How To Become A Successful Customs Officer – Comptroller Nnadi

By Kenneth Jukpor

Fourteen weeks after serving as Ogun 1 Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Dera Nnadi has handed over to Comptroller B.A Makinde and headed to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru for a one-year training course. In this exclusive interview with MMS Plus, he shares his Customs story from the early days as a Customs trainee through the journey of becoming a Comptroller.

Dera Nnadi is from Imo State. He studied Microbiology at the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede. He later attended the National Open University (NOUN) where he read Business Management. He obtained his PGD in Management at the University of Calabar (UNICAL) and MSc in Business Administration at UNICAL.

Excerpts:

My story has been one that is worth telling because one needs to appreciate the place of God in his life.  I joined Customs in 1991 and trained in the Customs Academy in Lagos as a Cadet Officer and graduated in 1992. We were called Course 192 because we graduated in 1992. My first posting was to Yobe State where I worked as an officer in-charge of Tulutuluwa, a border town at the boundary between Nigeria and Niger Republic. I worked there for eight months before the staff order for the entire Course 192 was cancelled. We were all reposted and I was posted to Kwara in 1993 and served at one of the border operations unit. The officer in-charge (OC) back then said I was doing so well and he handed-over everything to me. He told me to be in-charge of things.  From Kwara, I was taken to Kwasoro where I was OC and later to Ilesha Garuba. The bottom line is that those experiences gave me an understanding of the varying sides of Nigerian society. I learnt the cultures, traditions, trade behaviours of the people.

In 1996, I was posted to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. I first served as Assistant Staff Officer and assisted as Assistant Secretary of the Command. It was a beautiful experience; having gone from the training college in Lagos to Yobe, then various parts of Kwara before coming to the city of Ikeja. While I was there, I challenged myself to be able to relate the experience of what we learnt at the college. It was a new vista for me as someone who had experienced only enforcement work before 1996. I was at MMIA until 1999 when I was posted to Adamawa Command before heading to Mubi where I briefly worked as OC Mubi town patrol. Mubi is a border town with Cameroon. I was later transferred to Saruda which is another border town to Cameroon. In 2000, I was posted back to Lagos to serve at Harvey road, the Zonal headquarters. It was at the Zonal headquarters I began to make little impact in the service. It was at the zonal level I learnt firsthand the administrative processes of Customs. The late Comptroller who later became Senator, Ali Wakkali, mentored me. He taught me how to write reports, prepare briefs among other things. He was passionate about seeing me become an expert in customs procedures. It was also while I was at the zonal headquarters that I met some other senior officers that took interest in me. I worked with the then Comptroller Bernard Nwadialo who later became Comptroller-General of Customs. I also met Chief Dosunmu who was Assistant Comptroller then and several others.

Some of these officers were held in such high regard that younger officers marveled when we heard their names. It was also at the zonal office that the opportunity for Public Relations work came up. At that time Chief Dosunmu was the PRO and he handed over to Ogunkwa as a Chief Superintendent. Shortly after, there was a directive that all Chief Superintendents who were PROs should hand over to someone else lower. Ogunkwa and Dosunmu agreed that I fit into the role even though I hadn’t done that before. They saw the dexterity with which I was working and decided that I should take over. So, I became the zonal PRO of the entire Zone A. Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and the Commands in Lagos were under Zone A and I was the zonal PRO and zonal secretary.

It was a daunting task for me but I had learnt the ropes from the gurus. It was from that role that I carved a niche for myself. I was also privileged that at the time the Customs management approved training for the newly appointed PROs. We were taken to Jos for about two weeks. ACG Wale was the national PRO and he was a superintendent at the time. So, it was a bit lopsided to have him as national PRO when senior officers like Chief Superintendents and Assistant Controllers were also in the field as PROs. The senior officers were asked to step down so that the national PRO was the most senior PRO officer in the service. After the two-weeks intensive PR training in Jos, we were awarded certificates and became associate members of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR). That training equipped me to do a good job as some of the media colleagues can testify.

I continued serving at Harvey road until it was time for port reforms and they needed a PRO that would manage the transition from ports being operated by the government to the concessionaires. Customs was also migrating from basic ASYCUDA to ASYCUDA 2.8, Customs was planning to migrate from manual collection of duties to e-payment and that period was also the era that coincided with the introduction of scanners at the ports. As someone who was the zonal PRO, you would think that becoming the PRO of just a command was a demotion. It looked like a demotion, but the responsibility at Apapa based on the work that was scheduled to be done, was higher.

At Apapa, I was part of the exercise to attain a smooth transition of the port concession. At that time, all manner of activities could be found at the ports. You’ll even see school children going to school from the ports. Trading was taking place everywhere and there was resistance, but we managed the situation very well. Customs also had some challenges at that time because you could come to work in the morning and realize that what was your office premise the previous day had to be vacated because the concessionaires wanted to build something there. Car parks became a challenge because the concessionaires wanted to maximize their space for their businesses.

We had to get the buy-in of the media to make these processes work. We trained Customs officers to be able to engage and guide stakeholders on these changes. At that period, we also had COTECNA coming into the system to manage Customs processes. Most of these people were foreigners and the stakeholders were worried as to whether these foreigners would understand Nigerian processes. Amid all these activities, I was still the Secretary of the zone and I was reporting to the zone for zonal meetings as secretary. I was recording every aspect of the reforms as PRO and secretary at Apapa. This was a tough time for me, but it strengthened me. Within that period, the turnover of Area Controllers at Apapa was something else. I started there with Comptroller Adeniyi (not the current ACG Wale Adeniyi), I worked with Comptroller Taiwo, Comptroller Atte, Comptroller Suleiman, Comptroller Dan Ugo, Comptroller Femi Taylor, Comptroller Azerima; all within that period.

While in Apapa I got promoted to Superintendent of Customs and later to Chief Superintendent of Customs and in 2010 I was posted to the Customs headquarters first at the CG’s office but I couldn’t work there.

Subsequently, I was given another staff order to work at Enforcement at the Customs headquarters. My former boss, A.J Atte was now the DCG Enforcement and I worked under him before moving to Corporate Support Services which is presently known as Finance, Administration and Technical Services (FATS). From there, I got promoted to Assistant Controller of Customs in 2012. I served in the Modernization, Research and Economic Relations (MRER) department and I learnt new things. The man who headed the department then is now the Deputy Governor of Gombe state. He was a DCG then. He groomed us and I got so exposed to International Customs; World Customs Organization (WCO), World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund. I learnt so much from that particular unit. I had a friend, AC Alfa who was very proficient in Customs matters. He is now a Controller in Brussels, Belgium. While I was with Alfa, I discovered that he never closed early. He was always with his laptop working until late at night. I had to join him to know what he was doing. We were mainly doing research work and we were in-charge of international Customs engagements and engagements within the region.

One day while I sat with Alfa after work, he told me that he was developing something on Intellectual Property Rights. He would write and always gave the work to me for critique. Eventually, Customs created a unit out of Alfa’s findings and the unit was known as Intellectual Property Right, Environment and One-Stop Investment Centre under the MRER department. Alfa became the head of that newly created unit while I was in the Economic Relations unit of the SR&P.

There were several international meetings on trade facilitation at the IMF, WTO, WCO, among others. We kept going and learning. It was during such meetings that I developed a knack for what can be done with knowledge. I refused to budge because I developed interest in the Trade Facilitation agreement, Inter-State Road Transit Scheme for ECOWAS, ECOWAS Transit Project, and Export business, among others.

There were so many things to be done but one had to be enduring to attend all these meetings. From those meetings, I found out that opportunities came up to represent Nigeria at regional, sub-regional and continental functions. So, this became an adventure because it was an opportunity to travel.

In 2010, I went to Dubai on my first foreign trip after we developed a paper on Enigma which is a Dubai workshop on global security. Since we were part of the team that developed the paper, I was asked to join the team that would present that paper. It was an experience that I would never forget because it helped me to realize that if one works hard, there is a reward for it.

In 2011, I was selected to attend an International Law Enforcement Academy, a security institute organized by the U.S Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Most of the teachers were CIA operatives or Homeland Security. I stayed there for three months for that training.

At these foreign meetings, I observed that Nigeria was always signing treaties with other countries and I took interest in all these treaties. We worked assiduously with the Trade Facilitation committee until Nigeria signed the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). It was a major success for some of us because we were so proud of our contributions.

The next adventure was my posting to Tin Can as Assistant Controller in 2017. I was to be posted out to one of the terminals but shortly after I was posted to Tin Can, I was requested to go back to the headquarters to accompany the Comptroller-General for a workshop in Senegal. It was a WCO regional conference for West and Central Africa. It was while we were in Senegal for that conference that the Customs management released the promotion for Deputy Controllers and I was promoted. It was in the newspapers that I read that promotions had been released and I was one of those promoted to Deputy Controller. When I came back from Senegal they withdrew the staff order of all those posted earlier and in the subsequent posting I was lucky to be posted back to Tin Can. The person who was DC Enforcement at Tin Can, Udenze, was taken back to Abuja and I became DC, Enforcement at Tin Can.

At Tin Can, I did my best and the highpoint was the arms seizures in 2017 with 2671 pump-action rifles intercepted in 2017 alone. After three years in Tin Can, in 2020 I was posted to Ogun 1 Command as DC, Administration and in October 2021 I took promotion exams and was promoted to the rank of Comptroller.

It was at the Customs headquarters that I spent the longest period as I served there for eight years, but I have no regrets because it gave me an opportunity to understand Customs administration. This was also an opportunity to learn that Customs is beyond revenue generation and anti-smuggling. I learnt about trade facilitation and how Customs actions or inactions determine the fate of several industries and how Customs activities help the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade and Investments, Ministry of Budget and Planning, Finance, Export Promotion Council, among others.

Customs is vast, several businesses, lifestyle and even healthcare depends on Customs. That’s why I don’t regret the long years I spent at the Customs headquarters. The learning experience and thirst for knowledge brought me this far in my career.

When I was posted at Ogun 1 Area Controller, I came in as a PR person, a reformer, Enforcement officer at headquarters, admin officer at Corporate Support Services. I had experienced Zonal secretariat duties, Economic Relations, International Customs engagement, Intellectual Property Right officer at MRER, DC Enforcement at Tin Can and DC Admin at Ogun 1. I didn’t find it difficult to blend in and we did our best at Ogun 1 Customs Command.

It was by providence that the same day I was decorated as Comptroller, I was called to be told that I’m being sent to a one year course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru. It wasn’t even up to one hour after I was decorated that I received a phone call that I have been nominated to participate at the senior executive course of NIPSS, Kuru in Jos. I was the first person to be decorated at the Zonal headquarters and as soon as I came out to snap pictures with my friends and family, I received the message about NIPSS.

When I left the venue and went home, I didn’t know that one week later I’ll be called to come and take over leadership of Ogun 1 Command. In three months and two weeks, we did our best to change the narrative at the border engaging the royalties and the youths in the State, especially those in the border regions. We visited the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun and other sister agencies and trade partners.

Few weeks into my administration, the Ogun 1 Command intercepted 7311 bags of 50kg rice and several seizures worth over N172million.

There are things to learn from your career history in Customs for young officers and Nigerian youths in general. Spending eight years in an aspect of Customs that focused on research isn’t something that would entice young officers today. There’s also alleged to be a dearth of knowledgeable Customs officers among the younger cadre. How would you encourage young officers who would rather lobby to be in more financially rewarding units of Customs?

Well, the first thing I would tell any young Customs officer is to seek knowledge in Customs and every other thing would be added unto you. If you noticed my antecedents, I never worked as a releasing officer anywhere in Customs. I never worked as a member of any special unit apart from Public Relations. I never shied away from training workshops or taking up a responsibility given by my superiors.

I never worked anywhere and didn’t spend the mandatory three years. No matter how remote the area was, I ensured that I spent the mandatory three years. Anyone that would be a success in a Customs job must seek knowledge and accept responsibilities assigned by his or her bosses. Be creative and innovative and decide to make the best of every situation you find yourself in.

Don’t wait for handouts or for someone to say ‘this is how we do it’. After all, it was someone who introduced that way of doing it that you are going to copy. Above all, maximize your integrity. Most of the challenges we have in the system is because there is limited integrity in the entire supply chain.

Officers shouldn’t be influenced by what the society wants. We should be more concerned about what the books say we should do. We should consider the laws, policies and directives of the Customs management rather than sentiments or societal cravings.

Some of the training never looked like they would be relevant to what we do in Customs, but today they are relevant. With the benefit of hindsight, I can say that it would have been erroneous to have dismissed the training or shied away from them.

For every modernization effort in Customs, officers should try to be part of it. Any officer that does this wouldn’t have regrets. It is also important to identify mentors within the Service that one could learn from. I had a lot of them. These are people that you’ll have to dedicate your time to serve. Some would give you something to do and you could do it twenty times and still be told that it’s wrong. Don’t despair. Sometimes you could write from your basic knowledge obtained from the university but your superiors would insist that there is a definite procedure in civil service. If you are not patient, you’ll think that these bosses are being overbearing but learn to keep quiet and learn to do things the way your bosses want it.

Officers also have to read a lot and keep records. Computers, flash drives and emails have made it easier to keep records. People should take advantage of technology and have archives. Data is life but some modern people don’t like keeping records.

I kept about fifteen photo albums from my activities as a PRO. I could publish those albums to show the dress styles over these years. People can also appreciate the progress and transformation at several organizations, Customs commands and units.

The late CG, Hamman Bello Ahmed Kojoli visited Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic Base (LADOL) when it started with just two buildings. We went there after they put in a request for operations and Kojoli asked how they intended to operate when they had no infrastructure. It was just sand, grass, the two buildings and the security post. I have the pictures of that visit. I whispered to the daughter of the then Managing Director of LADOL, Dr. Jadesimi who is currently the MD, that the CG should be given a date in about six months and they told the CG that something significant would be done in six months.

When the CG left, I sat with the LADOL team because I was in Apapa at the time and we were supervising LADOL. We agreed that they should bring pre-fabricated buildings and they went to Ghana to bring these buildings. When the CG visited 3 or 4 months later he was amazed at the rapid changes at LADOL because there were operational offices, halls, living homes, walkways and everything was set up. I have pictures of both visits which are historical. You can tell a story with those two pictures without saying a word. It’s the same thing with Grimaldi and several other places.

After the NIPSS training, what will be your next career move?

I’m going as a student. After that, God takes control. After that, the management of Customs decides and lastly, I will also take control of my life. It’s arranged in that order. God first, my boss next before I do my bidding. This has always been my guiding principle. After God, I submit myself to the will of my bosses because they employed me.

Having served in the technical committees that developed Trade Facilitation agreements for Nigeria and also attended lots of international symposiums on trade processes, what causes the gaps between the beautiful trade processes on the books and the reality of the operations at Nigerian ports?

The challenge is that individuals are very brilliant, patriotic and highly focused in Nigeria until you put them in a team and they start a competition hinged on some unpleasant factors. Some of these factors could be ethnicity, religion, greed, politics, etc. When these factors are prioritized, it is usually at the detriment of national interest. However, when you take away these factors you realize that Nigerians are actually very brilliant. This explains why Nigerians are very good critics with lofty ideas until it’s time for implementation.

When something is done wrongly, we usually all agree that it is immoral. However, when it is time to call the sack, those factors come into play and we bring in religion, politics, ethnicity and other considerations that eventually prevent the punishment from being meted out.

On trade facilitation for instance, WCO recommended twelve articles and these articles spell out things to be done. Article 1: Publication and Availability Of Information; Article 2: Opportunity to Comment, Information before entry into Force and Consultations; Article 3: Advance Rulings; Article 4: Procedures for Appeal or Review; Article 5: Other Measures to Enhance Impartiality, Non-Discrimination and Transparency; Article 6: Disciplines on Fees and Charges Imposed on or in Connection with Importation and Exportation and Penalties; Article 7: Release and Clearance of Good; Article 8: Border Agency Cooperation; Article 9: Movement of Goods intended for Import under Customs Control; Article 10: Formalities Connected with Importation, Exportation and Transit; Article 11: Freedom of Transit; Article 12: Customs Cooperation.

How many freight agents know about these articles and the provisions Customs has made in compliance with them? Until they understand these measures and how to optimize them, they will keep complaining about trade facilitation when all the provisions have been made by Nigeria Customs Service.