The sweeping political reforms spearheaded last week by the Presidency may extend to the Customs and extra-ministerial heads this week as President Goodluck Jonathan firms up his build-up to the 2015 elections.
Sources said President Jonanthan may ask the incumbent Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (CNS), Alhaji Abdlullahi Dikko Inde, to step down this week, a follow-up to the retirements and promotions in the top hierarchy of the CNS last week. This is part of new plans for the Jonathan leadership to use 2014 as a “last opportunity” to make impressive mark on the polity and win back the confidence of Nigerians. The “total shake-up,” the sources said, would also affect the president’s personal aides, ministers and some head of inter-ministerial organizations.
The Presidency last week ratified the retirement of three DCGs in the CNS: Alhaji Garba Markarfi, Yinusa Saka and M.D. Jatau, who before his compulsory retirement headed the Pre-Arrival Assessment (PAAR) unit of the service. The retired officers have between one and two years to officially retire from the service.
It was also gathered that five new DCGs were appointed in place of the sacked ones, including Mr. Austin Nwosu, Gabriel Aliu, Ibrahim Merah, Adewuyi and Musa Tahir, who was before now Assistant Comptroller General (ACG), in charge of the headquarters. The Government has also approved the elevation of seven Comptrollers to the rank of ACG and they include: Mr. Austin Warikoru, Mallam Bello Liman, Dan Ugo, Mohammed Mr. A.A. Dosunmu, Mrs. Ifere and Mr. N. Okoli, who was once the area controller in charge of Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, Lagos command of the service.
Expectedly, the incumbent CGC, Alhaji Dikko Inde, whose term of four years expired in August last year, is mounting pressures to extend his stay even as the Board of Customs chaired by the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, insisted on due process in the running of the nation’s cash cow and has recommended the next highest ranking officer in accordance to its rules and regulations.
A source in the Presidency said that President Jonathan is determined to follow due process and has implicit confidence in the resolutions of the board and that Dikko’s extended stay till December 2013 was to ensure smooth transition in the new operational plans of the Customs, especially its new policy destination inspections.
In the past couple of years, the NCS has been heavily politicized as merit has been thrown overboard. Since the exit of Brigadier General Samuel Ango as the Sole Administrator in 1999, the Nigeria Customs Service has always had succession-related rancour. In 1999, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu Mustapha emerged as the CGC of Customs shortly before the return to democracy, followed by Buba Gyang. After Buba, there was Mr. David Ogungbemile, the only Yoruba man to have ever come near the position of a CG. However, it was only in acting capacity to pave the way for Dr Bernard Shaw Nwadialor who spent the greater part of his term as the Customs boss to celebrate his record as the first Igbo CG of Customs. After Nwadialor, came Hamman Bello, who emerged out of the blues as the substantive Customs boss. Next was the appointment of Alhaji Abdulahi Dikko Inde as the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, on August 18, 2009, by late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Dikko’s four-year tenure ended last August.
The Presidency is towing the line of the Board of Customs, which believes extending Dikko’s stay would not add any value to the institution’s sweeping financial reforms. The government in February last year had to compel the management of Customs to introduce new benchmark which it later suspended. Inefficiency and corruption in the NCS, which have also attracted the attention of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, have become worrisome to the government. Besides, there havebeen mounting pressures by stakeholders to allow merit and professionalism in the appointment and promotion in the Customs “as the government thinks leadership of the important agency should not be the birthright of a particular section of the country.”
In revenue terms, the CNS is the second highest revenue source aside from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), but the CNS in the past five years has fallen short of government’s expectations, making just N3.508 trillion during the period.
President Jonathan is expected to use the last lap of his first term to convince Nigerians of his readiness to turn the economy around. Apart from the CNS overhaul, Presidency sources confirm at the weekend that after the National Assembly has ratified his ministerial nominees this week, the president will overhaul the ministers and their portfolios and give them new benchmarks.
The president last week also retired military service chiefs and immediately announced new appointees which would be confirmed by the National Assembly this week.
Credit: Daily Newswatch