On June 13, 2024, an email from Janice Hills of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) announced a Campaign, “100 Days of Impactful PR at Customs Service, as a Finalist for the 2024 Golden World Award (GWA) in public Relations.

As a finalist, the campaign will now proceed to the second round, where more materials, including documents, relevant web links, images, and videos, will be submitted to enable the jury from various countries to decide on the winning entries.

The campaign, a testament to the strategic leadership of the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, was previously honoured with a Certificate of Excellence at the 2024 SABRE African PR, a prestigious recognition at the annual conference of the African Public Relations Association (APRA) in Cote d’Ivoire.

The campaign recognised the strategic deployment of public relations (PR) tactics by Adeniyi, in 100 days of acting as Comptroller General, to raise awareness about the New Customs Act and the Reform Agenda within the sector – a testament to his visionary leadership and innovative approach.

Upon assuming the role of acting Comptroller General on June 19, 2023, Adeniyi was presented with a unique opportunity. The immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari had, a week before his handover to President Tinubu, assented to the Nigeria Customs Act, amending it for the first time in over 64 years. This presented a key opening for Adeniyi to use the campaign to raise awareness about the transformative import, value, expenditure, and accountability changes promised by the new Act and the stricter penalties and sanctions for Excise duty violations.

The Act specifies that appointment of the Comptroller General of the service would no longer be open to non-career individuals, as it empowers the President to appoint a CGC from career-serving officers, provided they hold a rank not lower than that of an Assistant Comptroller General (ACG).

As a distinguished Fellow and former Vice President of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Adeniyi played a pivotal role in fostering stakeholder collaboration. His efforts were instrumental in aligning the NCS’s core responsibilities with President Tinubus priorities in trade facilitation, revenue collection, societal protection, and cooperation. This demonstrates the NCS’s unwavering commitment to national goals.

In just three months of his acting capacity, Adeniyi had intensified awareness campaigns through capacity-building programmes, stakeholder engagements, and media interactions. One of the other major challenges he faced on assumption of office was managing the trade embargo between ECOWAS states and Niger Republic due to a coup. Despite the public outcry over border closures affecting businesspeople and border communities, Adeniyi’s crisis communication strategies involved consultations with community leaders, youth groups, and business stakeholders towards providing relief, alternatives and legitimate options.

His leadership and managerial skills through strategic communication enhanced stakeholder collaboration ensured border security, influenced the citizenry’s compliance with customs reforms, significantly boosted revenue generation and instilled a sense of optimism and hope for the future. It also considerably contributed to the productivity of his management team. Impressed by the unparalleled feat and strategy deployed, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the confirmation of Adeniyis appointment as substantive Comptroller General from October 19, 2024.

Interestingly, Kabir Abdulsalam of PRNigeria and Maryam NaAllah of Spokespersons Digest, both staff writers at Image Merchants Promotion Limited, studied and documented Adeniyi’s public relations strategies in their forthcoming book titled “Impactful PR in Customs Management.”

With a blurb by Vice President Kashim Shettima and a foreword written by the President of NIPR, Dr. Ike Neliaku, the book highlights well-coordinated PR approaches in leadership and management.

Key aspects covered in the literature include how press coverage and media engagement created required awareness and sensitisation of customs reforms. Similarly, the effect of regular engagement with stakeholders in facilitating interagency collaboration and earning public support is also highlighted. Organised special events through lively interactions and fruitful deliberations have been valuable in promoting the new legislation and other service efforts.

The book emphasises other strategies for engagement and communication during crises and recognises the effectiveness of third-party narratives. It further focuses on primary PR tools in its twelve chapters, such as media relations, event management, crisis communication, stakeholder engagement, press release writing, social media, lobbying decision-makers, corporate social responsibility (CSR), reputation management, in-house publications, employee relations, and media monitoring.

In less than a year in office, through his trade facilitation measures, including 24-hour port decongestion/clearance and removal of multiple checkpoints with dedicated import and export terminals, the Customs Service under Adeniyi has achieved an unprecedented revenue collection of 75%, compared to the previous year.

A humble and detribalised Nigerian, Adeniyi has demonstrated inspirational leadership that motivates staff across all levels and backgrounds to strive for excellence and make sacrifices in the nation’s service. His selfless approach has created a culture of unity and dedication, inspiring others to work towards a common goal of serving the national interest.

His anti-smuggling campaign efforts, through strengthening collaborations, have also led to massive seizures of wildlife products, deadly weapons, and hard drugs, among other contrabands that are injurious to the economy and life of the people.

Adeniyi’s groundbreaking communication approach and proactive strategies have significantly influenced public perception and showcased the tangible benefits of effective PR strategies for excellence. His visionary leadership has transformed the Customs Service, restored trust and elevated its reputation. His exemplary model of effective PR at the management level has the potential to inspire future leaders to harness the power of strategic communication, leaving a lasting legacy in the industry.

The accomplishments of the customs service under Tinubus administration are quite obvious, as the book will be unveiled at the forthcoming annual Economic Confidential Summit in Abuja next month.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Author Award Winning Crisis Communication Strategies
www.YAShuaib.com, yashuaib@yashuaib.com

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“Congratulations for emerging a Finalist in the IPRA Golden World Awards for Excellence in PR 2020 with ‘NAF Women of War’ in the Category Crisis management.”

That was the message in an email received from Janice Hill, the Member Services Manager of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), notifying the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) of its campaign on gender balancing in the Nigerian military. The campaign had previously won the Public Sector/Government Category of African PR awards for Superior Achievement in Branding, Reputation and Engagement (SABRE) initially billed to hold at the Conference of the African Public Relations Association (APRA) in Dar es salaam, Tanzania in May this year, but which was postponed due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic that had claimed much ground across the world.

The first female combat helicopter pilot in Nigeria, Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, who died in an unfortunate freak auto-accident on July 14 at the age of 24, was one of the prominent faces of the inspirational PR campaign.

Before her untimely death, Arotile’s outstanding profile and that of Kafayat Sanni, Nigeria’s first female fighter jet pilot, form part of NAF’s campaign on Women of War, in an attempt to eliminate the stereotypical notion that the military is dominated by men; and that more so women have no place in the combat operations of the armed forces.

The campaign was an initiative of the forward-looking and detribalised Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, in rebranding the service as the most reputable, humane responsive military service in the African continent. Due to it uniqueness, the campaign had won several credible laurels, including African and global awards on reputation and crisis management in Rwanda and Armenia, only last year.

While the Air Chief is not given to playing to the gallery or engaging in contrived and incredible propaganda towards political ends, he takes great delight in projecting the earned reputation of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) as a progressive institution, through the exceptional efforts and gallantry of its personnel.

Through the video and other levels of narrative, the ‘Women of War’ campaign proved that “what a man can do, a woman can do better” by depicting how female inclusiveness in the military is paying off. Apart from Arotile and Kafayat, other top female officers were interviewed in a documentary, as the campaign was towards proffering answers to questions pertaining to the roles of women in the NAF, which have been unfairly underrated and unnecessarily burdened by distorted cultural expectations.

The campaign portrays how women of war have persistently showcased fearlessness and courage as pilots, combatants, and armament specialists, among other no less significant roles. These have tremendously led to the increased participation of female personnel in combat and war support functions, especially in the fight against armed banditry and insurgency in Nigeria. No doubt, this has portrayed the NAF as a gender-sensitive and balanced military institution, which projects positive female role models in the likes of Flying Officer Arotile and others, to the great admiration of Nigerians.

The campaign has immensely boosted the morale of the female troops, who are everywhere, valiantly fighting armed banditry and terrorism in Nigeria’s North-West and North-East geopolitical zones. It has also further gingered the enlistment of female citizens into the Nigerian Air Force.

During the unveiling of the newly acquired Augusta 109 Power Attack Helicopters, it was innocent-looking and brainy Arotile who introduced the features and operation of the aircraft to President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.

As such, the unprecedented outpouring of emotions, attendant upon grief and disbelief, was not surprising, following the death of the young female officer. When she was laid to rest on July 23, with full military honours, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar stated that the NAF was still in palpable shock and intense anguish over the loss of a mentee in whom the service had so much confidence. He described the late Arotile as a dedicated and goal-oriented young woman who carried out her assignments, both on the ground and in the air, with a high level of professionalism and commitment.

While reiterating how the fallen heroine had contributed immensely to the decimation of subversive elements in several anti-banditry combat missions, Air Marshal Abubakar condoled with the entire womenfolk of Nigeria, whom he said, the late Arotile had represented so creditably.

Born on December 13, 1995, Tolulope Arotile attended Air Force Primary School and Air Force Secondary School, both in Kaduna, from 2000 to 2011, before she later gained admission into the Nigerian Defence Academy as a member of the 64 Regular Course on September 22, 2012. She was commissioned into the Nigerian Air Force as a Pilot Officer on September 16, 2017, and was winged as the country’s first-ever female combat helicopter pilot on October 15, 2019, after completing her flight training in South Africa. She equally held a commercial pilot licence and had undergone tactical flying training on the Agusta 109 Power Attack Helicopter in Italy. Before her death, within short period of her commission, Arotile had attained over 400 flying hours in the service to the nation.

Truly, Arotile has left her mark in the sands of time, proving that when it comes to the attainment of excellence and value addition to society, age or gender remains a poor measure of capability, and hence should never be entertained as barriers.

While we thank the late Tolulope Arotile for fighting earnestly in protecting Nigeria’s sovereign integrity, I pray that other women of war would keep finding the courage to keep the flag of excellence flying, while never allowing their gender to constitute an hindrance to their remarkable capabilities.

Adieu patriot.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Author, Award-Winning Crisis Communication Strategies
www.YAShuaib.com

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