There is a particular kind of leadership that does not announce itself with unnecessary noise. It does not spend every morning telling people what it intends to do, nor does it require constant publicity to establish its relevance. Its evidence is usually found somewhere else: in the figures, in the discipline of officers, in the quality of enforcement, in the confidence of stakeholders and, most importantly, in the problems that quietly disappear because somebody took responsibility for solving them.
This, to be specific, is the kind of leadership I have increasingly come to associate with Deputy Comptroller of Customs Usman Adamu, the Acting Customs Area Controller of the Kano/Jigawa Area Command, whose competence and commitment are highly valued and appreciated both the leadership of the Service and stakeholders.
I have followed the activities of the Command closely in recent months, and what interests me is not one particular seizure or one revenue figure. It is the consistency of the pattern. The Kano/Jigawa Command generated N63.08 billion between January and June 2026, representing a 7.4 per cent increase over the N58.39 billion collected during the same period in 2025. More remarkable is the performance of the Kano Free Trade Zone, which contributed more than N26 billion in the first six months of the year, exceeding its entire 2025 revenue by about N4 billion. The Command also recovered approximately N3 billion through enforcement of transit procedures, despite a reported decline in cargo throughput.
To me, those figures deserve to be read beyond the arithmetic. Revenue does not simply appear on a Customs revenue sheet. Behind every increase is a combination of assessment, compliance, intelligence, monitoring, enforcement, stakeholder engagement and the ability of officers to close the spaces through which revenue can escape. It is therefore significant that the Command attributed its improved performance to deliberate operational strategies, intelligence-led enforcement and stronger collaboration with other security agencies. That combination tells a more complete story about what Adamu appears to be trying to build in Kano and Jigawa.
But if revenue were the only measure of this administration, I would not find the story particularly remarkable. Customs is not just a revenue collection agency. It is, beyond that, an economic and security institution, and the Kano/Jigawa Command sits in a part of the country where the responsibilities of border management, trade facilitation and enforcement naturally intersect. That is why the Command’s recent activities at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport caught my attention. Officers have been intercepting undeclared foreign currencies and other negotiable instruments, with cases handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for further investigation. In one reported operation, the Command intercepted 461,600 US dollars from two passengers after non-intrusive profiling led officers to conduct a secondary examination.
There is something important in that development which should not be lost in the excitement of announcing another seizure. The modern Customs officer must be able to recognise that the movement of undeclared cash across an international border may have implications far beyond the immediate violation of a declaration requirement. It can touch money laundering, illicit financial flows and national security. The fact that Customs is working with the EFCC in such cases demonstrates the importance of inter-agency cooperation, and Adamu’s acknowledgement of the support of the EFCC and the continuous training and intelligence-driven approach of his officers shows an understanding that sophisticated crimes cannot be confronted with outdated methods.
The same philosophy is visible in the Command’s handling of illegal drugs infiltration to our market places. In recent time, the Command, under the leadership of DC Adamu, had demonstrated a remarkable commitment of protecting public health through seizure, and handover of unregistered pharmaceutical products to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control was another reminder that the Customs officer at the border is often the first line of defence between a dangerous product and an unsuspecting Nigerian. Unregistered medicines are not harmless contraband. They can become a direct threat to lives when they enter the market without the regulatory checks required by law. The decision to work with NAFDAC rather than treat the seizure as the end of the matter reflects the kind of institutional collaboration that modern enforcement demands.
I am equally interested in what is happening inside the Command, particularly the emphasis on professional development. The training organised for officers from the North-West on investigation techniques, investigative procedures and the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023 is important because effective enforcement cannot be separated from knowledge of the law. A Customs officer may have the courage to intercept a suspect, but courage without legal knowledge can produce weak enforcement. An officer may discover an irregularity, but without investigative competence, the evidence may not be properly developed. Building the capacity of officers therefore strengthens the institution beyond the immediate training exercise.
This is one area where I believe Adamu’s leadership deserves absolute fair assessment. A leader should not be judged only by what happens outside the office. What happens inside the institution may be even more important. If officers are learning, if they are being exposed to new investigative techniques, if they understand the provisions of the NCS Act 2023 and if they are encouraged to work with other formations and agencies, then the Command is building institutional capacity that can outlive the tenure of any individual officer.
And then there is the issue of transit, which may eventually become one of the more important parts of the Kano/Jigawa story. The Command’s receipt of its first-ever transit container from the PTML Terminal in Lagos, accompanied by the deployment of an electronic cargo tracker and seal, represents more than the arrival of another container. It demonstrates the growing application of technology to the movement of goods from the seaports into the hinterland. With electronic tracking, Customs can monitor the journey of cargo more effectively, identify unauthorised interference and strengthen accountability throughout the transit process.
This is particularly important for Kano because the city has historically been a major commercial centre and an important destination within Nigeria’s northern trade network. If legitimate cargo can move from the ports to the hinterland with greater predictability and security, everyone benefits. Customs benefits from stronger control. Importers benefit from improved visibility. Freight forwarders benefit from a more predictable process. The economy benefits because trade becomes less vulnerable to diversion and unnecessary delays. This is the point at which enforcement and trade facilitation stop being presented as opposing ideas and begin to work as complementary responsibilities.
I have also noticed something else in the way the Command has operated under Adamu: the willingness to connect Customs work with the wider needs of society. The recent intervention involving the distribution of relief materials to Almajiri schools in Kano, undertaken in partnership with the Bella Amor Foundation, may not appear on a revenue chart, but it is nevertheless part of the broader responsibility of an institution that operates within communities. The Nigeria Customs Service’s Customs Cares initiative has increasingly demonstrated that the Service understands its relationship with Nigerians in a broader sense. Public institutions should collect revenue and enforce laws, but they should also understand the communities in which their officers live and work.
This is where I believe the Kano/Jigawa Command is beginning to show a certain maturity. It is not trying to define Customs work narrowly. Revenue matters. Enforcement matters. Border security matters. Trade facilitation matters. Officer development matters. Community engagement matters. The challenge for a Customs Area Controller is to hold all of these responsibilities together without allowing one to destroy the others.
More importantly, he appears to understand his place within the larger architecture of the Nigeria Customs Service. His administration has truly been copycat of the CGC Adeniyi’s impactful reforms. For that, the Command has continued to implement the broader direction of the Service through technology, intelligence-led enforcement, stakeholder engagement, professional training and trade facilitation. That is important because loyalty within a structured institution should not mean silence or passivity. True professional loyalty means understanding the institutional vision, accepting responsibility for one’s assignment and translating policy into results.
This is perhaps the quality I find most encouraging about Usman Adamu. He appears to understand that the office of an Area Controller is not a personal kingdom. It is a position of trust. He is there to protect the interests of the Service, support the strategic direction of the CGC, motivate his officers and ensure that the Command contributes its own share to the national assignment.
I have always believed that the best public servants are not necessarily those who speak the most about their achievements. They are those whose work makes it easier for the institution to fulfil its mandate. If an importer can move legitimate cargo with greater confidence, if a smuggler knows that intelligence is closing in, if an officer is better trained than he was yesterday, if a dangerous medicine is stopped before reaching the market, if illicit money is intercepted before it disappears into an illegal financial network, and if government revenue is protected in the process, then public service is taking place in its most practical form.
Muhammad Bashir is a Public Relations practitioner, columnist, and researcher with keen interest in governance, leadership, institutional reforms, strategic communication, and national development. He holds a Master’s Degree in Democracy and Governance and is currently a PhD candidate in Public Relations at the Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State.
He can be reached via muhammadbashir38@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +2348062958059.
