Ali M. Ali
26 June 2009
Abuja — Top brass of the Nigeria Police, the business community, political class and captains of industry yesterday in Abuja graced the book launch authored by the retiring Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, which netted over N60 million as at the time of writing this report.
Speaking at the occasion which held at the International Conference Centre, the Chief Launcher of the book titled "Policing Nigeria in a Democracy", Chief Frederick Akinruntan, Managing Director of Obat oil, launched the book with N5 million describing Okiro as a brilliant and resourceful officer.
"I have known Okiro for a long time. He is very brilliant and resourceful. I hereby launch this book which I have not read yet with a widow mite of N5million. I urge others to buy this book at a sum higher than mine, my contribution should not be the ceiling", he said.
In his opening remarks, the chairman of the occasion, who is also the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, and Deputy Inspector General of Police (rtd), Parry Osayande noted that years of military in partisan politics and government had undermined the development of the Nigeria Police Force manifesting, he argued, in the continuous under funding of the Force.
"For the 30 years the military was in government, the police and the Police Service Commission were in a limbo as their growth was deliberately stalled through under funding. Therefore policing Nigeria in a democracy was not a priority for the military governments", he said.
Commenting on Okiro, Osayande described him in glowing terms saying that occupying the office of the nation's chief law enforcement officer was not easy and that it required a strong personality to preside over the security affairs of the nation.
"The office of the Inspector -General is that of a mad man. To be mad you have to be very strong. The mad man who walks from Abuja to Lokoja is strong or else he can't do it. Because the IGP is always dealing with complex social and security issues, it is amazing how Okiro found time to write this book", he said.
In his own speech, the author, Mike Okiro, who had previously written two books described his latest book as a "conscious" attempt to x-ray and highlight the statutory roles of the Police in the emerging democracy.He added that the book was a chronicle of Nigeria Police transition from colonial hegemony through the military and democratic government.
"The book represents a conscious attempt to x- ray and highlight the statutory roles of the Nigeria Police in the emerging democratic dispensation. It is a chronicle of Nigeria Police transition from colonial hegemony through the military and now under democratic dispensation.It has been an odyssey that has been punctuated with thorns, tempest, pains and frustrations", he said.
Other donors at the book launch were Rivers and Imo States governments N5 million, each while Delta, Akwa Ibom and Ondo states bought 5 copies at N2million. Kwara,Oyo, Bauchi, Kano, Zamfara and former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu bought different number of copies at N1million each.
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