The chairman of Police Service Commission, Dr. Solomon Arase, has pledged to bequeath to Nigeria and Nigerians a Police Force “of our dreams and aspirations, able and willing to provide services to the Nigerian people in the most transparent, responsible and responsive manner.”
Arase made the pledge on Friday during the consultative meeting between him and stakeholders in the security sector.
His meeting on Friday was with civil society organisations at the corporate headquarters of the commission in Jabi, Abuja.
Arase assured members of the group that being a former police officer would not impede his sense of justice, fairness and equity, adding that he would surely leave his footprints in the sand of time and grow a Police Force that is mentally mobile.
He noted that his appointment as the chairman of the commission came at a critical time in “our national life, when the commission and the Nigeria Police Force have engaged in a seemingly intractable disputations over roles and powers, which regrettably compounded and degenerated into series of litigations.”
He said the embarrassing scenario was informed and fuelled by preconceptions, misconceptions and prejudices against each other, “founded on mutual distrust and suspicion.”
According to him, “in the raging disconcertment and belligerence, it is the Nigerian people that suffer as neither PSC nor NPF can function effectively in delivering on its mandate without the support and cooperation of the other, especially, when both institutions that are supposed to be mutually-reinforcing are now at daggers drawn.”
The chairman said he believed that his consideration and appointment as the chairman of the commission by the president was not accidental, “but rather borne out of his conscious effort to bring about the required peace, cordiality and harmony between the two critical institutions of government.”
“I set out with a vision and mission to de-escalate and contain the raging conflict, douse the disquiet and restore peace, understanding and cooperation between the two institutions necessary for my actualization of Security Sector Reforms, SSR, in Nigeria.”
He noted that that was anchored on the fact that synergy produced greater results and success in the attainment of institutional goals.
The PSC chairman however observed that although ” peace is essential for success and growth of any institution towards the attainment of its mandate, the pursuit of peace does not compel us to compromise and undermine our integrity as an oversight agency over the Nigeria Police.”
He confirmed that peace was being restored and trust being built “between PSC and NPF.”
“I can assure you that in no distant time, all the knotty issues which occasioned the conflict will be amicably resolved in a win-win situation, for both institutions,” he said.
He looked at the various problems facing police and policing in Nigeria and concluded that the only solution would be the collective intervention, collaboration and participation of all stakeholders in the security sector reform.
Arase noted that the PSC could not effectively deliver on its mandate without the corresponding support of the civil society organisations.
The support and assistance, he said, could come in form of training and retraining programmes of personnel of both the PSC and NPF “as well as helping us with logistics that will aid in carrying out our functions.”
He told the CSOs that the “Police Force is ours, it is not impossible to build a Police Force of our aspirations; it only requires involvement, participation, collaboration, assistance and support. Please, get involved.”
Kemi Okenyodo of PWAN, one of the civil society organizations in her remarks, said the appointment of the PSC chairman was a welcome development especially within the society and its members.
She however called on the new chairman to build a strong professional external oversight body that is equipped with the required capacity to hold the police accountable for its actions.
