Last week, l flipped back to a column I did on the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr. Muhammadu Babandede, titled “Babandede: The task ahead,” published on May 26, 2016.
I had challenged the new CG to be focused and result-oriented. I reminded him that opportunity does not knock on people’s door twice. I urged him to address the decay in the system, especially the injustice in promotion of personnel and corruption among personnel as it pertains to obtaining passport.
Since his assumption, Babandede has left no one in doubt that all the encomiums showered on him were not figments of the imagination. Babandede has overwhelmed the imagination of both Immigration personnel and visitors. His was one appointment that could be classified as well justified. The chequered history of the institution he met has been fantastically transformed. His antecedents and solid pedigree are the leadership qualities that preceded his appointment and, till date, they have shown that they are not a fluke neither are they ethnically, political or religiously motivated. Babandede has been able to surpass any of his predecessors in office by raising the image of the institution, considering its sensitive position in the country, Africa and the world.
Record shows that it was a French government programme that projected his leadership potential, when he was selected as one of the world’s most promising leaders during a strategic programme organised by France to look at potential young leaders in the world.
The man Babandede, from every indication, is a hidden jewel, already refined and trained for the leadership position he is presently occupying. He was among the 13 persons selected by the British government from 11 countries to undergo several training programmes under the Chevening Fellowship, where law enforcement officers are trained, like Nigeria’s equivalent, the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, for global leadership.
Babandede is globally recognized as an expert on human traficking. He is a history graduate of Bayero University, Kano, and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he bagged a master’s degree in law enforcement and criminal justice. He was instrumental in the full establishment of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), an organisation he helped to build, as director of investigation. No one is in doubt that Babandede is a visionary leader knows where he wants the organisation to be before 2023. Today, the morale of every officer in the Immigration service is very high, unlike what it used to be in the past. Apart from their improved welfare package and promotions, corruption has abated significantly.
The Babandede magic wand has helped to re-motivate every officer and this has completely changed the bad narrative of the organisation.
The passport racket that used to be a goldmine, whereby officers used touts to illegally extort money from Nigerians, has drastically reduced. A leader is known when he keeps his promises. According to Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, a distinguished writer and president of the University of Notre Dame for 35 years, “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision.”
In 2016, Babandede pledged to this writer that Nigerians would secure their international passports without any hassle. That promise has been kept like a sealed contract agreement. One major teething problem of Nigeria is the human surge across the borders that has suddenly given the country sore toes, thereby creating not only insecurity but also infiltration of illegal arms and passage for illicit drugs. This headache is tragically turning into a national disgrace.
(To be continued)
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State police: Solution to insecurity (2)
Before now, elite like former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, and many others had openly advocated the introduction of state police in the country.
Listening to opponents of this noble idea, all they hold onto as their major arguement is the fear of governors hijacking the system just as they did with local government administration. In as much as one might agree with them, one believes that, since this is a security matter, no one would allow them to hijack the system for their political interest or gain.
However, things might change, with the recent pronouncement and backing of the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who spoke extensively on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, disclosing that the Federal Government was ready to implement the first step of the state police. Also, at another event organised by the Global Patriot newspaper in collaboration with the Nigerian Consulate in New York and Nigeria in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), New Jersey chapter, the Vice-President restated his advocacy for the decentralization of the police force.
According to him, “We must accept that there is a need for greater decentralization of the police force. I have been a frequent advocate of state policing and I believe this certainly must be the way we must go.
“The National Assembly is in a position to consider some of the proposals that have gone to them for the purposes of devolving more powers to the states for security purposes and for addressing the security challenges.”
According to Wikipedia, “The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the de facto police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994, the SAP was reorganised into the South African Police Service.”
This, I believe, is the type of restructuring that government wants to carry out in Nigeria. Many believe that the country is not ripe for such move, as they point at the murky waters of Nigerian politics, where governors who have almost exterminated the local government structure can also tamper with this system. So, handing such a powerful tool to them would mean over-empowering them politically.
In all the countries of the world where state police is practiced, are there no politicians? Is the law not there to regulate such excesses? There is no good policy that would not have its teething problems. It is commendable that the Buhari administration has embraced this policy and is ready to implement it. However, one would advise that there should be restraint and there should be no need to rush its implementation. Such a noble policy should carry the legislative arm of government along and it should be carried out in stages.
It would be better to see it being implemented first in Lagos, Rives, Enugu, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano and Borno states, as study cases. These seven states are to be the implementation states and, should there be any errors, these could be rectified and corrected in the second stage of implementation. Through this system, the face of policing and administration of justice will not only change but would efficiently be improved. The benefits of state police are far more noticeable than the unnoticed flaws as feared by critics of the system.
(Concluded)
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SECURITY FILE remembers one of our ardent readers and true friend, the irrepressible and dogged crime fighter, DIG John Haruna, who died in a crash involving a police helicopter in Plateau State, with three other officers, and were buried on March 31, 2012. May their good souls continue to rest in peace.