Yar’adua-Okiro Alliance For Police Reform, Anti-Corruption

By

Nduka Uzuakpundu

ozieni@yahoo.com

The image of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) could be a lot better than it presently is. Whatever the perception of the Nigerian public about the officers and men of the NPF may have been reinforced by the recent discovery that some top officials in the Force, who ought to be part of government’s anti-corruption campaign – under the Obasanjo administration – were, much to the chagrin of the Nigerian tax-payer, part of the stench. Consider just how well members of the Force would have fared, were it that, in furtherance of the precepts of good governance and transparency, poverty alleviation and democracy, the huge sum of about =N=17 billion that was uncovered from the former Inspector-General, Mr. Tafa Balogun, was pumped into such police welfare projects as accommodation, uniform, pension and health schemes.

Whatever the damage such a gargantuan level of corruption may have done to the collective image and psyche of the NPF, let it be stated here that not all members of the Force are unclean. Indeed, that the gargantuan fraud was uncovered, in the first place, was a clean job to which some selected, anti-corruption-minded officers of the Force made a handsome contribution. Ask ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo; he’s very likely to admit that they were some operatives of the NPF, who, as selfless apostles of police reform and believers in the anti-corruption crusade – as one of the pillars of the country’s democracy – blew the whistle against the Balogun rot.

That, in itself, may explain the rising confidence with which the Yar’Adua administration is bent on pursuing police reform, with an eye to giving its rank and file a cheerful deal. President Umaru Yar’ Adua would surely find, in acting Inspector-General, Mr. Mike Okiro, a reliable ally to that effect. Okiro’s record of achievements, during his service in Lagos State, should serve as a persuasive attorney in winning him public support in his informed campaign, not only to refurbish the image of his camp, but, also, to encourage the Presidency and relevant committees at the National Assembly to feed the Force with all that it requires: healthy budgetary allocation and provision of equipment, at the core.

The fact that Okiro preaches and practices anti-corruption, for instance, makes him a good candidate, who matches Yar’Adua’s constitution of simplicity. And so for the Yar’ Adua administration, it could safely be said that it has a ready-made, sharp instrument to press police reform, guided by accountability and transparency, as represented by Okiro. Essentially, let it be for the sake of democracy that Yar’ Adua would bring into the planned police reform and anti-corruption project all the elements of good leadership, people-oriented government and the attendant success that he demonstrated – as the governor of Katsina State – to an uproarious acclaim. In response, Okiro’s principle and practice of selfless and thorough, service. The lesson that Okiro, wearing the black uniform’s crown, teaches is that there is an impressive number of his likes in the Force, who ought to be co-opted into a special anti-corruption and police reform team, by the Yar’Adua administration – if only to achieve the desired result.

Okiro has been quite influential in government’s anti-corruption campaign, and there are some police operatives who see him as a role model. Take Mr. Bode Ojajuni, the image-maker of the Lagos State Police Command. The other day, when he addressed some school children – at the invitation of CLEEN Foundation, a Lagos-based non-governmental organisation – he made the point that the anti-corruption project should be made a part of the country’s educational system. The evils of corruption to public security and national stability, the fortification and advancement of human rights and attainment of sustainable human development, he offered, should feature, in graduated forms, in the country’s school curriculum – from primary to tertiary level. And when Ojajuni told the students of Bola Ige Memorial Secondary School, at Tolu area of Ajegunle, Lagos, that it had taken to his living within his means and doing his job, honestly, so as to help the image of the police, everyone applauded. And that was largely because there was a perceptible reflection of all that in his voice and the manner he comported himself. Looking back, the offer made by Ojajuni – though not entirely new – was of sociological and educational significance. It is one that ought to draw the political will of execution on the part of government.

It’s all that imperative now that the anti-corruption campaign is gradually assuming a pervasive trait of national ethos. It’s no less so since, in the past eight years, the country has fared relatively well – in spite of what may have appeared as a pre-revolutionary setting, basically because of some raging filthiness by a few public officers – at the expense of an apparently voiceless majority – under a democratic government. Ojajuni’s position, at Tolu, assumes that the notching culture of democratic government is a good basis for some sort of national renaissance, in which the breathing bottom of the country’s talented and industrious demographic mass would, naturally, play a decisive role. His opinion could be extended thus: there is a need for the Yar’Adua administration to kick-start a forward-looking reform in the educational sector – a reform that would make the country’s school-age youths its focus. It should be a reform that should assume the feature of a mass mobilisation of the country’s young population – and to whom the message of eschewing corruption should be passed; that, the leaders of tomorrow, the future of the country is theirs; that it’s a future that promises all that they need, not only because the country is exceedingly rich in both human and natural resources, but, also, if only they would start, henceforward, to cultivate the habit of being law-abiding and emulate the examples of good leadership and humility – as adumbrated by the likes of Yar’ Adua and Okiro. There comes a time in the history of a multi-cultural and ethically diversified nation, like Nigeria, Ojajuni believes, when the need arises – in the present case, after years of bad leadership and plundering of the country’s resources by a few individuals – for a peaceful, popular social re-engineering to push the country forward. In such a noble and visionary enterprise, which would challenge the boredom of the routine, opinion would, surely, differ, especially along party lines. But for the Yar’ Adua-Okiro duo, who cherish sanity in public life, their aim at national cohesion and progress, in a campaign of this nature, may win them an unqualified national backing.