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Nigeria Maritime media celebrates Adeniyi over his transformational leadership as Customs boss

Funso OLOJO
In an unprecedented show of solidarity and unanimity in the acknowledgement of his sterling performance as the Comptroller-General of Customs, the maritime media practitioners have conferred an award of ‘Iconic Maritime Personality of the year 2024’ on Adewale Adeniyi.
The award, which is to be officially presented to the CGG on January 16th,2025  at the Apapa Port Customs Command Auditorium, Lagos is a testament to the transformational leadership of Adeniyi which the media practitioners agreed has revolutionized the Nigeria Customs Service.
The unprecedented recognition of the performance of Adeniyi was  a unanimous decision by all maritime journalists covering the maritime beat in Nigeria  which cut across print, electronic and online media, led by the different beat associations.
These include the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN), League of Maritime Editors (LOME), Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON), Maritime Journalists Association of Nigeria (MAJAN), Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria (SCAN), Online Maritime Media Association of Nigeria (OMMAN) and Congress of Maritime Media Practitioners  (CONMMEP).
They believe that CG Adeniyi has posted impressive  performance since his assumption of office as the Customs CGC.
According to a nomination letter sent to the CGC by the Secretary, Award Planning Committee, Mr Innocent Orok, “there is no gainsaying you have redeemed and repositioned the Service in all areas. These include revenue collection, anti-smuggling activities, trade facilitation, national security, staff welfare, inter-agency collaboration, infrastructural upgrading, Information and Communication Technology, and Corporate Social Responsibility, among others.
“It is also incontestable that your record-breaking performance has attracted national and international laurels to you, the Service, and Nigeria as a whole. Unarguably, it is partly for these reasons that the Leadership Newspaper Group recently honoured you with the award of the Public Service Personality of the Year.
“We, the maritime journalists, comprising both print, electronic and online media covering the beat, are happy to be part of this history-making with you as partners in progress.
“In appreciation of your superlative performance and, by extension, your unrelenting support to the media, especially the maritime media, we nominate you as the ICONIC MARITIME PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR.”
On his part, the Chairman of Award Planning Committee, Dele Aderibegbe, explained that “the award is coming at no better time than during the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is looking for focused and dedicated leaders to take the Nigerian economy out of the woods.
According to him, “this honour is very symbolic. First, this is the first time in the maritime sub-sector that all the journalists covering the beat will come together to honour a deserving performer per excellence, who has made the Customs and Nigeria proud by his purposeful, professional and patriotic leadership.
“Secondly, the Nigeria Customs Service under Adewale Adeniyi has been reconnected to international frontiers and leading in revenue collection, anti-smuggling activities, trade facilitation, ICT, modernisation, and inter-agency collaboration, among others.
“This honour by maritime journalists is also to set an agenda for other agencies of government and their appointees that the ever vibrant and dogged maritime media are watching them.
“We are inviting special guests, especially other agencies’ heads and maritime stakeholders to come and witness this great event, which is first of its kind in the Nigerian maritime industry.”
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Analyses

THE IBOM DEEP SEAPORT: Nigeria’s ultimate counterweight in West African maritime race

Monday Discourse with Ibrahim Nasiru
“A nation’s maritime greatness is not measured by the size of its conferences, but by the depth of its waters and the speed of its cargo.”
As the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) gathers in Lagos this week to deliberate on “Ports of the Future,” the conversation surrounding regional maritime supremacy has never been more urgent.
 While the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy discuss logistical resilience, the structural limitations of Nigeria’s traditional Ports remain an elephant in the room.
To truly dominate the West and Central African sub-region and checkmate aggressive expansion from rivals like Lome and Tema, Nigeria must aggressively accelerate its ultimate maritime trump card: the Ibom Deep Sea Port (IDSP).
For decades, Nigeria’s economic heartbeat has been throttled by the geographical limitations of the Lagos Port Complex.
Even with the laudable arrival of the Lekki Deep Sea Port, the nation’s maritime infrastructure remains heavily centralized, leaving the eastern flank underutilized.
The Ibom Deep Sea Port, strategically carved into the coastline of Akwa Ibom State, offers a game-changing natural advantage with its 16.5-meter design draft coupled with a wide, unrestricted navigation channel.
 Unlike the shallow, continually dredged channels of Apapa or Tin Can, IDSP requires no heavy maintenance dredging to welcome the world’s largest modern container vessels.
It is engineered to comfortably host Post-Panamax ships, effectively breaking the structural monopoly of regional hubs and positioning Nigeria as the definitive transshipment destination for the Gulf of Guinea.
Beyond these engineering metrics, the actualization of the Ibom Deep Sea Port represents a masterstroke in economic decentralization.
Strategically located within the Ibom Industrial City multi-product free zone, the Port sits squarely along major global shipping routes.
For Akwa Ibom State and the broader South-South and South-East geopolitical zones, IDSP is the catalyst for a massive industrial rebirth, promising to unlock over 10,000 direct jobs and establish a new industrial manufacturing corridor that feeds directly into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Yet, in the theater of governance, the standard remains Facta Non Verba—deeds, not words.
The recent submission of the Comprehensive Feasibility Report to Governor Umo Eno in April 2026 has reignited a fierce debate: does this document signal the dawn of a maritime revolution, or is it merely another chapter in a long-running political anthology?
For the people of Akwa Ibom State, the story of the IDSP has, for decades, been governed by Res Ipsa Loquitur—the thing speaks for itself—where the prolonged absence of an operational Port tells its own story of political promises fading into the sunset.
To change this narrative, the project must escape what is currently a technical reality trapped in a financial purgatory.
The road to actualizing the Port remains entangled in bureaucratic bottlenecks, complex Public-Private Partnership (PPP) negotiations, and shifting federal priorities.
 A project of this magnitude, requiring billions in investment, cannot bypass rigorous technical gestation periods.
However, as Minister Gboyega Oyetola champions the Blue Economy agenda at PMAWCA, the IDSP must move from a recurring item on the promotional checklist to a top-tier national infrastructure priority.
 Securing international consortium backing and streamlining regulatory approvals from the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) must be handled with the utmost urgency because public necessity outweighs private or localized interests.
The real test of sincerity lies in the immediate transition from documentation to mobilization.
The next true sign of life for the IDSP will not be found in another boardroom presentation, but in the finalization of the concession agreement with the Bollore Consortium and the actual flag-off of dredging and breakwater construction, currently projected for late 2026.
Only when the first piling is driven into the seabed will the project move from the realm of political possibility into the undeniable light of economic reality.
Ultimately, you cannot build a “Port of the Future” on yesterday’s infrastructure.
 While the PMAWCA roundtable in Lagos offers a fantastic platform for regional diplomacy, Nigeria’s true maritime liberation lies in the completion of deep-water frontiers like Ibom.
If the Federal Government is serious about Port resilience, trade connectivity, and sub-regional domination, the Ibom Deep Sea Port must be treated as what it truly is: a non-negotiable national security and economic imperative.
Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja. 
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Analyses

Tomorrow on ‘Monday Discourse with Nasiru’

Ahead of Tomorrow’s PMAWCA 2026 Opening: A Maritime Awakening or Continued Rhetoric?

Good evening, distinguished leaders and stakeholders.

As the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) Board of Directors converges on Lagos tomorrow , Monday, May 18th, 2026, the sub-regional race for maritime supremacy enters a critical week.

With our own NPA Managing Director, Abubakar Dantsoho, holding the gavel as PMAWCA President, Nigeria has a rare diplomatic leverage.

Yet, as we prepare to discuss “Ports of the Future” tomorrow morning, a sobering reality remains: can we truly checkmate aggressive infrastructure expansions from regional rivals like Lome and Tema using yesterday’s centralized, shallow-draft Port architectures?

True maritime power is governed by Res Ipsa Loquitur—the thing speaks for itself—and the prolonged underutilization of our Eastern maritime flank tells its own story.

While conferences celebrate regional integration, Nigeria’s ultimate economic counterweight remains trapped in the balance: The Ibom Deep Sea Port.

Tomorrow morning, I will be dropping a comprehensive, feature analysis titled: “THE IBOM DEEP SEA PORT: Nigeria’s Ultimate Counterweight in the West African Maritime Race.”

We will dissect the technical realities of the April 2026 Feasibility Report, the legal maxims governing public infrastructure delivery, and the high-stakes timeline of the Bolloré Consortium as we approach the late-2026 dredging benchmarks.

Let’s watch the opening statements closely tomorrow, but more importantly, let’s prepare to interrogate the execution metrics.

Full analysis drops tomorrow.

Have a productive night ahead.

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Analyses

MONDAY DISCOURSE WITH NASIRU

Chief Nasiru Ibrahim

Chief Nasiru Ibrahim, the former General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has joined the stable of theeyewitnessnews as a guest columnist.

Every Monday, Chief Nasiru will  delve into the diverse world of  maritime, politics and business in a rich and engaging prose.

He will lay bare the intriguing issues in these areas of human endeavours in his Monday Discourse.

Please stay tuned!!!

Tomorrow, join Nasiru as he takes us into the depth of “money politics, the  delicate case of delegates, the NDC as a new political bride and many more.

Is the “Delegate Disease” Finally Cured? 🗳️💻

“Whatever is hidden by the fog of political intrigue is eventually revealed by the light of the ballot.”

As Nigeria hits the May 10th deadline for digital membership registers, the 2027 primary cycle has reached its first major “survival” test.

In tomorrow’s deep dive:

🔹 The ₦100M Ticket: Why “Direct Primaries” are bankrupting party treasuries.
🔹 The NDC Surge: Following the May 3rd defection, can the new Obi-Kwankwaso alliance mobilize 10 million members in time to beat the clock?
🔹 The Death of the Delegate: Is power really moving back to the people, or just moving to a different kind of “money politics”?From the BVAS overhaul to the ₦135B legal “war chest,” we break down the high-tech, high-cost future of Nigerian democracy.

Keep a date with us as we drop the full article tomorrow

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