Aniebonam: Choice Management Team, Public Relations Background Responsible for Adeniyi’s Success
WALE ADENIYI
* Advocates customs autonomy
By Francis Ugwoke
As the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, celebrates his one year in office, the Founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has said that his glaring performance in office has been as a result of the choice of a good management team and public relations background.
Aniebonam said that the management team working with Adeniyi since the past one year and his expertise in public relations have played a major part in his success so far.
Speaking to SHIPPING DAY in an exclusive chat on the performance of Adeniyi since he assumed office last year, the NAGAFF founder acknowledged that he has done exceedingly well.
He applauded the Customs boss for doing so great and coming up with a lot of innovations.
He pointed out that Adeniyi has also done well in revenue generation with over N4.1trillion in one year as well as successful anti-smuggling operations.
According to him, what is surprising is that the CG was able to achieve all these with a lot of calmness, adding that he never made noise out of it.
Aniebonam however said the Customs boss should address the common issue of poor server breakdown at the nation’s ports, stating that this has given customs agents doing business at the ports a lot of bottlenecks.
He told SHIPPING DAY, “You know Wale Adeniyi is an image maker and being the Comptroller General of Customs, he has the opportunity to conclude his assignment. A leader generally represents an organisation and I am sure you know that Customs Officers are regarded as first officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, meaning that when you are coming into this country, you are going to need a customs officer and the attention, the way and manner, you are attended to straight away is an impression of where you are entering. And I would want to believe that there is no way anybody can fault the emergence of Wale Adeniyi who has before that time been an image maker of the organisation.
“I have heard many people say that one year is too short to assess any person. I would want to discuss Wale from the point of consolidation of the past leadership in customs, particularly the era of my friend, late Dikko Abdullahi who extensively did so much as far as Customs reform is concerned and today we are talking of customs modernization which is not far from what has been on ground.
“… So if you begin to assess a leader you will be looking at the peace of the society, peace of the environment, where a leader operates. So, industry harmony becomes a very good plus for him for the past one year. I would want to believe that there has been no song of “ I no go gree, I no go gree”, so that is a big plus for him. And I don’t know how one will begin to say anything to the contrary because the background of Wale Adeniyi indicates clearly there is somebody who is an expert in information management and so that is a big plus for him, as somebody who is knowledgeable in information management. I think he read that also, and that to a very large extent is a big plus. This simply means his capacity to respond to issues as they come. What do I mean by that, you know that he is a revenue collector, and it is clearly in the Bible that nobody wants to pay tax. And so if you are a tax collector, definitely you will not believe that everybody is laughing with you because you are making them to pay money. But having been a core officer, he has been able to do a lot in that direction, taking everybody along in time of distress. I can tell you authoritatively that myself, I am in a vintage position, our communication is very high. And his response rate is also very high that brings about peace of the environment. I am talking of the customs areas in the operating environment, in terms of consolidating the gains of the past administration he is doing great and coming up with some other innovations which are related to his perchance for partnership. I am quite very happy when I discover he brought together in the Customs former Comptroller Generals, DCGs, ACGs and giving them a sense of belonging, and then seeking for advice from them which is very good. That has never happened, that is quite innovative, that is highly appreciated because I discovered that over the period once you finish with the customs, you finish with the customs , that is not right. It is not like that in the military, it is not like that in the Police and other para military organisations.
“ So, introducing that in the customs makes one feel good that you have served this country and your alma matta still remembers you.
“Then if you go to the core areas of customs operations, talking about revenue , trade facilitation and of course general welfare of the customs officers, I think he has done tremendously very well. Revenue is quite okay – anti-smuggling operations ongoing. But the most important thing is the quietness, the calmness of doing that without necessarily making a lot of noise out of it. And the way customs is going now is quite interesting because if you are conversant with customs operations, you will be looking at some of their responsibilities noting that it is trade related matter. It is not like somebody who is an armed robber. Offence is related to customs regulations and all that are treated in a manner that is professionally done. Now, let me give you an example of what I am saying, you come to the issue of prohibition, there are categories you have prohibition, absolute prohibition, you have traded goods . Then diving into customs laws there are offences like concealment and false declarations. This is a trade related matter, deploying the customs rules in solving those matter in a more friendly matter – that is Wale Adeniyi for you. That is different from somebody who is diving into categories of absolute prohibition like fire arms, drugs and other no go area goods. But that you bring in products under prohibition list other than trade can be handled with inherent penalty. The law provides for that. These things are some of the things that bring about calmness in the port. Because fiscal policy issues can change a product from prohibition list to prohibition under the trade. Tomorrow, it might be revised to become trade goods.
“So, when customs seizes things like that, the law provides you opportunity on how to handle them. So, looking at the calmness at the port, I think what is the problem at the right now is the issue of server breakdown. The server tends to create bottlenecks in the port. So the peace of the port is quite appreciated and that is what we can look at from the current administration which has done so well to remove those 43 items to unbundle it because that has been the major problem all this time. Because when you don’t allow some of the trade goods go through the normal process of registering them because the import guidelines say every import must go through registration of Form M, if you don’t do that, then the risk management operations may not be so. …So far, so good, Wale is doing very well. I am going to also say that when we talk about Wale Adeniyi in office, he is also blessed with very responsible and responsive officers. For instance, the Deputy Comptroller General Tariff and Trade, I can make a point from my own experience, her perchance to respond to issues – trade dispute just on time. There are other officers, the ICT leadership, you go to the CIU headed by one Comptroller Isah, they are very quite in their job and that on more serious note enhances peace at the ports. So he has a good team. What I have said to you trickles down to the commands, that is why we say generally in Nigeria, the problem has to do with leadership. If you get a good leader, others will fall in line.
On how the Customs should address the perennial server issue, he said, “It is to do away…. you know customs modernization takes care of those issues. We need to be very careful in the customs modernization. The most important thing is whatever arrangement we have now must be able to do the needful. And I think customs is big enough to have its own server, not going through anybody. I think so. There is nothing wrong if they go for that just like the scanner that has been handed over to them. Before now we (NAGAFF) had advocated for partial autonomy for customs operations. And the earlier they do that the better. Just like you have the Police Service Commission. Customs should be partially autonomous so that they can do things on their own”.
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