It was not the usual press conference as often replete in most Customs Area Commands spread across the Lagos axis.
For Comptroller Frank Onyeka, Customs Area Controller of the Tin Can Island Port, Apapa Command, it was time to say a big ‘thank you!’ to the journalists from across the numerous beat associations whom he described as ‘partners in progress that has been my driving force to success’ since he assumed office at the command, barely a year ago.
The atmosphere was serene as the selected Journalists milled into the cossy conference room of the Command, amidst jokes and banters in observance of the host’s declaration of the event as an ‘informal gathering of friends across a launch table’.
Although the event was not cut out for news gathering, years of interaction with journalists must have informed Comptroller Onyeka that you don’t host such events with ‘news hounds’ without giving them a tease of their primary responsibility as newsmen. And what better contemporary issues in the Customs parlance could have come in handy than the Customs recently introduced trade facilitation module codename, B’Odogwu.
Describing B’Odogwu as a home grown Customs innovation, Comptroller Onyeka said the module which was launched recently across the nation’s strategic customs formations nationwide by the Controller General, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, was an unprecedented move in providing solutions to contemporary issues militating against cargo deliveries at the ports, just as the novel media launch time signals a new era of transparency and media engagement within the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Needless to say, the event marked the first time in the history of the Command that such an informal and engaging forum was organised between a sitting CAC and members of the press.
Thus, Comptroller Onyeka expressed gratitude for the support he has received from the media since assuming office last year as the Command’s CAC with the rank of a Deputy Comptroller before becoming a Comptroller, a rare feat in the Command’s tradition which has often witnessed the posting of a fully ranked Controller of Customs to man the command.
B’Odogwu, he said was a locally engineered response to the inefficiencies of the NICIS platform, noting that it was conceived, developed, and managed entirely by Nigerian Customs ICT professionals without international input.
Responding on behalf of the mediamen, Elder Asu Beks, a foremost maritime journalist speaking at the event, said B’Odogwu was a Customs-created solution meant to drive trade consultations and ensure seamless clearance processes, ‘which should be supported and promoted by the media to propagate it’s ideals’.
And according to the CAC, ‘B’Odogwu was a deliberate formation whereby we are addressing issues before they even arise. It’s not perfect, but we’ve solved over 90% of the problems we inherited’, he explained.
Project Manager of B’Odogwu and Assistant Comptroller Abbas Oyindamola, who joined Onyeka in addressing the media, emphasised that the new platform would provide real-time solutions to trade-related bottlenecks and help reduce delays that lead to demurrage charges at terminals.
‘The narrative that every delay at the port is caused by Customs is no longer tenable. B’Odogwu enables faster processing, transparency, and accountability. Our ICT unit is fully involved, and our officers have embraced this digital transformation’, Abbas added.
The luncheon was attended by representatives from major media houses, port stakeholders, senior customs officers, and special guests from across the maritime sector.
