From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Hameed Ali, has said that the era of favouritism in promotion and posting was long gone as his reward style was based on performance and nothing else.
He stated this yesterday while announcing the promotion of 3,487 senior officers of the establishment.
He also announced the abolishment of the existing dichotomy between Higher National Diploma and Bachelor of Arts or Science degrees earned by polytechnic and university graduates, respectively.
During a ceremony at the Customs headquarters in Abuja, Ali reminded his officers and men that there would be no short cut to success, as long as he remained CG.
He said there were laid down rules and procedures for officers and men to be promoted or posted, urging his staff to work hard to earn legitimate rewards.
Ali added that the bridging of the BSc/HND divide, which was in compliance with the Head of Service’s directive, was a necessary step to boost staff morale that has been perennially dampened by the dichotomy.
He said a scenario where an officer with HND would be on level seven and his counterpart with BSc or BA would be placed on level eight was an ugly development that bred bad blood and scorched productivity in the system for many years.
“They came in together and do the same job but one becomes the boss of the other. It is not right. That is now a thing of the past. Besides, promotion now is based purely on merit and not connection,” he said.