By Ohi Akpengbe
The news of the unseasonably sack on Monday, June 10, 2024, of chairman of the police service commission PSC, Dr. Solomon Arase by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu hit the nation’s airwaves like a colossus. Dr. Arase is the 5th chairman of the commission.
Since the presidency announced the sack, different tongues have risen to condemn the action of the presidency, describing the action as another prodigious mistake of this present administration of President Tinubu. Arase’s appointment as chairman of PSC in January by President Muhammadu Buhari like every other chairmen of the Commission is statutory and can not (may not) be removed from office without due process save for Presidential fiat. Presidential spokesperson, Chief Ngelari Ajuri, in a statement issued to announce the removal in the office of Dr. Solomon Arase did not site any wrong doing of the man save for “President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of DIG Hashimu Argungu (Rtd) as the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC)…the President expects absolute demonstration of integrity, diligence, and patriotic zeal in the discharge of these important functions for the overall wellbeing of the Nigeria Police and the nation.
Incidentally, Dr. Arase was in Ibadan holding a seminar on “civilian oversight in Nigeria”, a summit supported by the UNDP which attracted stakeholders and creme de la creme in Nigeria when the news of his removal hit the airwaves. His composure and psychological well-being at the seminar could better be imagined.
Unconfirmed report say the reason why Dr. Arase may have been unceremoniously booted out was his hard stand on tenure extension for top police officers some of whom are due for retirement in August this year.
A retired police officer, Mr. Chris Nkem, who greatly felt Dr. Arase was not fairly treated for all he had brought to bare at the PSC said “How do you yank off an innovator and bridge builder like Solomon Arase without a cause. Since his assumption in office as the chairman of PSC, officials of the Commission couldn’t have asked for any other leader.
Their welfare, good working environment was topmost in Dr. Arase’s agenda. His removal is akin to accusing a snail of overspending. It’s like moving five steps forward and ten steps backwards, sacrificing progress at the slab of indolence.” As amorphous and insipid as his sack is, Dr. Arase, himself a former Inspector-General of Police, in the annals of PSC, midwifed the creation of association of retired Inspectors-General of Police months into his tenure, brought them together at Ibadan for a retreat to share in their wealth of wisdom in modern policing.
The likes of Alhaji Aliu Attah, Sunday Ehindero, Mike Okiro, and others graciously graced the occasion. The agelong acrimonious streaming between the NPF and the PSC was put to rest and, in its stead, a robust working relationship. For the first time in the history of PSC again, an Inspector-General of Police in the person of Kayode Egbetokun visited the PSC and confessed before the chairman that there hadn’t been such a robust working relationship between both organisations in recent time as being witnessed.
As an IGP, Dr. Solomon Arase brought to bear his cerebral prowess by establishing some technical and intelligence driven units that are aiding modern policing and investigation today. Units like the Intelligence Response Units with cutting-edge technologies were brainchild of Dr. Arase.
Need we say that, while he was leaving office as IGP, Dr. Ebelle Goodluck Jonathan, the president who appointed him, almost wept; describing him as an innovator extra-ordinare. Dr. Arase actually left an indelible mark on the sand of time in the NPF.Now that he has been yanked off the ladder of the PSC and replaced with a relatively unknown and unmatched Argungu, what discerning minds are asking is: will Hashimu Argungu, a retired DIG fittingly fit into the large shoes left behind by a visioner and purpose-driven Dr. Arase? Only time will tell.
Ohi Akpengbe is a Crime Journalist writing from Lagos.
