OPINION: NIPR for ethical revolution in police, others

The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related crimes Commission (ICPC) with an intent to set afoot a sustainable ethical revolution and professionalism in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The President of the NIPR, Dr. Rotimi Oladele, said that partnering with the anti-graft agency was one, in a chain of moves, that would complement – and steel, the campaign against corruption by the Buhari administration.

The image of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), he said, would benefit, immensely, from the kind of assistance that the NIPR had rendered the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), in form of public relations lectures, held since the days of its former Comptroller-General, Mr. Abdullahi Inde Dikko.

There is an urgent need – nearly two decades into the Fourth Republic – for a new, shiny image for the Nigeria Police Force; it being the first-contact, most visible security agency with which the civilian population is familiar.

The image of the Nigeria Police, of which Oladele is desirous, is one that breeds a new relationship between it and the rest of society that generates the funds – a greater part of it in form of tax – that sustains it.

Besides, Oladele is of the view that the Nigeria Police Force could play a more strategic role in invigorating the country’s democratic experiment: where politicians, elected deputies and their accomplices are neck-deep in corruption, members of the Nigeria Police Force should strive, in the name integrity, to have less to do with criminal acts that could cause the ICPC or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to beam its search light on them.

At the centre of Oladele’s argument is a role that is akin to that of the Nigeria Police seen as a reliable agency in building strong institutions for a sustainable socio-economic and political development.

Oladele seeks a transformation of the perception of the Nigeria Police Force to what it proudly was during the days of Messrs Frank Odita and Tunji Alapini – when the Nigeria Police was well ahead of the military and other para-military bodies, in terms information management and relations with the rest of civil society. Odita and Alapini, Oladele recalled, were brilliant Public Relations specialists, and “they were professionals, who gave the Nigeria Police Force an amiable touch and a recognised tinge of corporate social responsibility (CSR). “The Nigeria Police Force needs more of the Oditas and the Olapinis now that they are recruiting more knowledgeable graduates, multi-skilled professionals to head their Public Relations Unit.”

An era so close the Odita-Alapini period may well – to Oladele’s delight – be in the making, given the determination and performance of a former image-maker of the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Abuja, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, and the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kola Sodipo, who, in his informed bent to be a professional ambassador of the Nigeria Police Force, competent leader and manager of a crucial mass of human resources in the maintenance of public order and peace, took an active part in the Masters’ Programme of the NIPR. “Sodipo’s humility and performance during the programme was noble; you could feel it,” Oladele said.

By inference, Oladele is looking forward to a glorious future, when – many thanks to the NIPR – there would be a confraternity comprising operatives of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, the NCS, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and, amongst others, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), who’d meet, every six months, at a national security conference, to not only compare notes and share experience, but, as well, strategise on the way forward for professional understanding. The Buhari administration ought to encourage such a forward-looking cause, if only because it’s a development that – where it finds itself, and if punctiliously monitored by the Governing Council of the NIPR – promises to fortify the country’s democratic experiment.

By Nduka Uzuakpundu