By: B. Elums
As the two years in office celebration of Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Bashir Adewale Adeniyi commences, Nigerians and maritime stakeholders have continued to extend their goodwill messages and accolades to the number one citizen of one of the revenue generating agencies in the country.
CG Bashir A Adeniyi
Speaking in an interview with Nigerian MomentumNews Online & Magazine in PortHarcourt, the Rivers State capital, Mr. Chidera Oganuzor, the MD/CEO, Odest Global Resources Limited, described CG Bashir Adewale Adeniyi as a God-sent to the Nigeria Customs Service, particularly at this point in time.
According to him: “Sometimes, good things happens to good people for good reasons. The appointment of CGC Bashir Adewale Adeniyi is like a round peg in a round hole. His appointment was well deserved, and still well deserved. He is coming from a background I don’t think any CG has emerged from, I mean through his background. He is a PRO per excellence. He emerged as a PRO, therefore, public relations is not a challenge to him. So, he knows how to interact and how to navigate.
“Even in ensuring that Customs and other agencies have a cordial relationship, is never a problem to him. He is also a teacher in the Nigeria Customs Service and somebody that is coming from SR and P. So, when you marry all these things together, you will know that he has a lot of experience in the Nigeria Customs Service.
Mr. Chidera Oganuzor
‘So, interacting with sister agencies and even the agents, who are the main stakeholders, because we are like the cow, where the milk comes from. We feed the Federal Government, through the Treasury Single Account.
So, relating with agents and other stakeholders is not a problem to him, because there is a way you will say something to somebody and the person will see it as a command, and there also a way you will say that same thing to the person, and the person, even the agents, will be made to understand where they are going and why you should align with the vision.
“That makes it easy for them to have this robust revenue generation without making any noise about it, because he knows how to interact. So, I think he is a God-sent to Nigeria Customs Service, especially at this point in time.
“So far, so good, I thank God for helping him, and also pray that he will guide and continue to protect, preserve and give him more clear vision to navigate in his service to his motherland,” Mr. Oganuzor stated.
On the journey so far, as the MD/CEO of Odest Bonded Terminals, Mr. Oganuzor lauded the support and prayer of the then CAC of Onne Area II Command, Mr. Auwal Mohammed, who is now a DCG and one that commissioned Odest Bonded Terminal in the month of November, 2022 precisely.
He further thanked the former CAC of Onne Area II Command, Mr. Imam Baba, for consolidating and supporting the then effort of Mr. Auwal Mohammed, as well as the support of the current CAC of Onne Area II Command, Mr. Mohammed Babandede, whom he described as an eloquent Comptroller.
He further opined that Odest Bonded Terminal is the highest, if not one of the highest revenue generating bonded terminals within Onne Area II Customs Command, adding that the management’s decision to operate in accordance with the world international standards best practices and in line with CGC’s policy and directive of Onne Area II CAC, Mohammed Babandede on transparency and ease of doing business, among others; has placed them on a pedestal of growth and excellence.
On the importation and seizures of illicit drugs, as witnessed at Onne and Ikeja Area Commands, among others, Mr. Oganuzor stated that his management made it a policy, not to clear any container that has pharmaceutical products, even when the importer has the required or certified documents for the cargo.
He went further to disclose that people have known them for that policy from inception, adding that there is a designated area for the cleaning of pharmaceutical products, and his contentment with whatever little profit he is getting at the end of the day.
On the insinuations that bonded terminal operators have taken the cleaning job from agents, Mr. Oganuzor was of the view that before the emergency of bonded terminals at Onne Command, Area I, Imo/Abia Command, among others; that it has already been existing in Lagos, in large numbers.
He maintained that the main reason why Customs allowed ownership of bonded terminals is to ensure ease of doing business and revenue generation, pointing out that the decision is left for the importer or agent to decide on where he wants to do his business. Either at a bonded terminal or to use the conventional port, as witnessed across developed world.
He equally used the medium to commend Customs officers at Odest Bonded Terminals for knowing when to carry out their job professionally and when to relate with stakeholders, as human beings.
Responding on the recently proposed E-callup exercise by Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mr. Oganuzor emphasised that they are monitoring the exercise, while speaking on the need to improve on what is already on ground than to compound the already existing challenges, that will led to congestion and littering of trucks at the port.
He further maintained that both the Customs B’Odogwu and the E-callup Systems are laudable initiatives that needs to be supported, but called for individual stakeholders engagements, particularly those in the meantime industry, before commencement of the proposed projects.
