Perhaps, if Comptroller Aliyu Galadima Saidu had ended up a career educator, he would have made no less impact in the educational sector than he has already in tax management and revenue collection industry.
Without exaggeration, it can also be said that his destiny appear intertwined with impacting knowledge, a fact that has continually attracted him to the training grounds, building and moulding manpower, training, directing, instructing, evaluating, and carrying out project researches and development analysis.
It is not surprising therefore, that the Customs Area Controller of Onne, the one and only essential Comptroller Galadima Saidu is about one of the most widely in today’s Nigeria Customs Service. Even though he is not a P.hd holder, his scholarship has a swagger that ultimately puts Doctors of Philosophies on edge, given his parade of star educational accomplishment. Having been to four universities, home and abroad, and done quite a number of intermediate professional and occupational courses, Saidu , a strict disciplinary and a man who has a knack for strict trade compliance has qualified as a World Customs Organisation (WCO) Certified Trainer, for many years already.
With a Bachelor’s Degree in History from the University of Sokoto in 1987, Saidu gained admission into the University of Lagos where he bagged his Masters Degree in Strategic Studies in 2007. He was at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government in 2013, where he obtained an Executive Certificate in Strategic Management on Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies. Thereafter, he immediately enrolled at the University of Oxford same year, walking away with Executive Education Certificate in Improving Government Performance.
Saidu enlisted in the Nigeria Customs Service in 1988 as a transferee, and has served in various zones, commands and stations, and in various capacities.
An ICT guru and distinguished risk control manager, he served as Assistant Comptroller, Risk Manager between 2009 and 2012. Upon becoming Deputy Comptroller, he also served as DC ICT Headquarters between 2016 and 2017. Saidu was promoted Comptroller in 216 and worked at the ICT Unit at the Headquarters until he was deployed to Onne as the Customs Area Controller in August 2017.
A man of intellectual capacity, Saidu has written and published a number of books and resource materials amongst them are Risk Management in Customs Control.
For his salutary efforts at personal development which has impacted on the customs service in no small measure, Saidu is this week’s MARITIME LIVING LEGEND