Commissioner of Police (Retired), Fatai Owoseni, is the Special Adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde on Security and also serves as the Executive Secretary of the Oyo State Security Trust Fund. He speaks with Deputy Editor, SAM NWAOKO, on why he wants to govern Oyo State.
WHY do you want to vie for the ticket to govern Oyo State after the tenure of Governor Seyi Makinde? Why do you want to take up this responsibility?
I must first of all thank God for life and for the grace of protection and guidance to navigate through the system for 35 years in and out of the country, and for being able to raise one’s head up high everywhere. I should also be grateful that one was able to successfully discharge one’s constitutional responsibility while in service. Moving on from the point one retired, I am also grateful to Governor Seyi Makinde who considered me worthy to come and contribute to what he wants to do for the development, progress and growth of Oyo State.
Having been given that opportunity and having watched the giant strides of Governor Makinde, some of which were a continuation from the previous administration; and someone like me having been brought in to be part of the administration and contribute my little quota to the laudable programmes, and with the administration coming towards its conclusion, one considers it necessary that at this point in time, we should serve the state better. Some of us came in as technocrats to serve the state, but all of us are politicians; we probably may not play politics. Looking at the uniqueness of Oyo State, I ask myself: having been given that opportunity to serve Oyo State by the governor, what do we need in the state that one can do to add value? The challenge is that we must be able to build on the achievements of Governor Seyi Makinde.
That was what fired up the zeal to get involved. People would say politics is dirty, and politics is for people that can lie. But Governor Seyi Makinde changed the face of governance in Oyo State.
So, looking at all the choices that we have in place that are also well grounded, one just feels why not?
If some other people can come out, why not some of us that had been part of the administration for the past seven years, who had seen things on ground, and how Governor Makinde was able to handle things in a way that it was a plus to the state, not eroding the gains of the past.
People will ask: Must you be at the saddle before you do that? But if we keep on keeping quiet because politics is this or that, you will now find out that the state and our people will fall in hands of someone that would probably come and reinvent the wheel or come and be antagonistic. Life is all about adding value, and I want to come and add value to what Governor Makinde had put in place. Can I do it without being in the driver’s seat? Yes it is possible, but sometimes when you are not in the driver’s seat you will not be able to drive all what you think can add value. That is why I decided to say instead of us sitting down, crossing legs and complaining everyday, let us be part of the movement that will take Oyo to a greater height.
You came into the government as a technocrat with your professional experience. In your area of assignment, what would you say have been done by the administration you served in?
As the Special Adviser on Security to the Governor and the Executive Secretary of the State Security Trust Fund, my primary responsibility is the area of security.
As we all know, security is the bedrock of everything. If we pursue infrastructural development, social and economic growth, security is the foundation. What we have been able to do with that responsibility is to ensure that the aspirations and the agenda of Governor Makinde and that of his political party, the PDP with regards to security, one is able to work with the governor and the security team to deliver on the promises that were made. Promises were made with regards to Omituntun 1.0 and promises were made with regards to Omituntun 2.0. In the area of security, I can say confidently with emphasis that with the support we have been able to give to the governor, and the cooperation of the security team, we can beat our chests to say that we delivered on the promises made by Governor Makinde with regards to security.
In Omituntun 1.0, the governor promised to make the state more secure and safer by ensuring that we bridge the trust gap between especially the police and the people. The second aspect is to spread the reach of the security agencies, especially the police that has the lead control over internal security.
Looking at the promises of Omituntun 1.0, when the governor was sworn in, he visited the security control room in Ibadan. He was there to do an assessment of what was in that control room. That is to show how serious the governor was and has been about security. He noted that some of the equipment there were moribund. For example, the CCTV coverage of the state called the City Watch was faulty. He did an assessment of the City Watch and felt it might be a white elephant. Secondly, the size of the control room was inadequate for the kind of work they needed to do, because in that place are all security agencies as well as the ancillary staff deployed there for 24-hour service. Thirdly, it is supposed to, in addition to being the Police Control Room, be a hub for communication among the security agencies. Upon his assessment, he found that the communication network was inadequate. In between Ibadan and Ogbomoso, it was hard for the operatives to communicate among themselves.
For instance, if you were on the trail of a criminal, once a criminal passes through Moniya, you probably would lose track of that suspect. In order to solve that, with the advice that was given to the governor, this was vastly improved. Today, the nooks and crannies of the state are adequately covered by our state-of-the-art equipment. It is such that even with the walkie-talkie, a Commissioner of Police or any of the service commanders can be at a meeting at their headquarters in Abuja and communicate freely with the boots on the ground in Oyo State.
Other states were wondering, especially for the police, what we did and how we did it. When we started, it was like a joke but a number of states have come to take a cue from us and can now navigate that same type of communication system. Especially in the South West, if today the South-West governors through the DAWN Commission just stand up and say we want an integrated communication system, we can do that because almost all the states in the South West are on the same network.
From there the City Watch that was found moribund was revived through licensing of the equipment and that CCTV coverage has come alive. He did not just reactivate it, he licensed it for a lifetime so that if anybody is coming in, he won’t have the problem of licensing again. We also improved the cameras that were in place and came up with an idea that would not put the state into huge debts with the service providers. Today, it has been reconfigured in such a way that if you toggle the camera, you can even easily capture number plates of vehicles where the cameras are. Governor Makinde gave support and additional cameras were produced and were installed at entry and exit points in the state. We can monitor those coming in and leaving the state. Another component is the citizen’s enquiry numbers which is commonly known as “emergency numbers”. It was acquired before the administration of Governor Makinde but it was not activated and put into use. Governor Makinde, through the advice we offered, provided the wherewithal for us to activate that 615 (the number allocated to Oyo State) in order that distress calls can be made in real time in case of emergencies, and this complemented the different security agencies on hand to man that desk 24 hours.
We also had a discussion around the striking force of the Nigeria Police which is the Mobile Police Squadron. There are some states in this country which do not have the landmass and population size of Oyo State but they have about four mobile police squadrons. We were able to successfully navigate through that with the help of Governor Makinde and the then Inspector-General of Police, to say that Oyo State, as big as it is, deserves more than one Mobile Police Squadron since the days of old Oyo State and the Western region. We were able to get a second squadron and in locating it, we looked at Oyo North – Oke Ogun where we have the border with Benin Republic. His Excellency agreed with us as to where to locate that police squadron which is now put in Ago Are, the town which is about the midpoint of Oke Ogun axis.
The wonderful thing is that after getting the approval, we knew that funds for the takeoff of that squadron may not be coming from the police because of the fund capacity of the police as an institution to put that place into operation. So, we were able to get the support and financial requirement as promised by Governor Makinde to the then IG, in the fastest way to mobilise them to inaugurate that squadron.
Governor Makinde has provided what is required to have an ultra-modern police mobile squadron base in Ago Are. The construction is ongoing at the moment.
To complement all that, the Swift Response Squad was revived after it appeared that they were non-existent before the coming of Governor Makinde. That is why you will see these patrol vehicles at pin down points that are linked to the control room for visibility and domination of the space for quick response.
What about the personnel, what about the morale of the operatives that were engaged to do the work?
What about them?
We also took from the best practices around us. The governor was advised and he acted accordingly on it. You may provide all these gadgets and infrastructure, the morale of the operatives is also very important and His Excellency did not lose sight of this. The morale and welfare of the personnel were taken into consideration to the extent that as from 2019, the personnel in Operation Burst and the SRS were given some stipend. In addition to the stipend for the operatives, the governor ensured that petrol was approved for their vehicles.
I know that in 2019, Governor Makinde approved these, but I cannot recall if these were in place before he came into office. The governor saw that all these divisional police headquarters and divisional police office operate on very tight budgets, and so he asked what could be done by the state in order to support the little that comes from the Federal Government. I can say that from 2019, the state has been providing support for security operatives to boost their morale.
One of the major challenges security agencies face is synergy. Under the leadership of Governor Makinde and the professional advice that we offer, we have been able to cement the relationship among the different arms of security such that the kind of synergy we have among the different arms of security has been highly impactful.
May I point out that everyone will always give the glory of the founding of the Amotekun to the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State. That is very right, but the underground work that Oyo State did to get that done is also very significant. With the freedom and permission that Governor Makinde gave, Oyo State should be counted as one of the states that championed the approval of Amotekun. Because of my professional experience and the relationship that we left behind in the Police, I personally got involved in the discussion to establish Amotekun and I can also say I stand to be corrected, that it was the document which I provided which we had used while I was in service that got this outfit off the ground. I presented a paper on Voluntary Policing which was developed for the Police by the DFID. It was helpful in enacting the Amotekun Law. These were some of the things we did to ensure the security of not just the state but the entire South West geo-political zone.
Regardless of all that you have been able to do, some would still say that security is not as it should be because of what is happening around the country. There seems to be an upsurge of insecurity characterised by kidnappings and armed banditry. What do you think should be done to push it further and widen the frontiers of security of life and property?
What I will say with regards to that is that it is an ongoing thing. As far as Oyo State is concerned, I must say that what we have been able to prevent are far more than what people see happen. How have we been able to do that? It is because we have a close-knit arrangement in this state which, in some cases, one coordinates with all the service commanders. We have always put proactive measures in the forefront of what we do. I can also say that one of the things we are able to do here with the help of Governor Makinde is to change the concept of security architecture to what we call integrated security concept. It is a handshake between the state actors and the non-state actors.
When you do this, you are able to improve your human intelligence. A place like Igangan was a problem for us at a time but we were able to overcome that through the initiatives that were put in place in the state.
At the inception of the administration, people will recall that one of the challenges that people faced outside security was the issue of waste disposal. In 2019 the governor declared a state of emergency on waste disposal and I was the person that was appointed as the chairman of the task force during that emergency and I must say with all modesty that we were able to deliver on that mandate for the period that one was saddled with the responsibility.
One of the initial responsibilities also was how would we get Ibadan Airport to airlift pilgrims directly to Saudi Arabia. At that initial period in 2020, I was also among the people that were saddled with that responsibility. I would say that we have more or less achieved because at that time in 2020, we had got the consent of the then Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who was also my colleague before because he was a police pilot. One had leveraged on that relationship to get the kind of consent for the two bodies concerned because Muslim pilgrims would be airlifted and so would Christian pilgrims be airlifted. But unfortunately COVID-19 came in and pilgrimages were halted that time. These were the ad-hoc assignments one had done and I would say with all modesty that we were able to deploy our professional knowledge in disaster management because I was in the operations department of the police for a long time and I also had the opportunity of a capacity building in disaster management in China. That was what we deployed when the Bodija explosion happened. I was more or less the incident duty manager for that process and it was reckoned that time that the disaster management process that was put in place at that time can be rated as one of the best practices anywhere in the world. So, we have been there and we have tried to do our best to contribute to the state.
You are convinced that you can handle higher responsibilities, but as a professional in politics, are you prepared for the professional politicians?
People define politics in so many ways. All of us are politicians, but there are practicing politicians. Mind you, the Police as an institution can be likened to Nigeria itself. So, if we had successfully and meritoriously walked that route for 35 years, the 35 years public experience is not a joke. Maybe a few of us out there can probably say that we navigated 35 years in public service, not just in public service but in the Nigeria Police. I must also say that I was the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State and in Benue State. You are talking of a Lagos State that can be called a microcosm of Nigeria with that huge population. When you are a Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, it is not just about security, you are also managing everything else about the state politically, economically and otherwise. I told you that security and police work touches everything in any state. So, if God had given one that success to navigate those terrains, I wonder if there is any challenge that a policeman walking through that would not be able to face.
Before Lagos State, I was also the Commissioner of Police in the Department of Operations in the Force Headquarters. That department is the engine room of the Nigeria Police where everything that is happening in this country would go to. Also having worked as the Principal Staff Officer to the Inspector-General of Police, the PSO is like the shadow-IG. Everything about this country are right there on your table which you have to deal with and help the IGP to manage. It was not just in operations, I was also once the Commissioner of Police in charge of administration at the Criminal Investigation Department as well as in general investigation. So, these experiences are things that I think have prepared one, plus my sojourn within the global system as the Senior Police Adviser with the United Nations in Sudan and in Angola. There were also the privileges of capacity building all around the world – China, Singapore, Italy and so on. What else can prepare one for these challenges other than all those experiences?
You must have been following the trends in the various political parties, especially the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in which your current boss, Governor Seyi Makinde is a leading member, a prominent chieftain and indeed a very major factor.
Are you not worried about the PDP and the gloom hovering over the party as things concern its near future?
One must and will continue to remain positive. We forget things easily in this country. When our Father, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the president, the current president was about the only governor that survived in the Alliance for Democracy (AD) during the onslaught of that era. What PDP is going through now is not a new thing. At a point in time, the kind of gains that the All Progressives Congress (APC) seems making was the same for the PDP. At a point in time, PDP controlled nearly all the governors in this country and it was so powerful to the extent that the leadership of the PDP at that time boasted that PDP would run this country for 60 years. So, these are things that would continue to emerge. My belief is that we must continue to allow democracy to reign. One is positive that PDP will come out of the woods. Let us be positive and wait.
On the other hand, do we see a Fatai Owoseni that will either be in ADC or Accord or even APC, or we should just keep watching events unfold?
Let us all be positive that the PDP will overcome the challenges it is going through now.
The people of Oyo State are hopeful that the gains of the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde should be sustained. How would you advise the people going forward as the APC too is back together, united and stronger and would present a common front in the impending general election? What would be your advice with regards to the political parties and the future of Oyo State?
For the people of Oyo State, and like I had stated earlier, it is value addition that we are looking at. Things have been put in place, modest achievements have been made by the present administration but we have to add value to it. Certain things have been put in place that we need to consummate and consolidate. With the foundation that has been laid by Governor Seyi Makinde, and all the governors that had ruled in this state, we can build on them successfully. Take education for instance, there is nothing that stops Oyo State from making public schools such that would make private schools only an alternative or a matter of choice for the
