His appointment in 2009 may go down in history as the least controversial and the one that came with the least mudslinging that is usually associated with appointments of the Comptroller General, Customs.
It has been said variously that Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko was a at that time highly favoured; far and above both his seniors and contemporaries, having only about two years before his appointment as CG, been promoted from the Seme border command where he was area controller to the rank of an Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) of Customs.
His appointment in 2009 may go down in history as the least controversial and the one that came with the least mudslinging that is usually associated with appointments of the Comptroller General, Customs.
It has been said variously that Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko was a at that time highly favoured; far and above both his seniors and contemporaries, having only about two years before his appointment as CG, been promoted from the Seme border command where he was area controller to the rank of an Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) of Customs.
He was indeed highly favoured, because Dikko wasn’t the most senior ACG, there are at least five others ahead of him. This is not to talk of the three deputy comptrollers general; all of whom were sidelined to make way for his elevation.
Despite all odds, Alhaji Dikko broke a 21- year jinx of a usually rancorous process of choosing a Customs boss.
Disregard for seniority in the appointment of Comptroller General of Customs has been a recurring issue since the exit of Alhaji Ahmed Mustapha from the Service. His successor Elder Jacob Gyang Buba was appointed from the rank of ACG, so also was Buba’s successor, Alhaji Hamman Bello Ahmed. These two were instantly made substantive Comptrollers General.
The appointment of Dr Bello Mohammed in 1988 as the sixth Customs boss was on account of the fierce battle for succession. The appointment of his successor; Brig. General Samuel Ango in 1994 as the Sole Administrator also came about as result of the intense fight between top officers.
The traditional fight also continued immediately news filtered out that Ango was to be removed. Eventually Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu Mustapha emerged as the eight Customs Comptroller General. He served between 1999 and 2003.
Because, the Federal Government was not quite prepared for his exit, it had problems appointing a substantive successor. This led to the interregnum of about five months during which Deputy Comptroller General Tayo Ogungbemile stood in as the Acting Comptroller General.
Then came Elder Jacob Gyang Buba as substantive Comptroller General between 2004 and 2008; paving way for Bello Ahmed whose exit made it possible for Dr Bernard-Shaw Nwadialo to be appointed as acting Comptroller General.
Perhaps, by virtue of the circumstances leading to his appointment, Dikko was expected to engender a modern Customs service for Nigeria. This is because the Nigeria Customs Service needs proper diagnosis and subsequent prescription and possible surgery.
Upon assumption, Dikko gave himself a six-point agenda, which included: Maximizing the potentials of service through capacity building, moral rebirth to enhance discipline and integrity, enhancing welfare package, consolidating on the current e-customs through ASYCUDA, collaboration and partnering with other stakeholders and international organizations, fostering mutual understanding between the service and the general public.
Opinion is divided as to how well he was able to pursue the agenda, but is very clear that Dikko Abdullahi Inde did well in the area of welfare and engendering e-customs.
True to his words in 2009, the contact between the customs officers and the importers have been significantly reduced, hence reduction in corruption. At the present, the cargo clearance procedure is getting to the level where it is possible for a clearing agent to make his or her declaration through the internet, make payments and get the consignment released without seeing the customs officer.
Undoubtedly, the former CG’s would be remembered for pushing and achieving a more paperless transaction in Customs. The pre-shipment inspection now known as Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) is his perhaps his greatest legacy to the business community. Like PAAR, he also created the Nigeria Trade Hub as part of platforms for facilitating trade in the country.
It is to Dikko’s credit that the contract of destination service providers was terminated and the business community and the Customs itself was the better for it.
He is likely to also be remembered for aspiring to create an autonomous Nigeria Customs Service through the amendment of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA).
To start with, the first Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) was enacted in 1954 and since then, there had been many amendments, but there have never been any comprehensive efforts to get a completely new set of laws for the Nigeria Customs Service as the one that Dikko pushed for. Sadly, the then-supervisory minister of finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo Iweala kicked against it. She told the National Assembly that the Nigeria Customs Service can not operate outside the nation’s fiscal policy and that killed the Bill.
Even though issues that plagued Customs under Dikko were not different from those that we all are used to, there is no doubt that under Dikko’s watch the Nigeria Customs Service fared better.
While we gave it to Diko for rewriting the hitherto ugly story of Customs, and while not holding brief for Alhaji Diko Abdulahi Inde and the Nigeria Customs Service, it is safe to affirm that the Customs of 2015 is far better (in all ramifications) than that of 2009.
No doubt, the Service has done well in the last four (going to five) years, but the next one year will determine how well the Service can carry itself under the new dispensation of a wholly customs controlled destination inspection.
Sadly however, the appointment last week of Colonel Hamid Ibrahim Alli (rtd) has messed up the modest achievements of Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi. Success (they say) is nothing without a successor!
If Dikko had done well, if the Customs under him had done well in the perception of Government, there would have been no need to bring an “outsider’, and a military officer to head the Customs that he left.
May be there were things that the ordinary eyes didn’t see in the Nigeria Customs Service under Dikko.
But, by last week’s appointment of Col Ali, the Nigeria Customs Service has lost something very significant; it may take the Service another four years to exit from.
As a maritime media organisation with informed history, we strongly oppose the appointment of Ali. If his appointment is because President Buhari is looking for a saint’, then there are still some in the service! There is no way we can agree that there is no officer from the rank of Comptroller up who can do the job. The President may well have other motives other than wanting to clean up the system. If Brig Gen SOG Ango didn’t do it in 1994, then we await “Saint Hammed Ali”. Time will tell.
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