Okechukwu Nweze
The recent six-month tenure extension granted to the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi, has helped shield the Service from potential institutional disruption and preserve the stability that has characterised its ongoing reform agenda.
Last week, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved a six-month extension of Adeniyi’s tenure. 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.
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.
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 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, 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.
More importantly, the reported 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.
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.
In a video statement and subsequent clarifications, Abejide denied allegations of lobbying and instead framed the matter as an issue of institutional reform.
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.
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.
Ultimately, strong institutions are built not by bending rules to favour individuals, but by ensuring that established processes are respected, succession is orderly and reforms are sustained.
Furthermore, retirements within the Customs Service occur in phases. 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.
Succession planning in a strategic institution such as the Nigeria Customs Service must be guided by merit, due process and the provisions of the law, rather than personal interests or political considerations.
Hon. Leke Abejide should focus on his constitutional legislative and oversight responsibilities concerning the Service rather than becoming involved in succession politics. Any attempt to influence leadership transitions outside established processes should be discouraged in the interest of institutional integrity.
The Presidency must therefore remain vigilant to ensure that the integrity of the Service is preserved. Any attempt to manipulate the succession process for personal gain should be resisted in the broader interest of institutional stability, professionalism and national economic security.
* Mr Nweze, a clearing agent, writes from Apapa, Lagos