As a Guest of Honour of the maiden Nigeria Police Day 2025, I watched with nostalgia how things have changed over the years. I reminisced on how Police Day was fifty years ago when I was an Assistant Superintendent of Police.
At that time, a day was set aside each year as a Police Day for the public to visit police stations and divisions throughout the country and socialise with police law enforcement personnel. The public, though inquisitive hardly questioned authority. They believed more on the benefits of police work to contain crimes over individual human rights.
Questions were however asked about police duties, how crimes were attended to. The public was curious about what happened at the police stations particularly, at the interrogation rooms and the detention cells. Officers were deployed to each section of the station to satisfy the curiosity of the public. At the end of the visit, gifts were handed over to the visitors. The occasion was not only to satisfy the curiosity of the visitors but also to emphasize that police is your friend, a sort of police/public relation interaction.
Today, I watched with rapt attention the Maiden Nigeria Police Day which was ushered in with a grand procession and parade of tactical units. Present at Eagle Square, the venue of the parade and procession, were contingents from the Immigration, Customs, Correctional Service, the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, the National Youth Service Corps and Police Officers’ Wives Association. There were also demonstrations and procession by Despatch Riders, Peace Corps Contingent, Police Air Wing, Police Bomb Explosive Disposal Unit, the Mounted Troops, the Dog section, and the Police Border Patrol. It was a show that demonstrated multi agency partnership and collaboration.
I commend IG Egbetokun for his thoughtfulness and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for approving 7th April of each year as a Nigeria Police Day. His mission to honour the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women of the force and recognise their tireless efforts in protecting lives, maintaining law and order, and upholding justice is commendable. In addition, I wish to commend past and present IGPs, dead or alive, starting from Mr Louis Edet to the present IG Egbetokun for their leadership and service. As a family, we have done our parts, in our time, to make the police service what it is. The garden where law and order has grown and flourished.
Few occasions present themselves like this for one to ventilate one’s opinion on contemporary issues. I want to commend the present administration led by President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for having the political will to tackle the challenges facing the country headlong. He is of bold spirit, not a timorous soul. His boldness in the unification of the exchange rate of naira to the dollar, his removal of fuel subsidy and his ability to dialogue with Labour in relation to the consequential effects of these issues and the provision of palliatives are measures which will ultimately affect the economy positively.
The ability of a leader to think outside the box for solutions is the hallmark of an efficient and effective leader. There will always be challenges confronting the nation. Whether they are Boko Haram, insurgencies, herders/farmers disputes, terrorism, kidnappings, robberies, our porous borders and illegal arms and aliens’ inflow into the country.
Directives have been given by the President to the Chief of Defence Staff to flush out these terrorists and Boko Haram criminals. The successes achieved by the Army in the Northwest and Northeast geopolitical zones are humongous. Similarly, his directive to the Army to fish out criminals in the North Central particularly Plateau State, is welcomed. The latent contribution of the National Security Adviser, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, in coordinating Intelligence gatherings and disseminating it horizontally is worthy of appreciation.
The present Government realises that security and development are intertwined. Because they are interdependent and mutually reinforcing, the president is tackling the socio-economic factors responsible for the prevailing crimes.
The Ministry of Livestock Development was established to provide focused solutions to the long-standing farmers/herders crises with Professor A. Jega as the presidential adviser and coordinator of presidential livestock reforms.
The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji Ojo is scientifically monitoring and arresting illegal immigrants and aliens as witnessed in Nasarawa and other states. He is doing a lot on border communities. The transformation in the Immigration as per passport application and ease of travel is worthy of mention as these touch on security.
The proactive measures put in place by the government is lowering inflation. Our foreign reserve has increased to an extent not witnessed in five years. The desire of government is to ensure that the economic hardship faced by the populace is minimised. With time, succour will come to the populace.
With regards to the police, the President has provided the enabling environment for police to function effectively, and he is prepared to do more. Today, the Nigeria Police are proactive rather than reactive in the prevention and detection of crime. Police manpower shortages are being addressed by the government with regular, not ad hoc, recruitments. And successes are being achieved by the police in the arrest of kidnappers because of the intelligence-led policing adopted by the IG. I assure you all that the contemporary crime issues we are facing are temporal.
They will fizzle out with time. When I was the Commissioner of Police Legal in 1995, 419 or Advance Fee Fraud cases were dominant. But today, we hear less of those cases. Crime is dynamic; it evolves with changing times and reflects the shifting mores of society. As the economy improves, so shall we see less of these crimes
I congratulate the IG for thinking outside the box to provide for The
Nigeria Police Day
SUNDAY Ehindero, CFR, NPM, fwc Inspector general of Police Rtd
