr. Adeniyi is alleged to have vowed to resist the approval because the ACGs vehemently opposed his planned leadership transition program before the Minister. The CGC’s plan, if it had sailed through, would have seen the chosen DCs for the next management promoted without subjecting them to rigorous tests since many of them are already acting Comptrollers which is an exalted office that requires no examination to be lifted to substantive Comptroller rank and onward to ACGs.
Efforts to obtain Customs reaction to the story failed as the National Public Relations Officer (NPRO) was out of town when Tentacle’s correspondent visited his office last week.
