Josfyn Uba
CSP Oriyomi Titilayo Oluwasanmi is the Lagos state Traffic Officer. Born and bred in Lagos, she was literally pushed into the Police Force just after leaving the secondary school. According to her, her uncle felt that she would excel in the force knowing that the young girl always stood for the truth. He says: “I will be useful the Nigeria Police Force”
Years after, she has not only made her uncle proud, but she has proven her mettle as an accomplished and award winning officer.
CSP Oriyomi told Daily Sun that she dreams of a crime-free country where people can go to bed with their eyes closed.
Can you give me a sense of how it all began?
After joining the force, I went to the University and after my graduation, I joined as a cadet Asp in 2002. I went the police academy in Kano after which I became a cadet ASP. I trained in Kano for one and half years. After the training, I was posted to Ekiti state from where I moved to Lagos where I have been working as a crime officer to become the officer-in-charge of the juvenile welfare center of the police division. I was picked as one of the people for community policing.
What was it like working in the juvenile welfare center?
It was so touching because of the kind of cases I attended to. There, you would see children who ran out of their homes from places as far as Osun state and others places to Lagos because someone had deceived them with a wrong picture of Lagos. They were told that there is free money in Lagos. This wasn’t funny. We picked them on the road while roaming with no fixed address and took them to the TV stations where their families would later come to pick them up. For me, it was more of a humanitarian job. For those whose families refused to pick up, we would turn them to JWCI, Juvenile Welfare Center at Alakara, Mushin.
In some of the cases you saw, was it their parents fault or sheer stubbornness of today’s children?
I won’t say that the parents had left their duty undone because for some of the children just wanted to go and make money the quick way. They would leave the house and pretend to go to school but would go to new building sites for them to get money. Others engage in all kinds of jobs so that they can go to Lagos. Children of this generation want to live on the fast lane. They desire quick money and live big, no matter how it comes. They don’t want to go to school, don’t want to do anything, yet want to make a lot of money. I feel so sad.
A society’s failure comes from failed parental upbringing and as a result of dysfunctional homes. Can you totally exonerate parents in all of these?
I would certainly not. Let me give example of a woman who left her children with her husband because she couldn’t go on with the marriage and her husband remarries. Naturally, the step-mother to the children wouldn’t like to take responsibility of another person’s child.
The child will be left with no option than to do whatever he likes. While some would take to crime, others would take to prostitution or other vices while giving society the opportunity to feed them with the wrong values because their mother has abandoned her role as a mother. Some of these problems are the fault of parents even as you still can not absolve the children of it, completely.
Giving your experience in the police force, what do you think the future of the Nigerian children is in the next decade?
It is a big problem. In the next 10 years, there might be no country called Nigeria if we are not careful because a lot of terrible things are happening now. Like I used to say when we were in the Academy when some people will be troubling others, I often conclude that their actions were as a result of failed parental care. Those who came from good parental backgrounds can easily be spotted out, the same way you can make out those who came from dysfunctional homes.
In the future, children who are badly brought up would have taken over almost everywhere given the rate at which the society is going now with all sorts of unimaginable crimes. And of course, they are the wealthy ones. So, the possibility of those who come from good parental backgrounds joining them is high because if you can’t beat them, you join them. Things might become more terrible for this country if we are not careful and don’t take step to curb this high wave of crimes sweeping across the nation now.
What steps do you think can be taken to help redirect the future of this nation?
There are lots of programmes and motivational talks that we can adopt to bring parents together, give them orientation on how to train and take care of their wards. Churches and mosques and other religious bodies and stakeholders should be involved in preaching good values and drive programmes to help change the orientation of today’s children. Schools should teach morals and values. Churches should preach too. Everybody should get involved because it is a national issue. Government agencies should take up the task because the consequences of a failed society affect all.
If we don’t take care of these children today, they will sell this country tomorrow and there will be no country called Nigeria. Parents should not relent in talking to their wards.
You talked about getting the churches, mosques and other religious bodies to instill moral values but we know that they preach prosperity. What sense do you make of this?
Well, it is not all the churches that are engaged in this. Some still preach morals and good values. I am a deaconess in the Apostolic Church where discipline is the bedrock
But I can tell you that most of the new generation churches are into the gospel of prosperity. You won’t say that you don’t know?
Yes, of course.
And that is where a good number of youths and today’s people flock around.
Yes, as you have those ones who preach prosperity, so we still have those who preach good values and are in the business of trying to inculcate these values in youths and the children. And even if the churches look the other way, I still think that the schools have the obligation to instill moral values in the children because they spend more time in the school. However, I must say that parents should not abdicate their duties for the school because the family still remains the first unit to mold the kids and inculcate these values. Everything starts from the home.
It is a known fact now that the society, now adore and worship those who have made money through criminal sources, leaving out those who have genuinely worked hard. As a crime officer, what can you say about that?
We as uniformed personnel and disciplined organisation have more work to do because if the churches failed us, the mosques and other religious organisations failed us, what about us?
When I took over in Ilasamaja, crime was everywhere. I could hardly close my eyes for one hour. I had never seen anything like that before. I came from the Island where a criminal runs into your house and you push him out but in Ilasa, if a criminal runs into your house, and the police gets there they will shield him. So, to tackle such problem, I lost sleep.
I adopted a strategy that worked perfectly. I engaged the community. I called town hall meeting where I told parents to take care of their children, otherwise I would take care of them. I told them it wasn’t going to be business as usual. And I called my men too and told that that the task ahead was for all of us. For those who were willing to work, I was ready but for others who didn’t want to work could leave. And I meant it. Some officers left because they couldn’t work. For me, God doesn’t save by multitude. I stated from the Expressway where criminals would jump at stranded motorists at gun point. I gave my men the instruction to shoot anyone attacking unsuspecting motorists or individuals and give the corpse to the CP. When they saw that I meant business, they stopped. That was how Ilasa got sanitised of crime.
So, you as a police officer must work. You should forget about the money want to make. My philosophy is that money will come when it will come but first, do your job.
Your strategy in combating crime is brilliant and laudable but you know that our society strives on ‘’pull me down syndrome’’. What of those who would see you as a threat and may not want to go with you in achieving this goal?
I believe that such people abound but they have no choice because God is with me. He protects me and as long as I am doing what is right for the society and mankind, God is there for me. All this is not about me as a person, it is the community policing.
Does community policing work?
It is very effective and that’s what we need in this country. I was trained in Community policing, too. Don’t forget that no senior police officer would come and say that he doesn’t like what I am doing because my approach is result oriented and most effective. Even, CP Edgal who is conservative with applause couldn’t help, has attested to my hard work and given me a pat on the back. He trained me to be a crime buster. When you are doing well, I don’t think anyone will want to pull you down because you are giving police a face-lift. When I got that 20 year old criminal, who had been on the watch list for a long time in Ilasa arrested, it shocked the nation. The news of his arrest was international. We have a lot of police officers who also want to do their job well. It doesn’t matter whether or not they will give you special promotion.
Now, would you allow any of your children to go into the police force?
For me, if there is another world and another life, I would still like to be a police officer because I love this job. Many times, my husband has been told to advise to leave the job but he wouldn’t listen to them. Instead, he encourages and supports me because he knows I am passionate about it. Ironically, none of my kids wants to be a police officer.