Much ado about 2004 Customs ‘promotion’

 The jostle to succeed Dr Nwadialo had actually started even before he mounted the top chair late last year on an acting capacity, andwas confirmed early this year. At the forefront of the campaign, then and now, are some of the so-called young Turks in the service. It had started with the commencement of the […]

 The jostle to succeed Dr Nwadialo had actually started even before he mounted the top chair late last year on an acting capacity, andwas confirmed early this year. At the forefront of the campaign, then and now, are some of the so-called young Turks in the service. It had started with the commencement of the short-lived tenure of the immediate past Comptroller General, Alhaji Ahmed Bello Kojali who held fort for about nine months.

Expectedly, the jostle to clinch the customs top job has generated bad-blood, pitching the contenders against one another, but particularly against a perceived heir apparent, with all manner of ‘weapons’ being used.  And  the traditional ‘weapons’ of  choice for traducers over the ages are, of course, blackmail, lies and more lies.

Clearly, the main target in this covert but fiercely waged battle, against which most of the contenders are aiming their poisoned barb, is Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) Abdullahi Dikko Inde, seen by them as the favourite to succeed Dr Nwadialo.

In their blackmail and lies against ACG Dikko, his traducers have even exhumed the dead and buried upgrading exercise affecting 118 officers carried out in 2004 by the Presidential Implementation Committee on Customs Reforms, and ratified by the Nigerian Customs Service Board. They are also alleging a non-existing consanguinity with the president, which supposedly gives him an unfair advantage. But even more ridiculous is his alleged rapport with smugglers.

Why most of the contenders are uncomfortable with the prospects of ACG Dikko succeeding Dr Nwadialo is neither here nor there. But what is not in doubt is the transparency of the aforementioned upgrading exercise carried out to fill up an existing vacuum in the service, resulting as a consequence of the impending retirements and resignations. Other lies against him are just as nonsensical.

On the 25th of March, 2004, the then CGC J. G. Buba wrote three separate letters to the Presidential Committee on Customs Reforms requesting for approval to uplift some officers  from various cadres of the service.

The first letter, with reference number NCS/ADM/MGT/018/S.9/C, requested for the “approval and uplifting of some officers to the rank of Comptrollers”. The “special” request was in respect of 15 officers.

The second letter, also a special request with the same reference number as in the first, sought approval for the “upliftment of some diligent officers from Assistant Comptroller to Deputy Comptroller rank”. The request was in respect of 29 officers.

The third letter, with similar reference number, requested “for the upliftment of some diligent officers to the next rank”. There were 89 officers recommended.

In all, there were 133 names recommended for the promotion out of which approval was given for 118. The upliftment was therefore effected and dully endorsed by the Nigerian Customs Service Board.

To be sure, upliftment in the public sector is nothing new as it had been done elsewhere many times without attracting undue attention. Indeed, it is a common practice especially in the military, the police force and other paramilitary organisations in the country.

Some of the prominent cases of upliftment in the military include those affecting former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, who was moved from the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel to Major General and later to full General; the late Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Momammed, who was moved from Brigadier-General to full General; former Head of State and immediate past President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who was moved from Brigadier-General to Lieutenant General and the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’adua who was moved from Lieutenant Colonel to Brigadier-General.

Similar exercises in the Police Force included those affecting one-time Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Aliyu Attah, who was moved from Assistant Inspector General of Police to Inspector General; the former Inspector General of Police, Mr Tafa Bologun, was moved from Assistant Inspector General of Police to Inspector General; the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Sir Mike Mbama Okiro, who was moved from Commissioner of Police to Deputy Inspector General and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Chief Parry Osayande, who, while serving in the  police force, was moved from Commissioner of Police to Deputy Inspector General.

But more importantly, in the Customs Service, Retired Comptroller General Mr. A. Mustafa was first moved from Deputy Comptroller to Assistant Comptroller General and then to Comptroller General of Customs. Ditto Retired Comptroller General Elder J. G. Buba who was also moved from the rank of Deputy Comptroller to Assistant Comptroller General and then to Comptroller General. The immediate past two Comptrollers General were moved from Assistant Comptroller General to Comptroller General. Such exercises were not limited to the top hierarchy of the service as is seen in the 2004 upgrading. The practice is by no means limited to the top echelon of the service; it is all encompassing.

It is unfortunate that an otherwise innocent exercise transparently conducted is being unnecessarily politicised for reasons that are anything but patriotic by people who lack the moral right to be crying wolf where none exists.

Jikamshi writes from Isa Kaita College of Education, Dutsinma, Katsina State