The Nigerian Maritime Media Practitioners, a coalition of journalists covering the maritime industry, will confer the prestigious Iconic Maritime Personality of the Year 2024 Award on Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR.
The award ceremony is scheduled to take place on Thursday, January 16, 2025, at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, starting at 06:00 PM.
The decision to honor CG Adeniyi was reached unanimously by journalists across various media formats, including print, electronic, and online platforms.
Key associations involved in this decision include:
League of Maritime Editors (LOME)
Group of Non-Aligned Journalists
Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN)
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)
Congress of Maritime Media Practitioners (CONMMEP)
The maritime journalists highlighted CG Adeniyi’s sterling leadership and exemplary performance since assuming office.
According to a nomination letter from Mr. Innocent Orok, Secretary of the Award Planning Committee:
“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.”
Speaking on the significance of the award, the Chairman of the Award Planning Committee, Mr. Dele Aderibigbe, stated:
“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.
“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 par 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 is leading in revenue collection, anti-smuggling activities, trade facilitation, ICT modernisation, inter-agency collaboration, and improved border security, 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 Nigeria’s maritime sector.”
