Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola Nigeria’s Minister of Interior is a man with strong commitments to the magnificent vision and dedication of President Muhammadu Buhari towards the security and welfare of the Nigerian people.Today, as the flag of this country flutters in the hands of this great leader, Aregbesola is working tirelessly to help him achieve the people’s aspirations, broader national ambitions, and to continue the process of growth, renewal, development and prosperity. Despite the global turbulence occassioned by COVID-19, Aregbesola remains one of the pillars of support, actively supporting him with his creativity and ingenuity at the Ministry of Interior.
Since his appointment as minister of Interior, he has worked towards realizing the vision of the Buhari leadership and its sound directives by contributing to transforming Nigeria challenges into development opportunities that keeps pace with the rhythm of the era, anticipates a promising future, and achieves rates of development and growth that can dazzle the world.
Ayear ago,Ogbeni Aregbesola was appointed minister when President Buhari constituted his second term cabinet and deployed him to that ministry. The Ministry of Interior has become more vibrant since then
After a careful assessment of things on getting into office in 2019, he began to work on revamping the entire internal security architecture, under his supervision for efficient service delivery, along the path of President Buhari’s vision of SET – security, economic rejuvenation and transparency. Aregbesola has been pursuing a strategy to improve and develop performance of the agencies under the ministry in all competitiveness indicators. Clearly the approach is rooted in open socio-economic policies, modernisation and updating of policies and streamlining of procedures as well as the adoption of innovation to move the country up on the scale of global competitiveness in all agencies he ministry has supervisory control over.
He started by paying inspection visits to all the agencies under his supervision. They include the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), which had just been reformed from the old Nigerian Prison Service; the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS); the Federal Fire Service (FFS); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); and the Civil Defence, Corrections, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB).
Improvement in staff welfare:
On assumption of duty, in August 2019 Aregbesola promised to make life better for the staff in the ministry and the agencies under the ministry.To the minister, equipping staff and giving them relevant training will motivate them to be efficient and productive.
He said staff welfare would be a top priority of his and that he would make a strong case for training, equipping and motivating the personnel, emphasising that a well motivated personnel will deliver well on the job. This promise soon became a reality. The ministry organized many workshops for the staff of NIS and NCoS and also deployed fire fighting trucks to Bayelsa and Kaduna States respectively. Equally, it promoted 3548 staff of the NIS and NCos. He also commissioned Kwara and Adamawa States commands of the NIS and unveiled the Forward Operation base in Katsina State.
Relations with other countries:
Ogbeni Aregbesola had promised to restore the confidence of the international community where business partnership will be established among Nigeria and other countries.He also said his ministry would restore the confidence of the global community in doing business with Nigeria by enhancing the ease of doing business.
So far, the ministry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the Federal Government with the Belarusian Minister of Internal Affairs, Yuri Karayev, in Minsk with actions planned towards ending poverty and inequality in both countries leveraging on each other’s experience.
Well, after a year in office, the MoU with Belarus is yet to generate any positive returns accruing to the country. Perhaps implementation of the MoU is still in the pipeline.
Security and safety: NSCDC
To tackle the rising wave of general insecurity in the country, Aregbesola had promised to ensure that national peace and stability is attained. Some success has been recorded on with the creation of a solution path.
The NSCDC recorded the following achievements within the same time frame. Training and deployment of over 2,000 personnel as professional Peace Ambassadors and Chartered Mediators to promote peace in the country; training and deployed over 1,500 personnel as Agro-Rangers in Yobe and Adamawa State to protect farmers and their farms to ensure food security. Creation of the Agro-Rangers Squad for the provision of physical security to the Agro-Allied sector of the economy and the safety of the proposed 250 cattle ranches nationwide. Deployment of over 5,000 officers to the North East to protect the IDP Camps and to re-occupy the liberated towns and villages in the North East. Arrest of Illegal Miners in Zamfara, Kebbi, Osun and illegal refineries destroyed in the Niger Delta in the quest to protect critical national asset. Last comes the creation of the Citizens’ Integrity Unit in the Corp to fight rape and other sexual abuses in the country.
With what is listed above, it is clear for anyone to see that the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps have been doing a lot to secure communities and promote peace, in addition to providing security for critical national infrastructure. It is on the back of NSCDC that the Agro Rangers scheme is built. Without this scheme and the service of brave men and officers in the Agro Rangers Unit, food production from the North, which witnessed perennial herder/farmers clashes in the past, would not have improved considerably. The unit continues to provide security for farmers and herders.
Of interest to President Buhari is the dignity and integrity of citizens. To actualise this, a new unit called the Citizen’s Integrity Unit was established. They oversee and nip in the bud, the perennial cases of rape, extortion and dehumanising treatment that Nigerian citizens are subjected to.
Fire Service:
As at the time Aregbesola assumed office, the equipment in the inventory at Federal Fire Service was old and mostly out of order. To him putting things in order became urgency, so as to prevent avoidable loss of lives and properties to fire.He put in initiatives that helped Fire Service to hit the ground running with the procurement of vehicles, equipment as well as being infused with efficiency.
Thus Federal Fire Service in five months after the minister took over, responded to 2,615 fire calls, saving 726 lives and assets worth N1.629 trillion across the country. The service was able to do these because of the initiatives that were put on ground by Aregebesola, which have made the fire service record tremendous achievements.
These include first the establishment of Six (6) additional training school towards capacity development of officer of the federal fire service. Second achievement is the creation of Six (6) additional zonal commands, recruitment and training of newly employed 2,200 personnel in order to drive efficiency towards ensuring public safety of lives and property across the country. Third comes the buying, commissioning and deployment of twelve (12) modern firefighting trucks to strengthen the federal fire service capacity in ensuring public safety of lives and property.
Fourth is the Affiliation of National Fire Academy, Sheda with Nigeria Defence Academy to run Postgraduate studies in Disaster and Risk Management towards human capacity development. The fifth achievement of the service is its collaboration with the Federal ministry of Environment to disinfect and decontaminate public offices, markets, educational institutions, and streets with a view to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aregbesola knows that a Fire Service is as good as the fire engines and fighters it possesses. So he made necessary arrangements that made President Buhari approve for the Service the purchase of about 100 ultramodern firefighting trucks and engines. The last time any equipment was procured was sometime in 1996. The equipment in the inventory before the advent of the administration of President Buhari were those procured between 1985 and 1996, and since then there has been no procurement until now. It will also interest you to note that 2,200 fire fighters have been employed, trained, commissioned and deployed into service. For the first time in Nigeria’s history, Federal Fire Service stations and presence now exist in every state of the federation.
Correctional Centre Reforms and Decongestion:
Aregbesola focuses on prison inmates well-being. Normally, Correctional Service provides the mechanisms, facilities and services for carrying out the orders of the judiciary in relation to community members who have been charged with or convicted for breaking the laws of the country.
When he took office, he said his ministry would concentrate on looking after prisoners well-being – providing food and healthcare for them. Though times are tough, with Aregbesola’s effort , Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) now provides good food for prisoners which is very important , with mechanism in place to ensure that the prisoners are not be so shabbily treated. As a result of commitments , the correctional Centre Reforms gathered momentum, leading the NCS to record milestone achievements. These include the following:
Safe custody of over seventy-five thousand inmates and personal against Covid 19 with no single case recorded; laying the foundation for three thousand capacity correctional centre in three zones across the federation in order to improve the infrastructure of the correctional service thereby gradually solving the problem of overcrowding, launching and unveiling of 243 operational vehicles for smooth operation of inmates and personal of the service.
Others include the full Implementation of the correctional service act signed by President Buhari which changed the name from the Nigeria Prison Service to the Nigeria Correctional Service which brings in play new initiatives such as Non-custodial measures which will drive decongestion within the correctional facilities and drive human capital development of men and officers of the service; the release of over five thousand inmates from the various correctional centres across the federation in consultation with the presidential committee on prison decongestion as a way to reduce the effect of Covid-19 infection; the launching of digital empowerment scheme which complements government efforts at reforming inmates at the correctional centres and equipping them with life skills that will make them better members of the society and lastly, the graduation of a total 315 cadets’ officers-despite the COVID-19 pandemic- at the correctional training school in kaduna which further strengthens the workforce of the service.
For a long time, recruitment was on hold along with maintenance on NCS officers’ houses and prisons and prisoners’ rehabilitation programmes. Then there was overcrowding of prisons, which resulted in continuous jailbreaks.
The minister changed all these and said the inmates ‘must have peace of mind by ensuring that the environment of the correctional centres remains a conducive atmosphere for them to reflect on their past life and make the transition to a new life easy for them.
And he set the procedure in motion to enhance the safety and security of society through secure, humane containment and facilitating the rehabilitation of convicted detainees in partnership with stakeholders in fulfilment of Correctional Service mandate and to achieve President Buhari’s SET Agenda. Along that path, it is responsible to provide counselling, education, and training, which will assist detainees to return to society as reformed citizens.
Another major activity was the ministry’s decision to decongest the correctional centres in the last one year. Encouragingly, the de-congestion policy has started in many states, with about 5,000 inmates regaining their freedom in the last one year.This was made possible by the pardon and amnesty graciously approved by President Buhari. The process is ongoing and many more who meet certain stringent criteria will benefit from the programme. Added to this is the fact that modalities are being put in place to operationalise the parole system, so that first-time minor offenders or others who have no reason to be incarcerated can serve their terms at home or other designated places
Also, 850, inmates were able to continue their educational courses. Virtual learning center was opened in Kaduna State and pharmaceutical drugs distributed across the correctional centres in the country.
The New Visa Policy:
There is a new visa policy in place: Nigerian Visa Policy(NVP)2020 launched by President Buhari.The new Visa Policy now has 75 categories which include Religious Visa, Sport Visa, Entertainment Visa, several others which were not part of the old visa policy.No doubt, the new visa policy is a welcome development and can be termed an achievement for Aregbesola.
Now friends, those not-so-friendly, adversaries and enemies will agree that the minister has done well in the past one year.Of course, he is a treasure of trust to the government, and all could connect to him, and trust him. Why? Primarily because he is the predictable factor of the APC.
It is anybody’s guess now that without the presence of this one-man-institution — who is a ready reckoner of President Buhari’s era in Nigerian politics — the recent developments in the interior ministry would not have been possible.
Contribution to the goals of a country is a journey all of us must set out on, one day or another. Aregbesola is helping the government of President Buhari to fulfill many of the dreams of the people. From the time he joined the cabinet in 2019, there wasn’t a single promise made by him that he did not honour. Every now and then, we see new decisions, new efforts, and new initiatives announced by the ministry of interior under the watch of Ogbeni Aregbesola as he continues to support President Buhari’s vision for achievements in all political, economic, social, human and environmental fields to take Nigeria forward on the path of progress, and build a fair, safe, productive, prosperous and developed society forall.
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