For acting IG Arase

A few years back, I met the newly-appointed acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase in his office on my way to honour a private invitation by the IGP then and great friend of mine, Mr. Tafa Balogun. Despite the critical position he held then, he was so humble and unassuming. After all the preliminary receptional protocols, he was the last man you needed to see be­fore having access to the office of the IG. When you encounter a fine gentle­man and officer like Arase, you will love policing.

On my way out after about a 50-minute session with Mr. Ba­logun, I thanked Arase and we exchanged complimentary cards as I exited in an executive police car en route to the airport. I am sure Arase may not recollect this meeting because of the number of people he saw daily.
Ever since, I have been moni­toring his supersonic career as­cent without keeping in touch with him. I am not surprised that today he is the country’s number one cop. I have no doubt that he would be confirmed shortly be­cause of his superlative service antecedents. At the end of the day, he would be one of the best IGs this country has ever had.
As he mounts the saddle, I hope his tenure would be dif­ferent from that of his predeces­sor. He should not allow himself to be used for any dirty job by the Presidency. The IG is not a domestic staff of the country’s president or one of his numerous and usually superfluous aides. The office of the IG is for the entire country hence the public service nature of the calling. The occupant of this office must be as professional as possible. He must draw a line between loyalty to the country’s President and professional ethics. If you must succeed, subservience must be kept off. For instance, the Presi­dent’s wife must not kick you around—you must devise a way of managing her whims and ca­prices without overtly offending her. I make this allusion because most wives’ influence on their husbands could be asphyxiat­ing and before you know it their husbands take irrational and un­justifiable actions just to please them even if it is against public interest.
Pursuant to the foregoing, when your appointor wants you to perform certain unprofes­sional tasks for him—not for the country!—be prayerful that God gives you the wisdom to cleverly and professionally manage such circumstances without losing your benefactor or the people’s confidence. It is indeed a delicate trajectory, a fly on the scrotum: either way is perilous and strewn with lethal thorns.
This is why it has become im­perative for public servants to be shielded from the idiosyncrasies of the Presidency or any other authority that has the potentiality and power to undermine the IG’s dispassionate functionality. If we do not institutionalize this, we succeed in exposing the number one cop to the emotional chemis­try of the powers that exist.
Let us revisit the recent Na­tional Assembly tragedy where legislators had to scale high fenc­es because policemen had bar­ricaded the complex following “orders from above”! Such stu­pid directives cannot be ignored except the executioner is ready to lose his job. But in undertaking such hare-brained tasks, civility and decorum must be brought on board. There must be juxtaposi­tion—a balancing chord must be struck so that nobody feels em­barrassed.
Beyond executive and spousal meddlesomeness, the IG should admonish his officers and men on how they relate with the pub­lic. The mantra that “the police is (sic) your friend” is balderdash! That is an old perception. The police of today carry on as if they are at war with the members of the public. There is so much incivility, uncouthness, rudeness, power intoxication because of the hunter’s guns they carry and general disconnect between them and the civil society. Adversarial policing went with the colonial masters. There is need for com­prehensive reorientation of the Nigerian police. Elsewhere, even when the police want to arrest you, they presume you innocent and relate with you on a cordial and disarming manner that you will appreciate. But in Nigeria, you are as guilty as arrested and pummeling starts!
Checkpoints: There is nothing that gives the police a bad im­age as the ubiquitous roadblocks and highway frisking of persons suspected to be criminals. The is­sue of roadblocks has remained the nemesis of the police. Ef­forts by past IGs to stop them or curb the excesses of the bad eggs failed abysmally. This has, sadly, become an integral aspect of policing in Nigeria. Do not dissipate energy on this as your lieutenants can never give up on this revenue source! My only ap­peal is that they should exercise some responsibility and not be combative.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
Another area of concentration is the conduct of Commissioners of Police (CPs) and Divisional Police Officers (DPOs). Some of them carry on as if they are Lords of Manor. It is this atti­tudinal disposition and arroga­tion of power that borders on corruption which gave the Abia State CP Ibrahim Adamu, “the hostile hidden hand” according to the MD/EIC of this medium the temerity and callousness to connive with the outgoing Abia State Governor, T A. Orji, the worst governor this country has ever produced and will ever pro­duce, to come with 17 police­men from Umuahia and Lagos to come and abduct me from my Lagos home last year and drove me to the CID cell in Umuahia handcuffed on sterile charges of sedition!
IG, you need the judgment of Justice of the Lagos High Court. He lambasted the governor and the police for infringing on my rights. This and many other unre­ported cases worsen the misper­ception of the police. Please, IG, you need to hold a meeting with the CPs and DPOs over their excesses which criminalize and scandalize the police.
I am certain you will be con­firmed presently and that your tenure will be celebrated and published in the streets of Ni­geria. The Lord will imbue you with the Wisdom of Solomon in the arduous tasks ahead.