Rethinking “Police Is Your Buddy”: Classes from Lagos By Yunus Saleh Ahmad
“Police is your pal.”
For many years, that slogan has echoed throughout Nigeria’s public areas—painted on signboards, printed on patrol autos, and repeated in official messaging. But for a lot of Nigerians, the phrase has typically provoked extra debate than perception. How, many ask, can an establishment tasked with implementing compliance, proscribing liberty, and sanctioning wrongdoing be described as a pal?
This lingering pressure between enforcement and public belief stays one of the complicated challenges going through policing in Nigeria at present.
Apparently, my reflections on that query took a brand new path after studying a lately revealed e-book titled “CP Jimoh: The Artwork of Policing Lagos.” The timing was significantly placing, coming shortly after the promotion of Moshood Olohundare Jimoh from Commissioner of Police to Assistant Inspector-Basic (AIG) within the Nigeria Police Pressure.
The e-book provides an insightful portrait of Jimoh’s tenure as Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, presenting not solely his operational methods but in addition a broader philosophy about what policing ought to appear like within the up to date world.
What emerges from the work is each spectacular and thought-provoking.
Typically, the impressions societies maintain about establishments—and even the people who serve inside them—are formed by remoted experiences, incomplete narratives, or historic grievances. But when documentary proof, knowledge, and detailed evaluation are introduced, these impressions can typically change.a
This pressure between notion and duty types the mental spine of the e-book that fastidiously examines the evolving methods utilized by the Lagos State Police Command in tackling crime inside considered one of Africa’s most complicated megacities.
Co-authored by TopHeadlines Fellows Adams Adebisi Adams and Temitope Ibrahim, the e-book provides a considerate interrogation of conventional policing narratives whereas presenting a reform-oriented framework for contemporary regulation enforcement in Nigeria.
The authors start by confronting public skepticism head-on.
In societies the place enforcement is steadily equated with oppression, the notion that the police could be described as “pals” seems contradictory. In spite of everything, the police arrest suspects, implement legal guidelines, and prosecute people concerned in crimes equivalent to armed theft, assault, kidnapping, and drug trafficking.
But the e-book reframes this argument with strategic readability.
If a pal is somebody who protects you from hurt—even when such safety requires tough interventions—then policing, at its greatest, aligns with that protecting mandate.
This conceptual shift is central to the e-book’s argument. It means that the connection between the police and the general public needn’t be outlined solely by coercion or worry. As a substitute, it will probably evolve right into a partnership constructed on shared duty for safety.
On the coronary heart of this narrative is the management strategy of Jimoh, whose tenure in Lagos is introduced as a case examine in reform-driven policing. Beneath his administration, policing is portrayed not merely as enforcement however as collaboration.
The e-book paperwork how city policing in Lagos is progressively evolving towards a extra built-in mannequin that emphasises community-centred policing, dialogue-driven engagement, institutional transparency, intelligence-led operations, and confidence-building between residents and regulation enforcement businesses.
Reasonably than relying completely on punitive measures to keep up order, the authors spotlight a method that prioritises inclusion. On this mannequin, residents are now not passive recipients of regulation enforcement actions; they turn into energetic stakeholders in sustaining safety. This shift is especially related in a metropolis like Lagos.
With its huge inhabitants, {economic} dynamism, and social complexity, Lagos can’t be successfully policed by means of conventional command-and-control strategies alone. The e-book subsequently argues that sustainable safety in such environments requires steady engagement with communities, technological innovation, and preventive intelligence.
One of the compelling contributions of the e-book is its forward-looking outlook on city safety.
It recognises that megacities demand adaptive policing methods which can be responsive not solely to crime but in addition to public expectations. By fostering belief between residents and regulation enforcement, crime prevention turns into proactive fairly than reactive.
Adams and Ibrahim current Jimoh’s reform agenda as greater than administrative adjustment; it represents a philosophical shift in policing tradition.
The message is straightforward however highly effective: legitimacy in regulation enforcement can’t be sustained by worry alone. It have to be constructed by means of engagement, transparency, and accountability.
On this sense, the e-book contributes meaningfully to Nigeria’s broader safety discourse. It bridges the usually tough hole between authority and empathy, enforcement and neighborhood belief.
For policymakers, safety practitioners, and students of governance, the work provides each reflection and path. It challenges readers to rethink long-held assumptions about policing whereas presenting sensible examples of how institutional reforms can reshape public notion.
In fact, no policing system is ideal, and no establishment is immune from criticism. Nonetheless, severe discussions about reform have to be grounded in proof fairly than assumption. Books equivalent to CP Jimoh: The Artwork of Policing Lagos assist present that proof by documenting the methods, experiments, and institutional studying processes occurring inside Nigeria’s safety sector.
As Nigeria continues to grapple with evolving safety challenges—from city crime to misinformation and cyber threats—the necessity for adaptive, community-oriented policing will solely develop.
On a private be aware, I have to congratulate AIG Moshood Olohundare Jimoh and the opposite officers lately promoted to the ranks of Assistant Inspectors-Basic and Commissioners of Police. Their elevation displays each institutional recognition and the expectation of continued service to the nation.
If the teachings documented on this e-book are sustained and expanded, the long-debated slogan—“Police is your pal”—might progressively transfer from aspiration to actuality.
And when that occurs, it won’t merely be a slogan on a signboard. It will likely be the inspiration of a brand new relationship between residents and people sworn to guard them.
Yunus Saleh Ahmad is a communication pupil at Bayero College Kano.
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