- Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi
By Anthony Nwachukwu
In recognition of his strides towards national development, as well as restoring the positive image and dignity of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and its personnel, Nigerian journalists covering the maritime sector have named the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the Iconic Maritime Personality of Year 2024.
The award – the first of its kind – is slated for January 16, 2025, in Lagos, with all the maritime beat associations involved, including the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) and the League of Maritime Editors (LOME).
Others are the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON), Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria (SCAN), Maritime Journalists Association of Nigeria (MAJAN), Online Maritime Media Association of Nigeria (OMMAN) and Congress of Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (CONMMEP), as well as the non-aligned maritime journalists.
It comes on the heels of the agency’s improved trade facilitation and anti-smuggling drives, as well as such other reforms like personnel welfare and career development, with its spin-off in the agency achieving its improved yearly revenue target months before the year ended.
In a statement by the Chairman and Secretary of the Award Planning Committee, Dele Aderibigbe and Innocent Orok respectively, the maritime journalists noted that Adeniyi has “redeemed and repositioned the service in all areas.
“These include revenue collection, anti-smuggling activities, trade facilitation, national security, staff welfare, inter-agency collaboration, infrastructural upgrading, Information and Communication Technology, and Corporate Social Responsibility, among others.”
The committee added: “It is also incontestable that your record-breaking performance has attracted national and international laurels to you, the service, and Nigeria as a whole.
Therefore, “we the maritime journalists, comprising both print, electronic and online media covering the beat, are happy to be part of this history-making with you as partners in progress.
“In appreciation of your superlative performance and, by extension, your unrelenting support to the media, especially the maritime media, we nominate you as the Iconic Maritime Personality of the Year.
Aderibigbe explained that “this honour is very symbolic. First, this is the first time in the maritime sub-sector that all the journalists covering the beat will come together to honour a deserving performer per excellence, who has made the Customs and Nigeria proud by his purposeful, professional and patriotic leadership.
“Secondly, the Nigeria Customs Service under Adewale Adeniyi has been reconnected to international frontiers and leading in revenue collection, anti-smuggling activities, trade facilitation, ICT, modernisation, and inter-agency collaboration, among others.
“This honour by maritime journalists is also to set an agenda for other agencies of government and their appointees that the ever vibrant and dogged maritime media are watching them.
