Comptroller (Dr.) Ben Oramalugo
Story by Dili Utomi.
The Seme Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has continued the process of reforming all activities at the Command for better Service delivery and the realisation of the core mandates. It was in a bid to find out the principles that drive the processes that a group of five journalists met with the Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller (Dr.) Ben Oramalugo to ask a few questions. The questions and his answers are presented below.
Question: Good afternoon sir, could you give us some details about your experience at this Command as compared to your experiences in other commands that you have headed before?
Answer: I have been here for about two months now, I reported on February the 11th 2025. My experience has been awesome. I came here and met officers and men that are prepared to do the job.
I have been mandated by the Customs management to among other duties engage in generation of revenue at this moment. To the best of my ability, we have done well so far. In terms of export activities, we have processed over 96,000 metric tonnes of goods with a Free On Board value of Twenty Billion, Four hundred and Fifty-Four Million, Eight Hundred and Eighty-Eight Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty-Two Naira and Eighty-Seven Kobo (N20, 454,888,432.87k) only, facilitated from January to March 2025.
So we are doing well. And within four days of arriving here, we seized a bus that was filled up with cannabis sativa.
And as you may know, I have a zero tolerance for drugs and arms and ammunition. So we have been doing well.
Within the last few days, we have also seized about 7,000 pieces of coins. You know, our absolute prohibition is number 18 on the act. It says that we should not smuggle in coins or other forms of currencies from foreign countries to Nigeria, it contravenes our law. So that is why we seized them.
And also it is a form of money laundering. It contravenes the 2004 Money Laundering Act. We have reported to the Customs management in Abuja.
And we have put in place several methods and strategies to seize more currencies. Because we do not want this to be a conduit pipe for money laundering. And on a general note, we are prepared to make more seizures.
As you all know, without sounding any immodest, I am an award winning controller. Last year, during the award in November, I won three awards, which the CGC gave me. I want to maintain that tempo.
Question: Sir, what are the challenges that you have here at this Command?
Answer: We do not have public power supply here and do need a solar power and may be other power sources here. So we are appealing to the federal government to provide us electricity here.
Also, we have the normal challenge of resistance from the community. You know, this is a border community. These smugglers will tell you that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were smugglers, that they were born into it. They will tell you that they do not have any other job to do. We shall continue to educate them. They have a better life to live other than smuggling.
I also know that there is no country in the world where you have eliminated smuggling by 100%, but what we are trying to do is to reduce it to the barest minimum.
Question: Are you getting results. Since you came on board, has there been any vigorous push about collaborations, meeting communities, meeting stakeholders?
Answer: Yes, we have been collaborating with our sister agencies. When I reported here, I discovered that they were no longer having the security meetings that they used to have. They stopped it about seven years ago. I started it again.
Through that medium, we started talking to ourselves. As you were coming here, you may have noticed a little bit of sanity unlike before as we have reduced the checkpoints along the expressway from Agbara.
Comptroller (Dr.) Oramalugo fielding questions from journalists.
We are now telling other agencies to make their own sacrifice . They should also reduce their own checkpoints. This is the Abidjan Lagos-Corridor, an international gateway to the West African countries.
So whatever you do on this road, you should tell the story of Nigeria. We normally tell the officers that the way you talk to the passengers and to the visitors tell our story. I do think that we are making a change.
Question: I am just wondering, looking at your academic background, your disposition and so on, where did you get this push from?
Answer: Capacity is a decision. Whatever you want to be in life, you decide what to be. Right from the onset, I have been doing this job with a master’s degree. And I went further to acquire two more master’s degrees, making three master’s degrees, and a PhD from the University of Lagos in history and strategic studies.
So that strategic studies has given me a background about the security apparatus in all the regions of the world. I have also gone to Harvard where I got a certificate in Management and Leadership. So in essence, the ability to have capacity is an option.
It is a decision by you. If you want to, you will get it, that is really what I normally tell my officers, that they should not only see themselves as Customs officers, they should also see themselves as economic managers.
Be well informed, but you can only be well informed when you increase your capacity, when you read. The problem we have is that most of the officers do not even read, even to read a newspaper is a problem.
It is a general problem in Nigeria. If you want to hide anything from the average Nigerian, put it inside a book.
I have gone further to write a book titled “Customs Administration in Nigeria”, which I may regard as a magnum opus. Yes, the book is terrific. It tells you about the history of customs, the contribution of the Customs to the national economy, all the reforms, and the evil effect of waivers and exemptions.
As you may know, in 2011, we lost ₦1.14 trillion to waivers and exemptions. Even in the quarter of last year, we lost about ₦1.18 trillion to waivers and exemptions. The Comptroller-General of Customs himself even cried out at the colossal loss. I am sure if that leakage is blocked that we will do better than we are currently doing.
Question: Sir, what do you want to be remembered for?
Answer: I want to be remembered as an officer that came and made sure that Nigeria Customs generated more revenue. I want to be remembered as an officer that fought smuggling to a standstill, reducing it to the barest minimum, reducing the smuggling in of drugs, arms and ammunition.
As we are aware, drugs are destroying the fabrics of the Nigerian society. A lot of our children who are the leaders of tomorrow are addicted to drugs. Yes, according to the United Nations statistics on Drug and Crime, 14.4% of Nigerians between the ages of 15 to 65 are addicted to drugs. That means that our future is at stake. Even the president of our country said that the fight against drugs is not a matter of policy, but that it is a matter of moral imperative.
Any nation ravaged with drug menace has a minus for that society. This will show you the evil nature of drug addiction. When I was at the Kebbi Command, I arrested drugs dealers to the extent that the Director-General of the National Drug Enforcement, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (Rtd.), gave me an award as an ambassador, this was for the fight against drug, the seizures and the arrests I made. When I went to Oyo/Osun Command, I seized a truck load of 5,000 packets of fake drugs worth about ₦1.2 billion. I went to Oyo/Osun with the mindset of a historical knowledge of the effect of drugs.
In 1989, 152 children died in Kano. Because of paracetamol that contains diethylene glycol. Diethylene glycol is another substance that is used in the manufacture of dyes and cigarettes and so on and so forth.
In 2022, 66 people died in Gambia because of the same case. In 1990 at the University of Jos Teaching Hospital, 47 children died because of paracetamol that contained diethylene glycol. So I came to Oyo/Osun with that historical knowledge and I was bent on eradicating drugs smuggling.
And also my mind went back to what Professor Akunyili did when she was the Director General of the National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC). I remember the story she told about her older sister that died after a surgical operation when she was given fake drugs that were sold as originals. Professor Akunyili made up her mind to fight the menace of fake drugs even up to the point of her death.
So that is what it is. So I want to be remembered here as an officer that came and gave his life to the service of his fatherland.
And I thank God that the CGC recognised the efforts and gave me three awards. I was the only that won three personal awards at the CGC awards in November 2024.
Question: A lot of these things you have said of course, have been reported. There is one particular area where I think you have your strength in and one is hoping that you are carrying it on here now and that is in the area of community engagement, how has it been over the past two months?
Answer: Yes, in fact I started from the Kebbi State Command. Yes, I started visiting the Emirs then and they are my best friends now and it was because I know that they are nearer to the people.
When you get their trust and cooperation, your work will be easier for you. When I went to Oyo/Osun, I did same and in fact, the Oni of Ife regards me now as his son as I continued the engagement in Ibadan. Even from here now, I still do go to pay them visits there. That is the level that we operate. Now, whenever I have a problem, I will call them.
Sometimes in cases of troubles from these smugglers, I would call them. They will then call the smugglers to order. Here too, I have been visiting the Obas, I visited Oba Akhran of Badagry, the Oba of Ibereko and I am still going to visit more of the Obas. So I have a very 0robust relationship with them. About a few days ago, the O’dua People’s Congress commander in the whole of Lagos visited here. So we have a good relationship with them all. Yes, so that is exactly what I am doing here now too.
Question: What is the experience like compared to where you are coming from. This is the hub land border. How are you enjoying the ride here in Seme, the border community?
Answer: Well, we are moving on fine. First of all, we understand we are operating in a border with the Benin Republic. It’s 733 kilometers. That stretches up to Oyo/Osun area. So in Oyo/Osun it is a very wider space, border scattered, but within Seme here, they are within the vicinity, you can visualize and see. So these are two different terrains, but we are moving on well. The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), we are encouraging people to use this ETLS to bring in their goods.
The ETLS is meant for goods that are manufactured within West African region to encourage local production within West African region. The challenge we have here is that people will import goods into Benin from other parts of the world and still want to bring them in as ETLS and this brings challenges.
That is not what the treaty says. So that is the problem we have here. Generally, I am happy here.
I also want to add that in all these, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi has been very gracious all the way. No ethnic group dominates the Nigeria Customs Service now unlike before, it is now about what you know and not about who you know. The CGC is accessible and even calls in from time to time and when you get that kind of support, you will always try to put in your very best. That is what it is now. Thank you very much.
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