Award: Maritime Journalists Conclude Arrangement To Honour Adeniyi, Comptroller General Of Customs, January 16, 2025

By Our Reporter

The urge to honour Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs, NCS, as ‘’the Iconic Maritime Personality of the year 2024’’.  appears to have brought the Leadership of the different Associations of Maritime Journalism together to brainstorm on how to go about it.

They are Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria, MARAN, League of Maritime Editors, popular, LOME, Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria, ANJON, Maritime Journalists of Nigeria, MAJAN, Shipping Corresponds Association of Nigeria, SCAN, Online Maritime Media Association of Nigeria, OMMAN, and Progress of Media Practioners, NMMEP.

Recall that Rotimi Amaechi, a former minister of Transportation, during Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration and a -one time governor of Rivers state was said to have made attempts to united the Lagos Maritime Journalists including using the Maritime agencies Chief Executive Officers, CEO, to force the various Maritime Journalists to unite but failed.

As a prelude to getting the project off the ground, for weeks the Representatives of the various Maritime Associations were said to have met behind closed doors to hold meetings at various times for  the important event slated for Thursday, January 16, 2025. Members of the various Maritime Associations  who were said to have weighed  what had been achieved by the athletic-built Customs Comptroller General  over the last one year, particular, in the areas of the service improved revenue collection, as the Commands struggle to meet their revenue targets, anti-smuggling operations, , trade Facilitation  which was said to have improved the volume of cargoes coming into the nation’s seaport, and national security as illegal importation of arms and ammunition into the country through the nation’s seaports and International airports have been completely checkmated that the gunrunners have gone underground  for fear of playing into the no nonsense Customs Comptroller General’s hand to be prosecuted in a  competent Court of Law.

Besides leaving a legacy in implementing the service core mandate of revenue generation, enforcement and trade facilitation, the Custos Comptroller General may have also won the heart of the Maritime Journalists to be honoured because of his policy in improving the Welfare of officers and Men of the service, as obtained in other security agencies, upgraded the service Infrastructural Facilities both at the Headquarters, Zonal and Commands levels, which had been neglected over the years. 

He was said to have also improved the Command Information, Communication Technology, ICT, currently being handled by the Asian country of China based Hawei Information and Technology company located in the city of  Schenzhen  and Corporate Social Responsibility , which may have endeared him to the Maritime Journalists to be considered for such a prestigious award.

He was said to have also taken to another level inter-agency Collaboration that other security agencies, particular, the Nigerian Army, under the close watch of Lt. Gen. Olufemi Oloyede, Nigerian Police Force, NPF,  which has Kayode Egbetokun, as the Inspector General of Police, Department of Security, DSS and Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Operatives are ready to support the service  to achieve its mandate in checkmating the activities of smugglers and fraudulent activities at the port.

He was said to have made the Area Controllers at the country seaports, airports and Land border stations to imbibe the culture of inter-agency  Collaboration which was said to have taken the service to another level. From Apapa, Tincan Island, Port Multi-services Terminal Limited, PTML, Murtala Mohammed airport, Ogun I, Oyo /Osun Command, to Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone B, Kaduna, the story is the same: improved inter-agency collaboration.

The Customs Comptroller General could stabilize activities at the nation’s seaports and land border stations , across the country devoid of competition wither agencies because he had made it clear from the onset to pursue a three- point agenda: Collaboration , Innovation and Consolidation , which the Maritime Journalists who had followed  up  its implementation  over the years had considered remarkable as it had taken the service to another level that had been recognized both locally and internationally. The impressive performance of the Customs Comptroller General in the area of revenue Generation was said to have been recognized by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Wale Edun, minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economy.

Nuhu Ribadu, a Former Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and now National Security Adviser, to President Tinubu, may have thrown his weight on him because of his impressive performance to show that the Tinubu’s Administration are very much appreciative of the various reforms he brought into the service.

Until the Maritime Journalists took the bold initiative to honour the Customs Comptroller General, this time around, the Leadership Newspaper Group, which had taken a closer look at his impressive performance in office that it had honoured with the award of the ‘’Public Service Personality of the year, 2024’’ as a way to force other Chief Executives of Federal Government owned Agencies and Parastatals to sit up

In taking the decision to honour the Customs Comptroller General, the Award planning Committee, under the Chairmanship of Dele Aderibigbe, who incidentally is the founder of OMMAN, had said that ‘’the Maritime Journalists is set to set an agenda for other government agencies and parastatals and their appointees, particular, those in the nation’s maritime industry including the NCS, at all levels, that the ever vibrant and dogged Maritime Media are watching them’’.

Given  the Customs Comptroller General has been  absence from the country may have informed why the Committee had delayed  the event  to, January 16, 2025, at the Apapa Command Auditorium at 12 noon prompt.

Being the first of its kind where Maritime Journalists had come together to work as a united body for a common cause should encourage the CEOs and top officials of other Maritime agencies and Parastatals to be at the great event. 

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