The 18th Inspector General of Police, Solomon Ehigiator Arase, the number one cop in Africa and chief law enforcer of Nigeria, needs no introduction; a man who on ascending the mantle of leadership in the Police Force, has become a terror to terrorist, a bad omen to criminals and robbers, from Sokoto to Bayelsa. The fear of Arase by the men of the underworld is now the beginning of wisdom. He came on board at a very precarious moment when the police force was grappling with issues of low budget, poor morale, corruption, and increase in crime rate, poor remunerations and welfare package, ill-trained, ill-motivated and insufficient manpower.
Thoroughly angry with the plethora of problems, but with a clear understanding of the operational framework and a remarkable propensity to bring about new and appropriate perspective at providing ideas and solutions aimed at redeeming the already battered image of the force, over the years from when Louis Edet made history as the first indigenous Inspector General of Police (IGP) to the present 18th indigenous IGP, the new IGP moved to change the story, as great accomplishments in history are always championed by great men who think outside the box.
Faced with the daunting challenges and difficult choices and the possibilities of new opportunities created, the Inspector General knew it was not going to be business as usual, and moving with the speed of light to immediately re-orientate, reshape, re-jig and rejuvenate the entire force with renewed robust welfare packages, vigorous fight against corruption, the need to protect human rights and the dedication and commitment to duty, he consistently echoed all these into the consciousness of the officers, rank and file of the force across Nigeria.
The IGP and men of the police have now all agreed that the days of jamboree are over and that the force under his watch will tackle criminality head-long in collaboration with other security agencies, having a good civilian/police relations and a good image for the entire police, that there is a no place for any dishonest and undisciplined policeman anymore and that his administration will get rid of all misfits and all undesirable elements in the force irrespective of their ranks. Tagging corruption and lawlessness by officers as aberration, the IGP set the pace for the new change and tide we are now witnessing today. True to type, the reformist and change agent with a revolutionary touch to solving the age-long challenges in the force, initiated intelligence based policing as the surest way of ridding the society of crime and criminality in line with institutional best practices, and this explains the great achievements being recorded today.
Arase undertook milestone reforms, and establishing a state- of- the-art technical intelligence platform which restored the force as the most strategic intelligence agency in the internal security architecture of the nation. Coupled with the prevention of abuse of pre-trial detention by officers, he comprehensively over-hauled and reorganized the prosecution and investigation departments of the force, deploying and making qualified lawyers take full responsibility for the prosecution of all criminal cases investigated by the force. The Inspector General had also revived the moribund premiere police detective college at Orji River in Enugu State, which had been comatose for years, with appropriate modern technology, and it now actively functions on a daily basis for detective and intelligence officers as an operational base for capacity development for high calibre professionals.
To safeguard lives and property of Nigerians, who ply highways from one destination to another, he had put in place patrol vehicles fitted with communication gadgets, code-named “safer highways,” and road blocks have now become a thing of the past.
To effectively stamp out corruption by officers, he introduced a welfare package where the ranks and file on patrol are given a special allowance to boost their morale while their patrol cars are fuelled from designated filling stations close to the divisional headquarters.
Training and re-training have become a cardinal focus of the Inspector General of Police, as the police training colleges have been up-graded and equipped to taste and best standards while officers and men of the Nigeria police force are daily undergoing training to increase their skills.
With the state of terrorism globally, the Inspector General as an advocate for grassroots policing as a better means of keeping the nation safer, enacted the community policy initiative also known as the community and intelligence partnership approach, which has given rise to the aggressive advocacy and sensitization of the traditional rulers and other opinion molders at various levels of community on confidence and trust building mechanism to bring the people closer to the police and counter the belief that “most informant become victims” and a “friend becomes a suspect.”
As the police have issues of perception management, and as such cannot operate in isolation in the community to which they belong. This unfolding police reform initiative has addressed the glaring gaps in intelligence gathering and police community partnerships, a major stumbling block to effective and efficient service delivery by the force, which, according to the Inspector General, is now a thing of the past.
There is no gain-saying the fact, that the Inspector General is walking the talk, and has initiated a comprehensive and objective restructuring of the force to reflect the dynamism and complexities of today’s global police in the 21st century.
When he launched the social media platform for swift response to distress calls and complaints by citizens called the Nigeria Police Force Complaint Response Unit (CRU), a 24/7 platform, which greatly addressed the social disconnect between the public and police and underscored that members of the public have failed to understand the difficulties associated with the police work, and also laid emphasis that “citizens often fail to support the police as a result of prejudice, ignorance and poor appreciation of the constraints under which the police in the country operate. However, since its launching, the response and feed-backs from the CRU have been very successful so far, and well applauded by Nigerians from far and beyond.
True to his word, recently the Inspector General of Police launched the police housing scheme in partnership with the private sector, where police officers, ranks and file now have their own houses through mortgage payments at affordable rate. This noble initiative of the leadership, have improved the morale of the police and had also motivated them as it has rekindled their sense of duty, patriotism and sense of belonging to the oath of allegiance sworn to by the officers. The 18th inspector General of Police, reiterated that his main focus will be the upgrade of the welfare of members of the force, echoing that motivation was key to increased productivity and therefore, initiated the police scholarship scheme, the police group life assurance scheme and the Nigerian Police Group personal accident insurance scheme for the officers, rank and file of the police force dead or living.
So far, about 57 have benefitted from the police group life assurance recently, while eight fallen officers’ next of kin received over N3 million. At the event, the Inspector General emphasized that the purpose of the schemes is to enhance the welfare of officers and men of the force, dead or injured in the course of their selfless service to their fatherland, and to ameliorate the sufferings of their immediate family members, or next of kin from untold hardships, among others.
As Arase guides his loins to revamp the Nigeria Police Force, a lot of salient achievements and milestones had been achieved. The establishment and development of the model police stations across the country with 37 police commands including the FCT. It has also broken the glass ceiling in the annals of police by the appointment of the first female force public relations officer. He also organised a two day workshop for public relations officers of the force from all over the country to chart a new course and road-map in police/public crisis management.
He also instructed the officers to visit community schools to inculcate into the youths the need to live a crime-free life, and shun drug abuse in all its forms. As part of his agenda to take the institution to the next level, and knowing full well the role the media plays in developing nations, he commissioned a press centre at the force headquarters. This, according to him, will enable journalists to cross-check their stories before filing them to various media houses, a paradigm shift from the old order to the new indeed.
To date, a lot of police officers had been paid their allowances, remunerations, emoluments and this has greatly boosted the morale of the force, and enhanced the unity, peace and progress in the force generally.
The chief law enforcer is obviously aware of the enormous tasks on his shoulders as he had gone ahead, to construct new police barracks across Nigeria to enhance the living conditions of men of the force and had also taken keen interest in the promotion and transfers of officers and other issues within the police force, and warning them of the misuse of fire arms and the zero level tolerance for corruption of the present administration.
Just last week, the Inspector General ordered that officers carrying firearms must pass psychological test and investigation before such officers are given arms. A novel idea indeed conceived by Arase!
So far so good! The present leadership is working assiduously with stakeholders across the country, other security agencies, traditional rulers, opinion leaders, captains of industry and the people at the grassroots to see how intelligence led policing can ameliorate the security challenges.
However, the man at the helm of affairs, has set challenging goals for himself with eagerness to make changes at all costs and as such will be driving only purposeful agenda to make the police service-oriented in the 21st century. He promised to give Nigerians the best police force and had vowed to ensure that the police conduct themselves in tandem with international best practices.
Hopefully, he had keyed into the change mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and with his approval of an additional 10,000 police officers to the 350,000 police officers in existence, Nigerians will sleep with their eyes closed.
***Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele is of Citizen Watch Nigeria and a consummate brand strategist.
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