Awards are rewards for service conferred on individuals, corporates or group of persons. A decoration that commemorates their service to humanity, nations, organisations, et al. The Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, got one of such awards on Saturday, July 6, 2024. A special award, a Presidential diadem.

He was garlanded with the Outstanding Revenue Collection Award at the Nigeria Excellence Award in Public Service (NEAPS) by President Bola Tinubu. Adeniyi is no stranger to awards. In May, this year, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, he was presented an award of excellence for his 100 days of impactful PR at the 2024 SABRE African Public Relations Association (APRA) Awards. The SABRE awards, instituted in 2017, recognises excellence in public relations, active engagement, credibility and relationship building. The award testifies to his leadership skills at the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, where he has used effective public relations, innovative thinking and good corporate governance to engage not just the staffers of the NCS for greater efficiency but also the various publics that interface with the NCS to engender higher productivity and probity in the revenue management value chain as well as boost trade competitiveness for Nigeria in the global trade ecosystem.

But among these awards to his belt, I wager that Adeniyi would value the Presidential Award as top of the pack. Not just because it recognises his efforts at the NCS in the area of revenue collection, but because it came from the President himself. President Tinubu is a good head-hunter. He knows moments of high and low economic tide. He’s a man fiscally aware of the duties of revenue-generating agencies especially in a season of economic stasis such as we have now. For Adeniyi to have won the heart of President Tinubu speaks volumes of the structural and strategic engineering he has achieved at the Customs since June 19, 2023 when he was appointed the CG of Customs, then in acting capacity.

Adeniyi stands on the threshold of history as the first CGC since the signing of the Nigeria Customs Bill into an Act of Parliament. A week before handing over power to President Tinubu, then President Muhammadu Buhari had assented to the Nigeria Customs Act, an amendment of the old law for the first time in over 64 years. The Act specifies that appointment of the CGC would no longer be open to non-career persons. The Act empowers the President to appoint a CGC from career-serving officers, provided they hold a rank not lower than that of an Assistant Comptroller General (ACG).

There is a precursor to this amendment. On August 27, 2015, Buhari appointed Hameed Ali, a retired military colonel, as the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs. Ali had no experience in Customs duties. Both from within the NCS and outside, there was both rumpus and resistance against his appointment. Human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, even challenged the appointment in court. The case was thrown out. Ali must stay and serve as CGS, the court ruled. Buhari said he appointed Ali to help fight corruption and improve revenue collection. It remains to be seen if the retired colonel achieved his mandate. But his appointment triggered dissonance within the system. First, Ali refused to recognize Customs uniform as his official attire.

In 2017, he had an altercation with the Senate over his refusal to appear before the lawmakers in Customs uniform. His arrogance was garnished with disdain for the Customs. Ali was simply stubborn and the Customs high echelon merely tolerated his obvious impudence. But whether endorsed by the court or not, the fact was that his appointment was at variance with section 3 of the Official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made on March 25, 2002, wherein it was clearly stated that only those within the rank of Deputy Comptroller General of Customs can be elevated as substantive Comptroller General. This did not give room for appointment of just any person outside the service. But Buhari did, and Ali served. Impunity!

Till this day, his appointment sticks out as a sore spot and a distressing example of one of many instances where the government or agents of government and state actors arbitrarily desecrate the laws of the land without consequence; an elevation of illegality to assume the hue of legality. Adeniyi succeeding Ali therefore marks a departure from arbitrariness and return to law and order at the Customs. He is a Customs insider who once served as the national public relations officer of the Service, the office where he endeared himself to the media, especially. It’s no surprise that in barely one year in office, he has surpassed projections in revenue collection to the acknowledgment of President Tinubu. His appointment unlike that of his predecessor was well received among his colleagues. His focus on welfare of staffers and capacity building has lifted morale. The infusion of technology into the operations of the NCS has not only fostered efficiency but has, in a profound dimension, facilitated import and export management, cutting downtime and injecting more openness in operations.

And if you are wondering why President Tinubu honoured him in the area of revenue collection, consider this: Between June 2023 and May 2024 under his watch, the NCS generated ₦4.49 trillion in revenue, from the ₦2.58 trillion recorded within the same period in the previous year, an impressive revenue jump of N1.9 trillion or 74% growth.

Since his appointment in June last year, there has been sustained increase of 70.13% in average monthly revenue collection compared to the previous year which in monetary value corresponds to an average monthly revenue collection of ₦343 billion, compared to the ₦202 billion monthly average of the previous year. The stats say it all. Adeniyi has positively disrupted operations at the Customs.

He attributes the jump in revenue to the ₦15 billion recovery by the Revenue Review Performance Recovery exercise; ₦2.79 billion recovered from the 90-day window for the regularisation of the documents of uncustomed vehicles; ₦1.5 billion recovered from the decongestion of 1,705 overtime containers and 981 vehicles from the port, among other strategies.

The catalyst, says Adeniyi, is also attributable to the introduction of the Trade Modernisation Project, TMP, a presidential initiative aimed at deepening and widening the scope of operations to make the NCS conform to modern global standards using cutting-edge technologies to power operations. Purpose: Boost revenue generation, deepen legitimate trade and mitigate corruption. Since the launch of TMP, the concession innovation has advanced efficiency and ensured that merit is upheld including the deployment of only competent officers to sensitive posts.

What has happened at the Customs in the last one year is Leadership. Adeniyi did not import personnel from foreign lands to help shore up efficiency and up revenue collection. He used the same Customs personnel. Only, he enhanced their capacity and boosted their morale. He has led them by manifesting the service traits he demands from them. He has proven that effective leadership is not complex. It’s as simple as doing what you want your followers to do. He deserves his Presidential honour. And never again should any government appoint a CGC from anywhere outside the Service. It’s simply abhorrent.

First published in Sunday Sun