AM GRATEFUL TO THE CGC; NEWLY DECORATED ACG FRANK ONYEKA MOUNTS THE ROSTRUM
By Timothy Paul Okorocha
Frank Onyeka, a distinguished Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) just hung his new rank yesterday.
A household name in today’s customs, no doubt. From a humble beginning when he enlisted in the service, he climbed the ladder to get to the plum position of ACG, a management position every officer yearns to achieve.
It is indeed the ‘glass ceiling’ Since he enlisted in the service, he has traversed several commands where he made his marks and proverbially docked his vessel at the Tin Can island customs command where he transformed trade, imports and ensured maximum trade facilitation which came with it unprecedented revenue at the second largest seaport in the country.
A man who ensured importers were not unnecessarily strangulated by unbearable duties, he liberalized the system, with a strong view that paying maximum duty was almost going to discourage imports, but chose affordable duty payment where government will not a huge loss while ensuring adequate revenue for the government.
His leadership was digital, his stewardship exemplary, no wonder he was duly rewarded by the Comptroller General, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, PhD, MFR, with the management rank of an ACG
Newly decorated Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) Frank Onyeka has attributed his huge success at the Tin Can Island Port to the ‘immeasurable support’ extended by the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, PhD, MFR.
In an interview with This Page Newspaper, he stated that the Customs boss was systematically guiding him throughout his tenure, ensuring that issues of trade facilitation, revenue generation and anti-smuggling operations were sustained beyond targets. ‘In conjunction with my officers, we played by the rules’ he noted.
The former Tin Can Island Customs helmsman stated that he was also lucky that the trading public believed in him, stressing that with this kind of patronage, he was able to shoot up the command’s revenue from N1.5 trillion to N1.609 trillion last year.
According to him, with the introduction of B’Odogwu into the system, the command was able to generate N16 billion in a day, a feat he added, has not happened in the history of the command.
Describing the B’Odogwu as ‘a game changer’ and a big leverage, he thumbed up the Comptroller General for introducing policies that raised the bar for the service.
Heading to the Abuja Customs Headquarters as the ACG in charge of the HRD, Onyeka said he has his new job cut out for him. ‘I will add value to make the Human Relations Department better than I met it’
He recalled that when he landed at the Tin Can , he had to make his officers turn 360 degrees to change the wrong perception rubbed on the command ‘and luckily the CG believed in me’
Another major factor for his success was the collaboration with other relevant agencies, especially the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the NAFDAC, etcetera to achieve the CG’s mandate.
Onyeka stated that the collaboration was also instrumental to several drug hauls , while not discounting the rock solid support of members of the fourth estate of the realm.
‘Anywhere I go, they will be there for me’ For his successor, Compt Anani, ACG Onyeka said he was ‘leaving a house built on the rock of Gibraltar, he can work with the structure, and he will be on cruise control’