Yes
Go!
He must !!
Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, must go!
Yes, you heard me correctly.
He must pack his bags, clear his desk and prepare to leave!
Honestly, I do not know why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed this man to lead the Nigeria Customs Service almost three years ago.
His appointment must rank among the most questionable decisions ever taken by the President.
Yes!
I am not an alarmist.
Neither am I driven by malice, envy or political bitterness.
I have not one, two or three reasons for saying so.
I have ten solid reasons why Wale Adeniyi, the Customs oga, must go!
Spare me just a few minutes.
Take a seat, cross your legs and follow the evidence carefully.
By the time I finish profiling this man and analysing what the evils he has done to the Nigeria Customs Service, you may be tempted to gather stones to injure him, or bless me with a curse for revealing to you where this guy has pushed Nigeria Customs Service to
However, before examining his alleged offences against institutional decay, let me declare my personal grievance.
Adewale Adeniyi must go because he once committed an unforgivable offence against me.
Last year, when he visited Okemesi-Ekiti to honour the distinguished journalist and publisher, Chief Dare Babarinsa, who was celebrating his birthday , the Customs oga did not properly acknowledge my presence!
Imagine that!
He did not suspend the ceremony, seize the microphone, order the band to stop playing and announce:
“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr ,Chief , Evangelist so so , so has entered the building!”
What greater evidence of incompetence does Nigeria require?
How can a man who failed to acknowledge my majestic presence in Okemesi be allowed to continue supervising one of the most strategic institutions in the country?
He must go!
But since personal annoyance is not enough to remove a public officer, let us put emotion aside and examine the evidence.
What has this man actually done in Customs after almost three years?
Let us profile him properly.
Bashir Adewale Adeniyi is not an emergency appointee parachuted into the Nigeria Customs Service from an unrelated profession.
He is a career Customs officer who rose through the institution and served in operational, administrative, training, enforcement and public communication positions.
Before becoming Comptroller-General, he had served as National Public Relations Officer, Commandant of the Nigeria Customs Command and Staff College, Assistant Comptroller-General and Acting Deputy Comptroller-General.
President Tinubu therefore appointed a man who understood the institution, knew its weaknesses, recognised its possibilities and had experienced its operations from within.
That itself is suspicious!
How could the government appoint a professional to manage the profession in which he had built his career?
Where was the element of surprise?
Where was the tradition of appointing someone who would spend the first two years trying to locate his office?
Adeniyi must go!
1. HE INCREASED CUSTOMS REVENUE OUTRAGEOUSLY
When Adeniyi assumed office in June 2023, he inherited a powerful but troubled institution.
The Nigeria Customs Service was already generating substantial revenue, but it was contending with complaints about revenue leakages, under-declaration, bureaucratic delays, human interference, multiple cargo examinations, unstable technology, inadequate scanners, port congestion and strained relationships with clearing agents and freight forwarders.
Importers complained about unpredictable costs.
Licensed agents complained about delays.
Businesses suffered demurrage.
Cargo clearance was slowed by overlapping responsibilities among Customs, terminal operators, shipping companies, banks and other regulatory agencies.
The Service also had to combine three difficult responsibilities: collecting revenue, facilitating legitimate trade and protecting Nigeria’s borders.
In 2022, before Adeniyi’s appointment, Customs generated approximately ₦2.6 trillion.
So what did this troublesome man do?
Did he respectfully preserve the inherited figure?
Did he maintain the traditional pace?
Did he allow revenue leakages to exercise their supposed constitutional right to flourish?
No!
He started interfering with the system.
Customs revenue rose to approximately ₦3.2 trillion in 2023.
In 2024, it increased dramatically to about ₦6.1 trillion.
By 2025, the Nigeria Customs Service had reportedly generated approximately ₦7.28 trillion, exceeding its approved target.
From roughly ₦2.6 trillion in 2022 to more than ₦7.2 trillion in 2025!
What kind of public officer behaves like this?
Could he not have left the figures where he met them?
Admittedly, part of the increase must be attributed to the depreciation of the naira, higher import valuations and fiscal-policy adjustments. Customs duties on imported goods are influenced by prevailing foreign-exchange rates.
Therefore, every additional naira cannot be credited solely to Adeniyi’s administrative brilliance.
But even after making that necessary qualification, improved monitoring, stronger enforcement, greater compliance and efforts to close revenue leakages contributed to the increase.
Instead of merely occupying the office, Adeniyi decided to make the office productive.
This is unacceptable!
He must go!
2. HE IS DRAGGING CUSTOMS FROM ANALOGUE COMFORT INTO DIGITAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Perhaps this is where Adeniyi’s misconduct becomes more serious.
Customs operated electronic processes before his appointment, but the Service still depended considerably on human contact, fragmented platforms and systems that did not always communicate efficiently with one another.
Rather than enjoying the confusion, Adeniyi pushed further digital reforms.
Under his leadership, Customs expanded electronic declarations, e-currency declaration, electronic auctions, advance rulings, online stakeholder services and the Authorised Economic Operator programme.
Then came the locally developed B’Odogwu Unified Customs Management System.
B’Odogwu was designed to integrate important Customs processes, including Form M, Pre-Arrival Assessment Reports and Single Goods Declarations. It was also intended to connect Customs, commercial banks, importers, agents and regulatory institutions more efficiently.
Imagine the audacity!
Adeniyi was attempting to reduce dependence on foreign Customs-processing platforms and promote an indigenous system.
Why should Nigeria develop its own technological capacity?
Why should transactions become traceable?
Why should declarations become digital?
Why should automation reduce unnecessary physical contact between officers and stakeholders?
This man is clearly dangerous to analogue comfort!
Of course, B’Odogwu has not operated without difficulties.
During its rollout, clearing agents and freight forwarders reported technical disruptions, integration problems, delays and additional storage and demurrage costs.
There were complaints involving the processing of Form M, PAAR, SONCAP certificates, trader information and product codes.
These problems must not be dismissed.
A digital platform that frequently becomes unavailable merely reproduces analogue frustration on a computer screen.
Customs must therefore guarantee greater platform stability, stronger cybersecurity, reliable backup infrastructure, prompt technical assistance and practical relief where traders suffer losses solely because of government-system failure.
The digital transformation is not complete.
But the significant point is that Adeniyi is moving Customs away from excessive manual discretion towards a more transparent, technology-driven structure.
For disturbing the peace of analogue bureaucracy, he must go!
3. HE REFUSES TO TREAT IMPORTERS AND AGENTS MERELY AS REVENUE VICTIMS
The Nigeria Customs Service is a revenue-collection agency, but it is also expected to facilitate legitimate trade.
For years, importers, exporters, Customs brokers and freight forwarders have complained that government institutions appear more interested in collecting money than providing efficient service.
Under Adeniyi, Customs expanded stakeholder engagement, introduced advance rulings and formally launched the Authorised Economic Operator programme to reward businesses with established records of compliance.
The programme is intended to give qualified importers, exporters, brokers and other supply-chain operators faster and more predictable treatment.
Customs has also conducted stakeholder meetings, technical sessions and consultations with licensed agents.
But serious challenges remain.
Agents still face delays when Customs platforms malfunction.
Importers still suffer from fluctuating duty-exchange rates.
Cargo may still be subjected to physical examination because of insufficient scanner deployment.
Traders may still incur demurrage when one government institution’s technology fails to communicate with another.
Revenue generation has improved more visibly than cargo-clearance efficiency.
Therefore, Adeniyi has not yet delivered paradise at the ports.
Nevertheless, he has acknowledged the problem rather than pretending that it does not exist.
The Time Release Study at Tin Can Island Port was designed to identify the causes of delays across the cargo-clearance chain.
The study recognised that Customs is not the only institution responsible for congestion. Shipping companies, terminal operators, commercial banks, transporters and regulatory agencies all play important roles.
But reports alone are not enough.
The findings must produce measurable reductions in cargo-release time.
Customs should regularly publish average clearance periods, platform-uptime records, scanner utilisation, complaint-resolution times and the percentage of cargo subjected to physical examination.
Still, a Comptroller-General who measures institutional delay may eventually eliminate institutional delay.
That possibility alone is sufficient reason for the beneficiaries of disorder to demand his removal.
Adeniyi must go!
4. HE REMEMBERS THAT CUSTOMS OFFICERS ARE HUMAN BEINGS
Adeniyi’s appointment restored an important sense of professional aspiration within the Nigeria Customs Service.
He was a serving career officer who rose to the highest position in the organisation.
His emergence demonstrated to younger personnel that they could build careers within the Service and possibly reach its summit.
His administration has emphasised training, leadership development, professional workshops, physical fitness, medical programmes and staff housing.
It has supported housing schemes intended to make home ownership more accessible to officers and promoted programmes directed at professional development and work-life balance.
But we must still ask difficult questions.
How many officers have benefited from the housing programmes?
What are the repayment conditions?
How are the houses distributed across ranks and commands?
How many officers receive meaningful training annually?
Are insurance claims and death benefits processed promptly?
These figures should be published so that Nigerians can distinguish measurable welfare impact from ceremonial announcements.
Nevertheless, a Customs leadership that places staff housing, health, fitness, training and professional motivation on its agenda is already committing an offence against the culture of institutional neglect.
Why should officers be trained?
Why should they own houses?
Why should their health and welfare matter?
Adeniyi must go!
5. HE ENCOURAGES CUSTOMS OFFICERS’ WIVES TO BECOME PRODUCTIVE
As though increasing revenue, modernising Customs and improving staff welfare were not enough, Adeniyi’s administration has also encouraged the Customs Officers’ Wives Association.
Under the leadership of its National President, Mrs Kikelomo Adewale Adeniyi, COWA has been repositioned as more than a ceremonial association for wearing uniforms, occupying front seats and taking photographs at official functions.
The association has pursued programmes involving women’s economic empowerment, skills acquisition, healthcare, physical fitness, mental-health awareness, assistance to widows, support for vulnerable children and campaigns against drug abuse.
COWA chapters have distributed food and financial assistance to widows, conducted health-awareness activities, visited orphanages, promoted productive skills and taken anti-drug messages to schools.
Mrs Kikelomo Adeniyi and the women leading the association deserve direct recognition for these programmes.
They are not mere extensions of their husbands.
They possess their own initiative, organisational competence and social vision.
However, an association of officers’ wives cannot flourish sustainably without the institutional encouragement and cooperation of the leadership of the Service.
Adeniyi appears to understand that the wellbeing of a Customs officer does not end at the office gate.
Behind many officers are spouses and families carrying the emotional, domestic and social burdens associated with a demanding and sometimes dangerous profession.
Supporting such families is not merely charity; it contributes to workforce stability.
But the outcomes must be measured.
How many women have been trained?
How many sustainable businesses have been created?
How many widows have received long-term rather than seasonal assistance?
How many beneficiaries have moved from dependency to financial independence?
The answers should be documented and published.
Nevertheless, by encouraging Customs officers’ wives to organise, acquire skills, protect their health and support vulnerable members of society, Adeniyi has again interfered with the natural order of official neglect.
Why should an officers’ wives association become an instrument of human development rather than a social-decoration committee?
Adeniyi must go!
6. HE REFUSES TO FORGET RETIRED CUSTOMS OFFICERS
Adeniyi has committed yet another serious offence.
He remembers retired officers.
Yes, the same people who served the Nigeria Customs Service for decades, accumulated enormous institutional experience and were traditionally expected to disappear quietly once their retirement letters arrived.
Under Adeniyi, the Service organised a reunion and send-off for retired senior officers under the significant theme:
“Our Customs Heroes.”
The title itself is suspicious.
Why call retired public officers heroes?
Why not treat them as expired personnel whose institutional usefulness ended on their final working day?
At the gathering, Adeniyi argued that the Nigeria Customs Service should continue to draw from the knowledge and experience of its retired officers.
He spoke about bridging the gap between serving personnel and retired professionals.
He pledged attention to retirees’ welfare, proposed digitising verification exercises and raised the possibility of creating a specialised arrangement to address their pension and welfare concerns.
He also recognised the potential of retired officers to serve as advisers, mentors and repositories of institutional memory.
This is how serious institutions behave.
Retirement should end active service; it should not erase experience, dignity or belonging.
An officer who spent three decades learning border management, enforcement, intelligence, valuation and trade facilitation should not suddenly become invisible.
Such people can mentor younger officers, contribute to training programmes, participate in policy discussions and help Customs avoid repeating old mistakes.
However, promises must be tested against implementation.
Has the welfare review been completed?
Has verification been fully digitised?
Are benefits being paid promptly?
Do retired officers have meaningful access to healthcare?
How many retired professionals have been engaged in mentoring, training and advisory roles?
It is not enough to call them heroes at a reunion and forget them the following morning.
Their welfare must be institutionalised, funded and protected from leadership changes.
Even so, by reconnecting retired officers to the Customs family and acknowledging their contributions, Adeniyi has violated an unwritten tradition of public service:
“Once you retire, you are on your own.”
How dare he?
Adeniyi must go!
7. HE INTERCEPTS DANGEROUS AND PROHIBITED CARGO
Under Adeniyi, the Nigeria Customs Service has recorded major seizures involving firearms, ammunition, narcotics, restricted pharmaceuticals, wildlife products, improperly imported vehicles and other prohibited items.
These interceptions demonstrate the importance of Customs to national security and public safety.
But interceptions should not end with press conferences.
Nigerians deserve to know who was prosecuted, which licences were withdrawn, whether compromised officers were identified, what happened to seized goods and whether the networks behind the shipments were dismantled.
A seizure without prosecution may produce headlines without lasting deterrence.
Still, by preventing dangerous and prohibited goods from entering society, Adeniyi’s Customs is interfering with the commercial expectations of smugglers.
How inconsiderate!
He must go!
8. HE COLLABORATES WITH OTHER AGENCIES
Another disturbing feature of Adeniyi’s administration is his apparent belief that Customs cannot operate successfully in isolation.
His administration has worked with the Nigerian Ports Authority, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Central Bank of Nigeria, commercial banks, security institutions, anti-corruption agencies, trade organisations and international Customs bodies.
It has promoted cooperation on border management, narcotics interception, product certification, digital payments, port efficiency and national security.
In June 2025, Adeniyi was elected Chairperson of the Council of the World Customs Organisation, becoming the first Nigerian to occupy that position.
President Tinubu subsequently extended his tenure by one year to enable him to consolidate Customs modernisation, contribute to the National Single Window project and advance Nigeria’s commitments under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
But why should Nigeria exercise international influence in Customs administration?
Why should a Nigerian officer head the highest decision-making body of the World Customs Organisation?
Why should other countries recognise Nigerian professional competence?
The man is clearly becoming too internationally visible.
He must go!
9. HE REMEMBERS THE SCHOOL THAT HELPED TO MOULD HIM
There is another disturbing allegation against Adeniyi.
The man remembers where he came from!
In a society where some successful people quickly develop institutional amnesia, Adeniyi has refused to forget the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, which helped to shape his communication skills.
He attended the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in 1989.
Decades later, after rising from a journalism student to become Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service and Chairperson of the World Customs Organisation Council, he returned to the institution.
On 15 April 2026, the Nigerian Institute of Journalism conferred its Fellowship on him during a special convocation ceremony.
He became the institute’s first alumnus to receive the Fellowship.
That honour alone would have been sufficient for another person.
He could have collected the certificate, adjusted his cap, posed for photographs, thanked the authorities and disappeared into the convoy waiting outside.
But Adeniyi committed another offence.
He pledged support for a modern multimedia resource centre for the institution and for the development of its broadcasting capacity.
What kind of public officer remembers his alma mater like this?
Why could he not simply add the Fellowship to his collection of titles and move on?
Why must he think about the students coming behind him?
Why should future journalists have access to modern multimedia facilities?
Why should the institution that trained him benefit from his elevation?
In a society where some people remember their schools only when honorary awards are available, Adeniyi returned not merely to receive an honour but to accept a responsibility.
This is dangerous!
If every successful Nigerian begins to remember and support the institution that produced him, who will continue blaming the government for everything?
Adeniyi must go!
He must go back to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism—not as a student this time, but to fulfil every commitment made to the institution.
The multimedia centre must not remain an announcement.
The broadcasting-support promise must not become ceremonial nostalgia.
The projects must be completed, equipped and placed at the service of students, lecturers and the Nigerian media industry.
Only then shall we know that his return to his alma mater represented genuine gratitude and institutional repayment.
10. HE BELIEVES CUSTOMS MUST SERVE SOCIETY, NOT MERELY COLLECT FROM IT
Adeniyi’s Customs has undertaken medical outreaches, community engagement, sporting programmes, sensitisation campaigns and social interventions, particularly within some host and border communities.
These activities can strengthen relations between Customs and the communities whose cooperation is important in combating smuggling.
They are commendable.
However, Customs must understand that corporate social responsibility should never become a substitute for efficient public service.
The greatest social service Customs can provide is not the distribution of gifts or the staging of ceremonies.
It is transparent valuation.
It is predictable cargo clearance.
It is dependable technology.
It is reduced corruption.
It is secure borders.
It is lower trade costs.
A medical outreach is valuable.
But an importer saved from avoidable demurrage has also received social relief.
A clearing agent protected from arbitrary charges has also benefited from responsible government.
A consumer spared the inflationary consequences of unnecessary port delays has also enjoyed public service.
Adeniyi must therefore ensure that charity outside the ports is matched by efficiency within them.
THE HUMAN-DEVELOPMENT VERDICT
Adeniyi’s approach to human development should not be measured only by the training and housing of serving Customs officers.
It has at least four interconnected dimensions.
It concerns the serving officer who requires training, housing, healthcare and professional motivation.
It concerns the officer’s spouse and family, whose wellbeing affects the officer’s stability and effectiveness.
It concerns retired officers, whose experience and dignity should not be discarded after decades of service.
And it concerns the educational institutions that produced the professional skills from which the officer and the nation now benefit.
By supporting professional development, encouraging COWA, reconnecting retired officers to the Service and returning value to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Adeniyi demonstrates an understanding that institutions are built by human beings—not merely by revenue figures, uniforms, scanners and computers.
This does not mean that every promise has been fulfilled.
It does not mean that every Customs family is satisfied.
It does not mean that every retired officer is comfortable.
It does not mean that every COWA intervention has produced sustainable economic independence.
Neither does a promised multimedia centre become a completed building merely because it was announced at a convocation.
Implementation remains the final examination.
Nevertheless, these initiatives reveal something important about Adeniyi’s leadership philosophy:
He appears to remember people.
He remembers those currently serving.
He remembers their wives and families.
He remembers those who have retired.
He remembers the institution that trained him.
And a leader who remembers people is more likely to build an institution that people will remember.
SO, HAS HE DONE ANYTHING WORTHWHILE?
Unfortunately for those waiting to condemn him, the answer is yes.
He has increased Customs revenue substantially.
He has pushed digital transformation.
He has strengthened enforcement.
He has restored career confidence within the Service.
He has expanded stakeholder engagement.
He has promoted staff welfare and professional development.
He has encouraged the Customs Officers’ Wives Association to become a platform for empowerment and social intervention.
He has remembered retired officers and sought to reconnect them with the institution they served.
He has returned to honour and support his alma mater, the Nigerian Institute of Journalism.
He has improved inter-agency cooperation.
He has elevated Nigeria’s standing within the global Customs community.
But has he solved every problem?
Certainly not.
Cargo clearance remains slower and more expensive than it should be.
Digital platforms still experience disruptions.
Agents and importers still suffer when government systems fail.
Customs must reduce excessive human discretion.
The Service must publish more comprehensive performance data.
Staff-welfare programmes require clearer evidence of their reach.
Support for retirees must be institutionalised.
COWA’s interventions must be assessed through sustainable outcomes.
Commitments to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism must be translated into completed projects.
Revenue increases should also be analysed against exchange-rate effects, import volumes and policy changes.
Adeniyi’s transformation is visible, but incomplete.
WHY ADENIYI TRULY MUST GO
After examining his revenue record, digital reforms, enforcement operations, stakeholder relations, staff development, support for Customs families, engagement with retired officers, loyalty to his alma mater and international leadership, I maintain my original position:
Bashir Adewale Adeniyi must go!
He must go from strength to greater strength.
He must go beyond record revenue to record trade facilitation.
He must go from partial automation to seamless digital Customs administration.
He must go from occasional stakeholder engagement to guaranteed service standards.
He must go from announcing seizures to securing convictions against powerful smugglers.
He must go from launching staff-welfare programmes to publishing the number of officers whose lives have been transformed.
He must go from encouraging COWA to ensuring that its empowerment initiatives produce financially independent women and stronger Customs families.
He must go from describing retired officers as heroes to establishing a permanent, adequately funded welfare, healthcare, mentoring and pension-support system for them.
He must go back to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism and ensure that his commitments are not merely conceived, but completed, equipped and delivered.
He must go from identifying cargo delays to eliminating them.
He must go from being celebrated internationally to making the ordinary Nigerian importer, exporter and licensed agent experience that transformation locally.
And concerning his failure to acknowledge my magnificent presence at Okemesi last year, I have reconsidered the matter.
Perhaps the man was too busy thinking about Nigeria’s borders, Customs revenue, staff welfare, Customs families, retired officers, digital transformation, international trade and his alma mater to notice that the great Wale Ojo-Lanre had entered the arena!
I may forgive him.
But only on one condition:
The next time we meet, he must acknowledge me properly—preferably after Customs has achieved dependable 24-hour cargo clearance, stable digital operations, happier officers, empowered Customs families, respected retirees, satisfied agents and greater service to Nigeria.
Until then, Wale Adeniyi must go !
not out of office,
but forward;
not into retirement,
but into deeper reform;
not away from the Nigeria Customs Service,
but towards completing the institutional transformation he has courageously begun.
Yes, Wale Adeniyi must go.
He must go higher.
He must go farther.
He must remember more people.
He must take Customs beyond collection into service.
And he must take the Nigeria Customs Service ,and Nigeria ,with him.
....hahaha
My name is
Wale Ojo-Lanre Esq
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