Customs Strike Force Big Counterbalance
Perhaps, one
thing critics cannot take away from the Comptroller General of the Nigeria
Customs Service; Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) is his principled leadership style that
thrives on competence, compliance, merit, foresight, sound judgment, and
nationalistic focus devoid of tribalism and ethno-religious sentiments.
Above
attributes which happens to be the fulcrum of leadership hallmark is what Ali
has also deployed in the CG Strike Force, beyond all compartments of narrow
consideration. Since appointing Deputy Comptroller Abdullahi Kirawa as the National Coordinator, the Strike Force
has taken the game to the next level,
breaking down all the hitherto barriers as it mops-up leakages from the land
borders and seaports, alike.
An
unbendable and hardboiled enforcement officer, Kirawa has acquired a long
standing reputation as a ‘notorious spoiler’ dreaded within and without.
Smugglers who have encountered him in the past, and they by no mean few, will
remember him as a pleasant and comely operative in the face but highly
unpredictable and more often than not hard boiled in the demand for what is
right and firm as a nail with enforcement decisions.
When the
news of his appointment went round, it must have resonated in the underworld,
while few must cursed the day, especially those who have had the misfortune of
coming face to face with him along the Seme/Idiroko axis, years back. Since his
appointment he has left no one in doubt that a new sheriff is in town, as the
Strike Task Force has continue to rebound with impressive records of seizures,
nationwide, under his watch. As Kirawa continues to oxygenate the task force,
especially at a time of national emergency like this, when security issues,
youths drug addition, blockage of revenue leakages, the drive up to rejig and
re-strengthen government policy compliance cannot be overemphasized, and that
is what makes the CGC’s appointment of a tested, trusted, professionally
mobile, intellectually sagacious and meticulous operative like Kirawa more
profound.
With him on
the dais, it’s either eyes right, or you are out of formation and damned. It
did not come as a surprise to followers of events that Kirawa made the list of
promoted officer to the rank of deputy comptroller. Those whose business it is
to know say he was overdue. An unapologetic enforcement operative, Kirawa has
been around the jungle for quite awhile, sniffing criminal footprints and
purring through the vast unfriendly darkling plains, to confront smugglers at
very great risk on the line of duty, often head on.
His records
of anti-smuggling activities are replete with historical exploits of major
confrontations, some of which were by diligent ambush, and some of which has
attracted national attention. Not so much by its’ seizes any less the
professionalism brought to bear on such operations, a few of which were
reported as operations behind enemy line.
A team
spirit officer, even though he has a history of working under various CGC Task
Forces in prior administrations, Kirawa is believed to be a disciplined
and thorough bred professional, who
accorded the customs area controllers where he operates, every courtesy and
official acknowledgment; where he remains unobtrusive and the CAC takes the
glory for recorded successes. Even though enforcement duty comes easier for him,
Kirawa is said to possess and have demonstrated uncanny resourcefulness and
craft in other core customs operational competences like tariff reading and
revenue generation.
Also
believed to possess an uncanny quirk that guide some of his actions, he has
fought many battles in the line of tax collection, in addition to the personal
inner fight and every day struggle associated with public service, exemplified
in work place vicissitudes, the personal struggle of faith to hold on amid
challenging stations of life, to which quite a sizeable number of public
servants are also exposed.
Kirawa is
also a seasoned administrator and manager of human resources, who has the
uncanny facility of pooling together the best manpower to prosecute any
assignment. In doing this, he breaks the bond of mediocrity and all
socio-cultural leanings including tribal and religious attachments, aiming only
for the very best. In his team are officers and men who have distinguished
themselves in exemplary exploits and sound operational judgments in
anti-smuggling combat. Prosecuting the war against smugglers with him is the
South West Zonal Coordinator, Assistant Comptroller Shuabu M. S,
South-South/South East Zonal Coordinator, Assistant Comptroller Olumisere
Kayode, Zone D Coordinator, CSC Jude Ohagwu.
Between August 11 and September 18, 2018, the
Strike Force generated a whooping Four Hundred and Four Million, Seven Hundred
and Twelve Thousand, Five Hundred Naira (N414, 712,500.00) from seizures of
assortment of contraband and trade goods that violated the importation
guidelines.
A total of eleven trailers of banned
imported foreign rice was part of the seizure, including various types of
automobiles, vegetable oil, fairly used clothing, shoes, unprocessed, sugar and
classified woods and foreign frozen poultry products.
Kirawa who disclosed above said the
seized items leaked through the land borders, nationwide, vowing that the
Nigeria Customs Service will continue to waste the wall chest of fund of the
smugglers in the implementation of the federal government policy on rice ban
through the land border.
His recent
promotion will no doubt further stabilize his oft belief that “everything works
for good.” With just one more rank to go to attain the peak of his professional
career, there is no doubt that Kirawa has found a fresh booster to continue to
beat his own records, given the history of critical national assignment he has
led over the years, and the one he is currently leading.
Self
motivating and confident, Kirawa is a product of his inner propulsion any less
a product of ideas and in-house training. In his last assignment under the last
administration as one of the head of the CG Task Force at Seme axis, Kirawa
conscious of the limitations neighbouring language imposed on his communication
need at the franco-phone field of operation, enrolled for a French class at the
prestigious French Village, Badagry Lagos, at his personal cost, just to
broaden the power of his leadership role as the head of an important
assignment.
Given his
new assignment, Ali constitute the larger picture for his pragmatic and broad
view leadership spectrum, in identifying capable and reliable hands to drive
the customs operations. Even though it is impossible to rule out the man in him
that is susceptible to common place primordial affinity, Ali has demonstrated a
huge sense of balance that has proudly outgrown petty and narrow ethno-cultural
leanings which has become a bane of national development.
With more
appointees in the leadership mould of Ali, there is no doubt the country will
sooner reinvent itself and quickly reconnect with the right compass to deepen
the war against smugglers and revenue evaders, and thus achieve a demonstrable
commitment in policing government fiscal and economic policies.
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