Arase: Honouring The Impact Of A Police Reformer

There are moments erstwhile a state loses much than a person; it loses a compass. The passing of Dr Solomon E. Arase connected August 31, 2025, felt similar that—an abrupt dimming of a dependable airy that had, for years, shown what policing successful Nigeria could beryllium if guided by principle, civility, and courage. He did not simply inhabit offices; helium dignified them. From the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department to his years arsenic Principal Staff Officer to IGP Sunday Ehindero, to his ain tenure arsenic Inspector-General of Police and aboriginal arsenic Chairman of the Police Service Commission, the changeless was a quiescent insistence that policing is simply a nationalist spot and that spot is earned by fairness practised, not proclaimed.

What distinguished Arase was not the rhetoric of betterment but its architecture. He believed the presumption of innocence is not a ineligible ornament; it is the backbone of nationalist legitimacy. He understood intelligence-led policing arsenic much than a slogan: prevention implicit spectacle, aboriginal informing implicit belated force, cautious listening and documentation truthful that outcomes tin bid respect due to the fact that the process did.

A Man Of Steadfast Convictions

Despite our beardown friendship, aft his assignment successful 2015, we engaged connected respective governmental issues during the galore post-2015 by-elections successful Rivers State, which tragically saw implicit 500 lives mislaid successful the 2015 governorship elections. Although we often disagreed connected approaches, helium remained steadfast successful his convictions and principles. He ne'er yielded to my requests, contempt the government’s enactment astatine the time.

He understood that lasting by one’s convictions was much captious than seeking convenience. While we held differing viewpoints, we ever respected each other’s beliefs. When convinced astir a cause, helium committed to its execution wholeheartedly. Above all, helium was a patriot par excellence—Nigeria was his superior constituency, not conscionable Edo State oregon the South-South region. His idiosyncratic integrity and unwavering committedness to justness were the cornerstones of his leadership.

His fingerprints are connected reforms you tin touch. The Police Duty Solicitors Scheme, which began arsenic a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding, matured—through his persistence—into Force Order 20 successful 2017. This scheme, which ensures that individuals successful constabulary custody person entree to ineligible representation, is simply a tangible illustration of his committedness to fairness and justice. Although his successor signed the order, Arase ensured that the crushed was prepared, drafts were complete, procedures were scoped, and intentions were clear. If, today, less radical are held arbitrarily, if interviews are much often cautioned, if detention registers tin beryllium audited alternatively than imagined, it is partially due to the fact that helium refused to fto fairness beryllium connected personalities.

Dr. Arase’s unwavering committedness to transparency and accountability was a cornerstone of his leadership. He understood that these principles are not conscionable ideals, but the precise instauration of a conscionable and just society. His propulsion to digitise captious parts of FCID’s enactment was a testament to this. He knew that transparency is not a property release; it is simply a trail. Case-tracking, grounds integrity, custody logs—the dull, indispensable infrastructure that makes it harder to vanish a file, to misplace a suspect, to bleach the concatenation of evidence—were, to him, acts of justice. He cared profoundly astir reducing rights violations to the barest minimum and was consenting to put his vigor successful gathering systems that would cheque impunity and support quality dignity. It was intolerable to miss the information that his enactment was rooted successful principle, and his bosom was firmly anchored successful justice.

Reform With Integrity

As PSC chairman, helium carried the aforesaid airy into a antithetic room. Recruitment and promotion should beryllium based connected merit; subject should mean predictable standards. He narrowed the spread betwixt regularisation and practice, inviting civilian nine and the quality rights assemblage to beryllium partners alternatively than adversaries. Reformers who barricade themselves down fertile seldom outlast a quality cycle; reformers who physique coalitions, however, thin to outlast the news. Dr. Arase’s enactment was not astir dictating from the top, but astir fostering collaboration and shared work for reform.

Dr Arase’s interaction was not constricted to his nonrecreational roles. He was much than his offices; helium was a lukewarm and caring idiosyncratic successful a satellite of acold institutions. He notably established the Police Complaints Response Unit (CRU) to supply citizens with a ceremonial transmission for reporting constabulary misconduct and precocious assemblage policing to foster spot betwixt instrumentality enforcement and the public. He favoured intelligence-led policing implicit amerciable constabulary roadblocks, which often pb to extortion.

He was not 1 to shy distant from the truth, adjacent erstwhile it was astir the instauration h...