CAC, Murtala Mohammed Airport Command (MMAC), Lagos
[dropcap]C[/dropcap]omptroller Emmanuel Edede needs no introduction as a Nigerian. He is not a stranger to Customs revenue collection and enforcement . His bonding with Nigeria Customs Service is akin to the umbilical relationship between a child and the mother right from the womb and last all through a lifetime. His antecedents and achievements in Nigeria Customs Service speaks volumes. He is a perfect example of leadership symbolism, the paragon of idealism, the soul of humanity, the heart of warrior, the perfect gentleman. Indeed, some leaders are born, some achieve leadership, some have leadership thrust upon them, while only very few have all three embedded in them. Comptroller Emmanuel Edede is a man of immense mettle and a completely detribalized human being with a profound depth of character, whose humility, devoid of discrimination, embraces all and sundry. He soars like an eagle and exudes reverence and integrity. A pragmatic leader full of benevolence; he gives hope to the hopeless, welfare succor to the poor and needy. To everyone who crosses his path, he is a light. He is a friend to the staff , a role model to the young,a helper to many and a visionary man.
Comptroller Emmanuel Edede the present Controller in charge of Murtala Mohammed Airport Command (MMAC), Lagos fits into the mold where scholars conclude that great men and women achieve success through hardwork and resilience. He remains the luckiest in terms of favourable circumstances. He is one of the few officers that have served round trip the most successful commands in Nigeria. Comptroller Emmanuel Edede is not disposed to unnecessary talks and frivolities; a no nonsense man who had all through his leadership role in the service proved himself to be a leader that matches words with actions.
Since he was redeployed as the Customs Area Controller of Murtala Mohammed Airport Command (MMAC), Lagos, he has magically turned around the operations of the command wise with unprecedented revenue generated since he took over.He has hitherto raised the performance bar of the unit to an exampled level in the history of the command. This is due to the fact that the refined officer is adjudged according to maritime watchers to be a revenue oriented officer as well as his encomiums emanated from commands with performance based on revenue. Many senior customs officers hailed the Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) led management’s decision of redeploying Comptroller Emmanuel Edede to the Murtala Mohammed Airport Command (MMAC) to pilot the affairs of the unit knowing fully well he is a great performer and a goal getter; bearing in mind that the command is one of the nerve centres of the Nigeria Customs Service.His aggressive approach and the proactiveness of his Command officers will increase revenue generation of the command, adding that Nigeria Customs Service main target is revenue generation and trade facilitation with much efforts and emphasis on blockage of revenue leakages through 100 percent examination of cargoes.
Comptroller Emmanuel Edede wants to leave the Murtala Mohammed Airport Command (MMAC) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) better than he met it is not in doubt. This is because he is a man that is associated with result from his days in the lower cadre in the Service to this present position of the Controller of Customs. This Abia State born Comptroller Edede has worked in so many Area Commands all over the federation before becoming a
Controller. He has worked in Onne, Rivers state, Apapa Command in Lagos State, he has worked in the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU), he has worked in so many of the sensitive units and he has garnered so many experience both in enforcement and revenue which was why when he took over as Deputy Comptroller, he was able to handle one of the biggest terminals in Apapa where he did well. He has worked also at Harvey road, that is the Zonal Headquarters of the South West.
In 2015, he was promoted to a full-fledged Controller. He also worked at the customs printing press unit at Abuja. While he was working there, owing to his experience, he was asked to go and take charge of Adamawa/Taraba command. You will agree with me that Adamawa/Taraba is a volatile command owing to the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents there but because of his experience in enforcement, he did very well there and on the 25th of April, 2017, he was asked to come and take control of MMAC from the former Comptroller F.N.Alana.
On assumption of office in April, he discovered that whereas the revenue collected by the command in April was a little above N4 billion which was within the range of the target given to the command by the service, there was a shortfall in the revenue collected by the command in the month of May, 2017, his first month in control of the command. This is so as the command collected a little above N3.5 billion and he was worried by the development, he set out to look out for what was responsible for the shortfall in revenue of the command in the first month of his taking control of the command. He did not search for too long before he stumbled on the answers;first according to a source in the command who spoke under the condition of anonymity because he had no permission to speak to the press, “some of the reasons he discovered were that immediately he took over, the general movement of officers, from Assistant Comptroller down to one star came out and you know what that means? It means that all of them were moving out.
So, most of them have to move immediately and some that came from enforcement background and not from revenue. For them to come and take over in revenue means you have to start putting them through, enlightening them on what to do because He will always tell you that he doesn’t like failure which is why he is trying to see how he could go back to the range”.On the agents/customs fracas that usually characterize the command, the source pointed out that the customs boss was aware of that which was why on assumption of duty at the command, before even reaching out to his sister agencies, he met with the clearing agents namely; the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) where they agreed on modalities to adopt to iron out areas of disagreement adding that he had detailed an Assistant Comptroller who happened to be his Personal Assistant in-charge of Tariffs to handle cases arising from tariff and classification of goods arising from disagreement between the agents and the different O/Cs at the shades so as to ensure a rancor free command.
It is on record that the very week Comptroller Edede took over the command, two packages of suspected illicit drugs
concealed in one package carried onboard Emirate Flight with Air waybill no: 176-3749-3562 detained on the 22nd of April, 2017, was found to contain the suspected parcel on examination done on the 26th of April, 2017. The concealed parcels were later handed over to the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for testing and weighing. The suspected substance on testing was found to be Heroine weighing 5kg.
Although not much will be said to have been achieved by this new bride at MMAC but efforts are on to obliterate whatever bumpy beginning by Comptroller Edede as he also acknowledged the fact that more needed to be done, the reason he had been shying away from the press since assumption of duty at the command. This is because he believed in having tangible result to showcase before rushing to the press so as not to be seen as working on the pages of newspapers and on the screens of television without commensurate efforts on ground to match his media campaigns. All eyes are on this gentleman who has delivered .
On the other hand, it is said that a tree does not make a forest, with this in mind, the onus lie on the stakeholders,
terminal operators, men and officers of the command and indeed the media to join hands with this gentleman and volunteer information that will help the command achieve its set objective because the success of Edede at MMAC translates to the success of the service and indeed the good and welfare of the entire citizens.“The days and time of doing the wrong things in the MMA Customs Command can be said to be a thing of the past because of Mr Right is now in charge.
By: Grassroots Publishers
