Joseph Attah, National Public Relations Officer disclosed this to Journalists on the sidelines of ongoing strategic communication workshop for Customs PR Officers in Lagos
Attah said the included training subjects aims at improving on existing customs community relations and making the service impact better on the business world without failing on vigilance.
“You see, there is one thing people do not know about the Controller General of Customs. The distant perceiver might see him as somebody who does not take seriously issues of media relation.
“To the contrary this is a man who is passionate about service delivery this is a man who is passionate about the right of Nigerians to be adequately informed and therefore he has graciously approved the inclusion of core public relation topics like image of Perception Management as part of the training module that will henceforth be undertaking by the Customs training colleges to all intakes.
“The objectives of this inclusion is to have a situation where every Customs officer is an average PRO.The PRO should not necessarily be the person that wears the tag of the office Every Customs officer should respect the right of Nigerians to know why they do what they do and to treat Nigerians in a dignified fashion.
” We are talking about bringing about generation of officers who will be civil but firm, conscious without lose of dignity and service delivery that is anchored on mutual understanding.
“The essence is ensuring that henceforth every recruit will take part of public relation amongst all other core Customs training modules.”
Attah added that doing the training in Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information is another opportunity to deepen the already strong relationships that exist between the Nigeria Customs Service and the Army.
He recalled that in recent times, at several forum customs have had cause to commend the Nigeria military especially the Nigerian Army for the robust synergy that is ongoing between both services.