The crowd at the venue of the 2012 Comptroller-General of Customs’
conference in Katsina applauded as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar
knelt down to greet his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Atiku and
Obasanjo, who served as vice president and president of Nigeria
respectively, between 1999-2007, had an estranged relationship during
the last lap of their second term in office.
Both men were among a
retinue of VIPs invited to the opening of the week long
Comptroller-Generals’ conference held at the newly inaugurated
auditorium of Katsina State University.
Obasanjo, who arrived
ahead of Atiku, was seated next to second republic President Shehu
Shagari and the Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade.
Atiku, who arrived
nearly 40-minutes after his former boss, first greeted the Emir of
Gwandu, Muhammad Iliyasu; Emir of Katsina, Abdulmimini Usman; the Ooni
and Shagari who were seated at the podium.
When he got to Obasanjo, the former vice president knelt down and bowed his head to greet his former boss.
The delighted crowd followed the mild drama with applause.
Earlier,
Vice President Namadi Sambo, who represented President Goodluck
Jonathan, had inaugurated the 1,500 capacity auditorium of the Katsina
State University, venue of the conference.
Two former heads of
state, top traditional rulers from different geo-political zones in
Nigeria, former Comptroller-Generals of Customs and Customs chiefs from
the Africa region attended the opening event.
Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, delivered a goodwill message,
where he challenged the Customs to go beyond its statutory role of
combating smuggling of goods.
Tambuwal listed other roles of the service to include revenue collection, trade facilitation and border protection.
He urged the service to collaborate with other relevant agencies in the country to improve their services.
He
pledged that the National Assembly would support the ongoing review of
the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) to enable the service
discharge its function optimally
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