The newly appointed Acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi, has assumed office.
Adeniyi took over on Monday, from Hameed Ali, the immediate ex-comptroller-general of customs, appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
The Acting Comptroller-General was among those appointed last week by President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking during the ceremony on Monday, Adewale said he would build on the “solid foundation” laid by Ali.
Adewale said:“Senior officers would have noticed that Hameed Ali has remarkably transformed (customs) within the seven years that he was here,” he said.
“During our meetings, such as this, when he came in 2015, and because of the kind of background that he has, he considered us as ‘you’. Today, he made several references that he is part of us, he used the word family about three times. He came in as a retired colonel but he is going out as a customs officer.
“I want to say you have discharged your responsibility to the best of your knowledge. Sometimes we feel that you are not compromising, sometimes people think the military background takes more of you. There is nobody that can take away the fact that you are a firm leader.
“We also appreciate your vision. What is left for us to do is to build on the solid foundation you have prepared for us and consolidate on some of those programmes (you put in place).”
Before the event, Adewale was decorated with his new rank at the presidential villa by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
While expressing hope that Adeniyi will bring professionalism to the service, the VP urged other personnel to aspire to the zenith of their profession.
Describing the appointment as a morale booster for officers in the service, the Vice President said, “Congratulations for bringing professionalism back to the Nigerian Customs Service. Now, every Customs officer can aspire to occupy the pinnacle of his or her profession.
“I wish you well, on behalf of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Congratulations, once again.”
Speaking to journalists shortly after the decoration ceremony, Adeniyi expressed gratitude to the President for appointing a serving officer as the head of the agency, assuring him and Nigerians of a more effective and innovation-driven Customs service.
He said in the last eight years, the Nigeria Customs Service had gone through a period of transition.
“In some areas, we recorded progress;- we made remarkable progress in e-Customs; we made a lot of breakthroughs in capacity building.
“But the Customs service can still live up to its full potentials when we bring in more innovation to drive Customs operations.
“These are the kind of things we are looking at in the years ahead,” Adeniyi explained.
He said, on his watch, the Customs service would be professional in its approach and would collaborate with key stakeholders to maintain high standards of operations.
