From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has accused President Bola Tinubu of deliberately frustrating the promotion of Deputy Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, BU Nwafor, from Anambra State to the position of Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service.
In a statement issued on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr Ezechi Chukwu, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation condemned the President’s recent decision to extend the tenure of the current Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, who was already due for retirement.
“President Tinubu, a few days ago, granted a one-year tenure extension to the current Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, who is already due for retirement, thereby shortchanging the next in line of succession, DCG BU Nwafor, whose retirement would be due in October 2026,” the group said.
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Ohanaeze argued that this action not only blocks Nwafor’s legitimate path to leadership but also creates room for another senior officer, DCG KI Adeola, to take over when Adeniyi eventually retires in 2026, thereby bypassing Nwafor entirely.
“With this reprehensible development, the next in hierarchy after Nwafor, DCG KI Adeola, is strategically positioned to take over from CG Adeniyi in 2026, rather than DCG Nwafor,” the statement read.
Describing the move as “a crown jewel of institutional unfairness, a peak of favouritism, and an ultimate display of blatant nepotism over merit, bureaucratic standard, and social conscience,” Ohanaeze said the development strikes at the heart of national unity.
The group warned that such decisions undermine the federal character principle enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution and called on the President to reverse the decision in the interest of equity and national cohesion.
“This discriminatory act is a violation of the principle of national unity and tenets of the Nigerian national anthem which echoes: ‘Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand,’” the statement added.
Rhetorically, Ohanaeze asked: “Is this the prototype of the Nigerian brand of brotherhood and patriotism? Can we continue to pretend that we are one people and one nation in the face of this canonic ethnic profiling?”
The group called on President Tinubu to “revisit this obvious act of robbing Peter to pay Paul, which amounts to injustice, inequity, failure of public morality, and a bruise on national pride.”
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