….as Rep. Leke Joseph Abejide, pushes for the appointment of a Deputy Comptroller I.D. Olorunfemi
Adebayo Obajemu
The battle to succeed Adewale Bashir Adeniyi as Comptroller General of Customs Service is said to have silently begun, and stealthily gathering steam; as there are reports of alleged secret manoeuvres by some interests to push and lobby for a successor.
Adeniyi on his own has recently had double honours – first his tenure was extended by six months to end in February 2027, instead of August this year. Second, he has also secured one year extension of his tenure as chairman of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Council, further strengthening Nigeria’s influence in global Customs administration.
An MFR honourary holder , Adeniyi, according to sources within the agency, has won the heart of Nigerians and even top government officials, who were said to have successfully made a case for his extension of service as an officer, who had worked at a close range with past Comptroller Generals of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, and knew their sources of weakness that he was not ready to fail.
The six-month tenure extension is said to be a subtle way of shielding the Service from potential institutional disruption and preserve the stability that has characterised its ongoing reform agenda, a reform said to have gladdened the heart of President Tinubu.
According to the Presidency, the extension is intended to enable the Customs boss to consolidate the implementation of the National Single Window (NSW) project while ensuring an orderly succession process within the Service.
The extension will also allow Adeniyi, working alongside the NCS Board, to oversee the promotion of deserving officers and the retirement of personnel who have either attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years or completed the statutory 35 years in service.
Extension as Nepotistic
However, indications suggest that the decision may also have been influenced by concerns over alleged attempts by certain interests to influence the succession process within the Service. Every extension has career implications as those who may have been appointed would have retired for the favored candidates. It has happened in the police, military and immigration Service.
Reports indicate that the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise, Hon. Leke Joseph Abejide, alongside retired Deputy Comptrollers-General, Hussein Ejibunu and Olugboyega Peters, allegedly sought to influence the leadership transition in a manner that could have effectively turned the Service into a personal fiefdom and an appendage of the lawmaker.
The alleged plan, according to knowledgeable sources, was to engineer the retirement of senior officers in the ranks of Comptroller, Assistant Comptroller-General (ACG) and Deputy Comptroller-General (DCG), thereby paving the way for the appointment of a serving Deputy Comptroller, I.D. Olorunfemi, as Comptroller-General.
Had such a plan materialised, the Deputy Comptroller in question would reportedly have been elevated directly to the apex position of Comptroller-General, while the retired DCGs would return as Special Advisers on Enforcement and Revenue, respectively.
Beyond its institutional implications, BH findings indicate that such an arrangement would likely have created legal complications. The Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023, stipulates that only officers from the rank of Assistant Comptroller-General are eligible for appointment as Comptroller-General. Any deviation from this provision would amount to a clear breach of the law. But the law maker did not care by breaking the law he made as chairman of House Committee of NCS.
Sources hinted that the alleged attempt to position DC Olorunfemi for the office could have set the Service back by decades. “It would have necessitated the premature exit of experienced and qualified officers, sacrificed on the altar of individual ambition rather than institutional interest”, a source stated.
“It is against this backdrop that the explanation advanced by Hon. Abejide, that the move was intended to address a 16-year generational gap within the Service, appears unconvincing”, the source submitted.
In a video statement and subsequent clarifications, Abejide denied allegations of lobbying and instead framed the matter as an issue of institutional reform.
Generational Gap
According to him, the Customs Service currently faces a 16-year generational gap arising from recruitment freezes and promotion imbalances. He argued that serving Comptrollers with service numbers in the 41,000 to 43,000 bracket belong to the same cohort and are due for statutory retirement by September 2026.
“The current Deputy Controllers from the 2009 set are the officers who will take over from the current Comptroller-General. Without anybody being compulsorily retired because they have attained either 60 years of age or 35 years in service, there is nothing unusual about that,” he said.
Abejide further argued that the retirement of senior officers would occur strictly in accordance with existing Public Service Rules. “It is not by compulsion; it is by law. The Public Service Rules are very clear. Anyone saying officers will be retired because somebody is appointed is not telling the truth,” he stated.
He maintained that the hierarchy of the Customs Service currently suffers from a concentration of officers within the same generation. “The true position is that Customs is challenged. There is a 16-year gap between those who are currently full Comptrollers with service numbers 41,000, 42,000 and 43,000. It means all of them belong to the same set and entered service around the same period.
“They are all leaving at the same time. The pyramid of Customs is very wide at the top and very narrow at the bottom. That is the challenge,” he explained.
According to him, the impending retirement of a significant number of senior officers necessitates a carefully managed transition plan.
“By September, most of these officers will no longer remain in service because they would have retired statutorily,” he said.
Another source reacting to Abejide’s defence noted that “While these concerns may warrant consideration, the proposed remedy raises more questions than answers. Institutional reforms should strengthen systems, not undermine established procedures or diminish morale within the ranks.
Stakeholders have consistently argued that forcing out experienced senior officers to create room for a preferred candidate would damage morale, weaken institutional memory and potentially reverse many of the reforms initiated by Comptroller-General Adeniyi.
Available records indicate that only four Assistant Comptrollers-General are expected to retire in 2027, the year Adeniyi’s final tenure extension is expected to lapse. This suggests that there remains sufficient time for a structured and lawful succession process.
Institutional Expectation
According to knowlegeable sources, potential successors to the customs boss will likely be drawn from the top-tier Deputy Comptrollers-General (DCGs) and seasoned Assistant Comptrollers-General (ACGs) within the current Nigeria Customs Service Management Team.
The key officers strongly positioned to succeed him include: DCG K.I. Adeola who is one of the most senior career officers in the Nigeria Customs Service and a highly likely candidate to take over. But it’s not usually by seniority.
There is also DCG Baba Imam, who was elevated to the rank of Deputy Comptroller-General, he brings strategic leadership experience from the North-East.
Analysts also point to DCG Isah Umar, who is a senior DCG from the North-West, positioned prominently in the succession hierarchy.
Then, there’s DCG Oluyomi Adebakin, a highly placed DCG from the South-West, formerly an ACG before her recent elevation to the management team. Strategists say that given the policy trajectory of Tinubu’s appointments, based on the law, Adebakin may clinch, being the youngest of the DCG
a lady and Yoruba by origin.
Beyond this optics, there’s also possibility that Tinubu may choose to look beyond the narrow confines of DCG and pick from among serving Comptrollers: There are active discussions about elevating competent Area Controllers serving in interventionist units, pushing them to the Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) or CG level to bridge current generational leadership gaps.
But for Adeniyi, many believe that the Presidential extension of his service year by six months is an opportunity for him to complete the Presidential mandate of implementation of the National Single Window Project, and ensure the elevation of the acting Area Controllers and other eligible Deputy Comptrollers to the Comptrollers rank and compulsory retirement of officers who had attained the 60 years age limit or had already put 35 years in the service and ensure an orderly succession in the Service in February 2027.
They noted that given what the Osun state- born Customs boss could achieve between June 1, 2023 and now, was a clear indication that CGC Adeniyi, who has set the machinery in motion to give the new generation opportunity to test the administrative still by taking over the commanding height of the Service , according to an informed sources .
Sources also hinted that virtually all the Customs acting Area Controller are doing everything within their hearts to win the heart of the incumbent CGC Adeniyi. From Kirkiri Lighter Terminal, phases I&II, Oyo/Osun, Ogun I to Adamawa /Taraba acting Area Controllers, the story is the same: enhanced their anti-smuggling performance to be in the good book of the outgoing CGC, so that he could make good recommendation on their behalf to the president.
An insider told Business Hallmark that Area Controllers, in Zone A, Lagos, the nation’s Commercial nerve centre, who were said t have credited the Customs boss with modernizing the Service operations that have helped the Zonal office in surpassing its yearly targets over the last three years is optimistic that the new Customs helmsman will not elude the Zone this time around.