Before my appointment as a cadet inspector and got trained at the Police Academy, Kano, in 1988, I’d first served as a constable for 2 years in Lagos state command. When we passed out of the Police College Ikeja in November of 1986, CP Saminu Daura (as he then was, he later rose to DIG. He is now of blessed memory), was the CP Lagos State command. The officer who was nominated by the CP to address us at the premises of the Lagos state command Headquarters was ACP Lawrence Makama, the command’s AC (Admin). Throughout his address to us, ACPOL Makama was stressing and laying emphasis repeatedly that we all should keep it indelibly at the back of our minds, that Police job was one of selfless service, and never a money-making venture. He warned us sternly that if there was any of us whose ambition was to become a millionaire, such fellow should signify there and then, so he or she could be excused from service right away. For according to him, police job was not a place to realise such ambition. He, however, added with an ecclesiastical tone as follow….
However, I’ve just told you the ethical requirements of Policing. But don’t be despondent or dispirited. For if any of you is destined to become a millionaire in life, nothing can stop it from coming to pass. So hope in God, eschew corruption, and be diligent at work.
It was upon that philosophy that we grounded our service in the police. In fact, some of us were so loathful of money that we preferred working in postings where we were completely insulated from monetary inducement of any sort.
My very first posting was the checking point at Tin Can Island, on the Apapa/Oshodi Expressway, under the command of one very old inspector, called Magnus Kayode as the team leader. As I was on duty there, here came one white M/Benz car driven by a young man, whose name I later knew as Hakeem. I flagged the car to a stop, and I requested for his car particulars. The next thing he did was to bring out a brand new five naira note and begged me to take it in place of the particulars. Upon seeing the money, Acpol Makama’s words started to ring bell in my head like a clock alarm. Fears overwhelmed me, as if taking the money would result in a fatal consequence for me.
I asked the man to keep his money, and I insisted on seeing the papers of the car. It was then he disclosed to me that he was a driver to one Ambassador EO Kolade. He explained that his boss had sent him to go and clean up the car at the car wash, because the boss was due to travel abroad later in the day and it was with the car that he would drop him off at the airport. He confessed to using the car to run his personal errands. So, in a hurry to return home to pick his boss to the airport, he forgot the car’s papers at the car wash. He said if he had to go for the papers now, his boss would miss his flight. He promised to come with the papers as soon as he dropped his boss off at the airport and he picked the papers from the car wash.
I somehow believed his story. So, out of compassion, I asked him to hurry up to go and pick his boss. But Inspector Kayode, my own boss at the duty post, was not so convinced. He insisted that the young man should leave the car there at our checking point and go back to the car wash to pick the papers and show them to us. As a novice that i was, I joined the driver to be pleading with the inspector to let him go, so his boss wouldn’t miss his flight. The inspector scolded me for blind trusting the driver, solely upon hearing his own story without more. But I followed my conviction through. So, I kept begging the inspector, who then reluctantly allowed the driver to go. In doing so, i can still remember his words very clearly. He said…
Oga (referring to me derisively as ‘oga’) has begged me to let you go. So you can go. But ‘oga’ next time, don’t come to me with this kind of stupid begging again o.
The driver left us. Not quite an hour later, the same car surfaced again at our duty point. This time, the driver was with his boss, Ambassador EO Kolade. The boss beckoned to me and said “young man, come here*. I moved close to him. He then said further, *”my driver told me you asked him to go so I wouldn’t miss my flight. He said he gave you money and you rejected it. Is that true?” I said yes sir. “Very good. Take this card (his complimentary card). Iam traveling now. But I’ll be back in the country in two weeks time. You come and see me. God bless you”
As the car was about to zoom off, my boss, Inspector Kayode, waved it to stop and he asked the big man.”*gentleman. Iam the boss here at this duty post. What did you give my boy?” The man said I didn’t give your boy anything other than my complimentary card sir. And the inspector requested him to give him his card also. The man obliged and gave the inspector his card, after which the car zoomed off and left us. One day, I’ll tell the full story of how my encounter with Ambassador EO Kolade had helped to shape my career positively in the Force. Suffice it to say now that since that 1986 till today, I am still relating with the old man. He is now a 93-year old great grandfather, residing with his wife in the United Kingdom. But we still relate like father and son till today!
In 1994, I was already an old Inspector of Police. I was shortlisted for pre-posting examination, the success in which was a requirement for posting to work as a detective in the prestigious Force CID, Alagbon close, Lagos. The examination panel was chaired by CP Jolade Ojomo (as she then was. Now DIG rtd). But my paper was marked by SP Adamu Mohammed (as he then was. Now IGP rtd). I was subsequently posted to the Force CID, following my success in the examination. But before our deployment to sections, we had to pass through a month’s induction training in which we were tutored by seasoned officers on the ethics of detectives at that level of criminal investigation. One of the very senior officers who came to lecture us was DIG Achimbong Nkana, the then head of Force CID. In his lecture, he laid much emphasis on the need for police officers to eschew flamboyant and ostentatious lifestyles or open display of wealth. He said such lifestyles were inconsistent with policing ethics, particularly as detectives. Quoting a short aphorism which he attributed to Abraham Maslow, DIG Nkana said as follow….
“Hire a banker, and pay him maximally. Also use him maximally. If he is disposed to ostentatious lifestyle, sack him. Even if your inquiry about him revealed that his earnings were legitimate, still sack him and let him leave the fold of your work force”
When the DIG got to that point, all of us the course participants rented the hall with murmuring, saying that was too harsh. For how could he be sacked, even when he was funding his glamorous lifestyle with his legitimate earnings without stealing from the bank? When the DIG noticed our displeasure, the then dropped the following aphorism to justify his proposition. He said…
“The banker with an ostentatious lifestyle deserves to be sacked, irrespective of the fact that was living on his legitimate earnings. This is because extravagancy, if not a crime in itself, can lead others into crime. Same goes with any police officer that lives an extravagant lifestyle. He too should be sacked like the banker”
Those were the morals that we were taken through in our days in police service. But due to the nature of human beings as a dynamic creature, things seem to have changed drastically between our days and now. Not only in the police force, but generally in virtually all areas of human endeavors.
It is only in this attribute of human dynamism that I think one can possibly find explanation for the impudence of CP Aderemi Adeoye, the retiring CP of Anambra state command. In his valedictory speech, the retiring CP was quoted as throwing down the gauntlet to challenge Dangote into a duel of wealth, boasting that his own business concern had geometrically risen to 20 billion Naira within the six years of its floating with just 54 milliion Naira.
To say the least, this presumptuous outburst of the CP was in my view, an act of gross manifestation of unethical disposition that was quite unbecoming of a public officer of his status. If the officer had drank, even in very small quantity, to that aphorism of DIG Nkana, he would have realised that his act of indiscretion could cause an incalculable damage to the integrity and selfless attributes of Police service in Nigeria. In a service where the pension of a retired CP is not up to a 100k, what message was CP Adeoye sending to those still in service? Wasn’t for them to embark on a rabid pursuit of money at all costs in order to secure their post service life? And in that case, how wouldn’t these officers then compromise the sacred policing ethics by monetizing their services to the detriment of the masses and the security of the nation?
I think retiring senior officers need to now be compelled to submit their valedictory addresses to the police authorities for vetting and possible censorship of any damaging content thereof, in order to prevent the recurrence of an embarrassing absurdity of this nature. A stitch in time, saves nine!
My name remains Dauda Adesina Joki-Lasisi Esq