ABDULLAHI DIKKO INDE: FIRST AMONG EQUALS!

The normal birth of human beings on earth occurs in a split second, but once this happens for each individual, time start counting; from minutes to hours, to days, month and years. In the end, it is not how long one has lived, but how well.

Greatness is eventually judged not by the length of days, but how one has been able to use his time on earth to make meaningful contribution to the life of others around him. If Dikko is named the most influential Controller General of Custom in the country one might not be wrong. If he is regarded as sage, silent achiever or hope of hopeless or architect of development why is it so? What did he do that was different or what were others doing that he had done differently to create a niche for himself in the chronicles of this life.

The tremendous success recorded by custom service under his stewardship was instantaneous, was not because there were enough resources thrown into it, but because the vision was clear, the need was obvious, the reason was cogent and the hour was ripe.

Dikko is a complete human being, a man with good character, helpful, very courageous, obedient, very resourceful in fact there are no adjectives to qualify him, he was very patient, very tolerant and he had a good foresight, very wonderful, one who had the desire of transforming the service through his ability of taking the service to greater height. On assuming office as Comptroller - General two years ago, Alhaji Dikko Inde outlined a six-point agenda aimed at maximizing the potentials of the service through capacity building. To boot, he created a new Department of Human Resource Development (HRD) to fortify the urgent priority of training and retraining of officers and men of the service to restore and enhance professionalism and productivity. Towards ensuring capacity regeneration, the department has already facilitated the training of more than eight thousand senior and junior officers of different departments in different training/ Workshop and seminars both locally and internationally on specialized courses which includes training and workshops on ASYCUDA, Enforcement and Drugs, Tariff and Trade, Accounts and Audit, Medical Courses, Technical, General office Administration and Human Resources.

To complement efforts of other equally proactive security agencies, especially in the present circumstance of national security challenges, about 50 officers and men of the Provost Unit have been successfully trained on security related matters at the Nigerian Army School of Military Police as a result of the Service's enlistment into the school's Security Enhancement Programme. Increasingly, the Dikko Inde leadership has continually prioritized the capacity enhancement of the Customs officers and men on the handling of modern and sophisticated weaponry. So far, about, 1, 2510 men have been trained across different competences locally and internationally, while two recent major promotion exercises have seen to the elevation in rank of 8,906 officers of the Service.

The challenge of combating smuggling through effective border patrols has also received special attention. The service has secured 400 units of Toyota Hilux patrol vehicles to curtail the importation of firearms and explosives through some of the nation's porous borders.

The fight to rid our borders of smuggled goods has been phenomenal within the last 24 months. In the last three months in particular, especially following the reinforcement of the hitherto disbanded Anti-Smuggling activities team code-named 'Operation Chinaka' with impressive logistics such as aircraft, anti ballistic actions (Bullet - Proof Vehicles), in addition to attractive financial incentives, there has been a hot pursuit of trans-border criminals, especially smugglers. The recent reports of numerous seizures of Cocaine and other forms of contraband at Lagos Tin can Island Port of cocaine is a clear testimony of the current wind of transformative leadership.

Love by all officers and men of the service, he write his name in platter gold by becoming the first comptroller of the service who not only design but come out with Custom Academy that will train the officers in awarding degrees and other relevant courses that can make the officers a role model all over the world. It is also during his time that every custom officer becomes computer literate. Already, officers of the service are in tune with, and have imbibed global best practices to engender a virile e-Customs. The cumulative efforts to bequeath the legacy of a strong service is being driven by the integration of e-SDG (DTI trade input), e-manifest, e-payment, e-notification to government-controlled agencies as well as e-government platforms for a single window to stakeholders in international trade, through e-release and e-provisions of Customs Service.

He also champions the fight of having good atmosphere of working relationship through providing good welfare and salary increase to 100%. He also become the first to build a well design estate in Abuja with full and well furnished materials to staff and he is on the way of extending the project nation-wide, he enjoys good and cordial relationship with his subjects because of prudence and transparency in all his undertakings, he allow action to speak in his day to day activities, to wide up Dikko offer the said houses to officers after retirement by becoming owner occupier.

Reports indicate tremendous achievement in the areas of revenue generation at the moment, 9, 497 seizures valued at N16.2 billion has been successfully recorded, with about 517 persons arrested, most of them facing several levels of prosecution. The 2011 revenue generating profile of N1.14 trillion is already instructive, and demonstrates that results of the Dikko Inde strategies are already setting pace for the anticipated benchmarks.

Written By Alkammawa. alkammawa2000@yahoo.com