At Apapa, The Burden of Beating Your Own Record Challenges

By LOD Onyeji 

APAPA, Lagos — On September 29, 2026, Comptroller Murtala Mu’azu walked into the auditorium of Nigeria’s most consequential port revenue unit as its 33rd Customs Area Controller. Waiting for him was not just a handover note, but a formidable economic benchmark: *N323 billion in July 2026 and N28.102 billion in a single day on August 18, 2026*, both recorded under his predecessor, Comptroller Emmanuel Oshoba (Rtd).

Mu’azu’s response was unusually candid for an assumption speech.

“This is indeed a record to reckon with and strive towards matching... It is therefore a Herculean task upon myself and my team to match and surpass such a record,” he said.

His promise: revenue integrity, zero tolerance for Non-Tariff Barriers, and alignment with the CGC’s three pillars — consolidation, collaboration and innovation.

What makes Apapa different is that this "Herculean task" has become institutional tradition. A data review of the Command’s last two tenures reveals a clear pattern of escalating succession:

1. The Olomu Escalation (2024-2025): The Volume-to-Value Shift

When ACG Babatunde Olomu took over on May 5, 2024, Apapa contributed roughly 35% of Nigeria Customs Service revenue. In 16 months, he generated N3.709 trillion. 

His monthly curve is instructive:

- May 2024: N175.1bn → Oct 2024: N264.4bn the (+51% in 5 months)

- Jan 2025 peak: N269.3bn, stabilizing above N210bn monthly.

Olomu did it through technology and enforcement — 75 major seizures, blocking leakages with B’Odogwu and Non-Intrusive Inspection, proving that higher revenue could come from efficiency, not higher duty rates.

2. The Oshoba Breakout (2026): The Efficiency Dividend

Oshoba inherited Olomu’s N269bn peak. Within a year, he broke it by 20%, hitting N323bn monthly and N28.102bn daily. 90f2

How? He operationalized the reforms Olomu introduced:

- Advance Ruling for predictability

- Authorised Economic Operator Programme for trusted traders

- One-Stop Shop and B’Odogwu for human-interface redu

The empirical lesson: Every successful Apapa CAC does not merely collect more; he institutionalizes a new technology or process that makes the next record possibl

The Harvard case insight is clear. Mu’azu cannot beat N323bn by working harder on the old system. He must close the final leak: time.

His declaration that “Unnecessary human delays in cargo processing otherwise known as Non-Tariff Barriers shall not be tolerated henceforth” is not rhetoric — it is revenue strategy. At Apapa, delay is cost, cost is evasion incentive, and evasion is revenue loss. 

If he enforces his twin doctrine — “Every revenue due to government must be properly assessed and collected, and every decision taken by our officers must be capable of standing the test of scrutiny over time” — and makes collaboration with importers, agents, shipping companies and terminal operators real, the N350bn month becomes statistically probable. 

As Oshoba told officers at his farewell: “Discipline must remain our foundation, professionalism our standard and excellence our aspiration”.

Mu’azu has inherited more than a record. He has inherited a proven formula for surpassing it.