CGC Defends Recruitment Process in Customs, Claims Federal Character Principles Applied

Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Col. Hameed Ali,(Rtd ) has defended the recruitment exercise in the Nigerian Customs Service saying the process maintains federal character principles.

Apparently reacting to allegations from some quarters that recruitment in the Service is usually carried out to favour a particular section of the country, the CGC said all the new officers are drawn from the 774 local government areas of the country,

While referring to the last recruitment process, Ali, who was in Customs Training College, Ikeja to mentor the new cadets.said, “This is the most rigorous recruitment we had and this is the one that complied with Federal character in its whole entirety, whereby, we have representatives from 774 local government in Nigeria.

“Every local government produced an officer and three other cadets. I am proud of it and as management we hope it will continue this way.”

The CG said “every time we keep innovating and this time around since we recruited these people, the commandant came up with a process that he needed our support by allowing each and everyone of us at the top management level to visit and share our experience with these young recruits. This is for them to know that there are a lot to do in the service as well as the service having a lot to offer them.

“Part of the knowledge transfer is for the officers to know certain things they must keep doing to get to the top and the commandant called that mentorship.

“It’s okay to say I want to be a Customs officer but there are ground rules that make you survive as an officer. I got a feed back from them and am highly encouraged with their confidence and the questions they asked”.

Ali, while advising the new officers to ensure they work hard and be in tune with the Information communication Technology (ICT) which is the backbone of every organization, he told the officers to be ready to work in any part of the country as that this was the nature of the job.

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