But for the tendency of heads of government agencies such as the Customs, the Police, Immigration and so on to think that it is not part of their duty to be critical (because there is a conflation of being critical with criticising), this would have been one of the most original expansion of International Relations in Nigeria.
It speaks to the pluriverse of voices, actorness and agency in post-Cold War international relations which, in this case, arises from the centrality of bodies such as Customs in global governmentality. The Customs Department was never unimportant but, along with Immigration, Prisons and similar bodies, it has become more central to post-9/11 world.
If C-G Adeniyi situates his reforming narrative in the literature, this NIIA outing would be an ‘A’ grade original intervention at both academic and policy level. There are no reasons why the CG and the research section of Nigerian Customs would not seize this opportunity of what is certain to be the first time that they will have the NIIA platform.
And we shall robustly engage with their strides if it is not just regurgitation of facts and figures. This is a potential NIIA stroke and thus an event worth waiting for!
