The Nigeria Customs Service has convened an induction workshop for resource persons and instructors ahead of its 2026 recruitment training programme, bringing trainers under one platform rather than engaging them in separate segments.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, represented by Assistant Comptroller-General Frank Onyeka, who oversees Human Resource Development, called on the trainers to work as a team and review the training modules so that the Service can produce officers it and the wider society can be proud of.
“If you don’t work like a team, you will not get the desired results. Working in silos will not give us what we want, but if you come together as a team, it is a natural answer,” he said.
He added that heads of the various training units must take full responsibility for their areas while remaining open to contributions from others, stressing that no one has a monopoly of knowledge. “To deliver this process and to get the desired results, all of us must work as one.”
Adeniyi recalled his own experience as a trainer in 2008 and 2009, noting that officers trained in that period later rose through the ranks, with some now serving as Area Controllers — an outcome he attributed to the collaborative effort of the trainers at the time.
Explaining the change in approach, he said the Service had previously prepared its trainers in segments, meeting resource persons and drill instructors separately and at different times.
“You bring a resource person, talk to them. You bring the drill instructors, talk to them. It was taking time. So, instead of breaking these segments, we brought everybody under one roof for the same purpose, to get the same results and drive towards the same purpose.” He said the joint format would save time and improve coordination before the basic training programme begins.
In her welcome address, the Commandant of the Ikeja Training College, Deputy Comptroller Precious Atah, described the retreat as the first of its kind and said it was important for setting the pace for the training programme. She urged the trainers to approach the exercise with an open mind.
The coordinator of the retreat, retired Deputy Comptroller-General Greg Itotoh, also encouraged participants to speak freely, noting that open discussion would expose grey areas and make solutions easier to find.
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