IKENNA EMEWU
Quite early in his secondary school, the government of Imo State introduced the rule of sending soldiers and policemen to secondary schools for security duties.
Government Secondary School, Owutu Edda, was one of such schools where these uniformed officers guarded their gates. Until the government of Governor Sam Mbakwe forcibly faded away on December 31, 1983, it is either that they never told us the reason behind this rule, or our minds were not mature enough to worry about such policy complexities at our young age.
But before they left, one of the kids in those schools had caught some sparks of fire from these men in uniform. The smoulder of the spark remained in him until 1994, when he fanned it into flames to glow.
Among the young soldiers on such duties was an equally young policeman whose dress was impeccable. His communication with the young boys was also so measured, refined, and courteous. While the young soldiers were harsh, relating in the language of force, battered grammar, the policeman took an opposite direction when interacting with the students.
A particular young student just new in the school was one of the boys the policeman interacted with once in a while, without him even knowing he was passing a message of admiration to someone among the boys. This particular boy was always taken in by the politeness and bespoke outfit of the policeman, and he wished in him to be like the policeman. He dreamed of dressing like him someday, unknown to the influencer.
In his years later at the University of Jos, he engaged in student unionism. At one of the occasions, the undergraduates of the Department of Psychology planned a socialising event whose focus was on mending the minds of the young people not to cherish social vices.
Because the city of Jos enjoyed the presence of some military and paramilitary institutions at Kuru, the students decided to exploit this advantage and visited the institute to search for officers who would honour them with their presence and deliver talks to the undergraduates.
As they got into the premises, they saw some officers who they didn’t know their areas of operation because they were not dressed in uniforms. They agreed to approach them with their request.
One of the young men volunteered to speak for the rest and table their request.
Fortunately, one of the men accepted to be there and honour the students at the event. The one that accepted was a police officer of a very high rank. It was at the point of acceptance that he revealed his identity and commended the spokesman of the team for his boldness.
This encounter did a wonder of reinforcing that old dream in the young man that had lingered from his early secondary school days. It was as if a final call had been made in him to take a definite step towards graduation and join the Nigerian Police, sharing in the professional flair of these two sound and respectable characters he had come across, both of whom were in the same career.
The same fate playing around him took him to the Police Staff College, Jos, for his NYSC.
Few years after graduating from the university, he went for police recruitment to satisfy his longing. During the interview and screening, the panel of officers always asked the young intending cadets why they wanted to join the police.
The young man with self-motivation didn’t hesitate to rattle through his two motivations. Incidentally, when he mentioned the name of the senior officer he met in Jos, the head of the panel knew the person, and he was once the boss of the recruiting officer.
The team was particularly touched by the tale of his formative years, where a smart-looking policeman etched a positive script on his tabula rasa mind. They took that first and early age impression as quite compelling and told him outright, “Young man, you have been taken. We don’t tell anybody their fate after the interview, but your story is unique, and we have to tell you that you sounded genuinely convincing. With your peculiar story, we won’t deny you the nuclear urge to follow your mind.”
On June 10, 1994, the young boy from Edda was enlisted in the Police Cadet Course with his bachelor’s degree in Psychology. His old dream blossomed into fruition the day he graduated from the Police Academy, Wudil in 1996, wearing the ASP rank.
On Monday, July 21, 2025 – 31 years, one month, and 11 days from his maiden decoration as a middle police officer, the Police Service Commission (PSC) announced his elevation to the elite rank of Commissioner of Police. By the growth procedure of the system, the Commissioner rank is the apex. Those who know the system say that every rank beyond this is an appointment subject to a lot of variables – God-factor, politics, and connections.
Oji Ama Nnanna, the little boy who came to his secondary school like a drifter, but got caught up in the jet stream of aspirational acclivity quite early in his new environment, held fast to his dare and drive.
Today, here is to you a Commissioner of the Nigeria Police, a committed officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who has devoted over 31 years of his youthful life to serving his country and society.
Here is a true story and real-life journey in motivation, not a take from the textbooks or cooked fable to excite and whet the appetite of your goals.
This is the amazing upward journey of a man whom some of us knew as a fellow kid, who walked in the footsteps of his family heritage and grew up clutching his Bible and copies of Awake and Watchtower (Ulo Nche) magazines, moving from door to door preaching as a Jehovah’s Witness.
From our years together growing up, we knew he had the nuclear personality of a resolute spirit that follows his mind and pursues his dream.
His mind didn’t lead him astray. He never allowed the dream to slip through the fingers with which he held on and never relented.
Where he goes next from now, only the Forces of Creation that brought him this far will unfurl the same. But speaking as a man and from what I have witnessed, I am convinced that the rudder that stirs his course and stays his feet on the tracks of his race will take him to more pleasant places, an arena where the ovation of his celebration will ring louder.
I can bet that, like the two inspirations that moulded his dreams, he has been a shaper of some other people’s aspirations in the course of his service these years.
People who see him from afar may have their impressions about him, but close persons to him know this is a man with a soft human mind that runs deep in inspiration and erudition.
Congratulations, my own person.
