By Tunde Olusunle
I first met Solomon Arase at the headquarters of the Nigerian Police Force, (NPF), *Louis Edet House,* Abuja, over two decades ago. I was an aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and had a good relationship with Tafa Balogun the Inspector-General of Police, (IGP), at the time. It does seem that once you’re in a privileged position in Nigeria you’re construed as all-powerful. Acquaintances and friends in the police who needed the assistance of the IGP in sundry ways regularly swarmed around me and often got me to see him on their behalf. Arase, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, (DCP) at the time was Principal Staff Officer, (PSO), to IGP Tafa Balogun. Short of personally passing on correspondences I brought to him to relevant top officers and departments, Balogun often invited Arase to his office to take up the issues. This was until I developed a relationship with him and could engage directly with him.
On one of those evenings after work when I swung by *Capital Bar* in the highbrow Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, I was surprised to see DCP Arase as he then was, in the glassed enclosure. He was in the company of a police officer friend of mine, his younger colleague, Jonathan Towuru, who recently retired as Deputy Inspector-General of Police, (DIG). Tony Adejoh Olofu with whom I underwent the imperative one-year National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC), in Owerri, Imo State, between 1985 and 1986, and who retired as Assistant Inspector-General, (AIG), a few years ago, is largely responsible for my broad network of friendships in the police. Olofu and Towuru were course mates in the Police Academy and were commissioned the same day in 1990 and I’ve long been fully adopted into their fold. *Capital Bar* was the top-end watering hole for the nouveau riche and political class in Abuja at the time.
I confess my surprise seeing Arase, a senior cop in such a public place, albeit in the anonymity of his plain clothing. Recall the awe and mystique around officers of the law in olden times. Arase received me with a smile as soon as I approached the part of *Capital Bar* he was seated with Towuru, and the latter tried to introduce me to him. “I know him nau,” Arase told Towuru. “He’s Mr President’s man, he’s my Oga’s friend,” in reference to the IGP. I made to find a section of the bar to set up for my orders. Towuru pulled me back. “Where you dey go?,” he asked in pidgin English. “Oga say make you stay with us,” implying that Arase desired I sat with them. “The police is your friend,” the typically humorous Towuru said as he rehashed the famous slogan and laughed, shaking hands with me. I responded with a guffaw.
I would subsequently encounter Arase on other occasions, informally. Even as DIG, Arase would show up unannounced where his younger colleagues were loosening up. You would be right to call him “King of the Boys,” he was comfortable among people not necessarily his age. He would stop by to socialise with Towuru, Biodun Alabi, Ben Okolo, (both DIGs), younger officers like Victor Erivwode, Emmanuel Inyang, and indeed their broader mix of friends who were not necessarily police officers. He remained himself through and through even when he rose to the apex of the police as Inspector-General, (IGP), in 2015. Arase would take his phone calls and would call back if he wasn’t available at the time of your call. You didn’t have to be a police officer to get his attention. He replied text messages, and was ever so ready to illuminate issues and inquiries, attributes alien to the trademark standoffish arrogance of the Nigerian big man.
That Arase cultivated positive relationships during his years as a top law enforcement officer was most manifest at the public presentation of his book, *Law on Prevention and Detection of Crimes by the Police in Nigeria,* in 2017. He pulled the cream of the society to the *Congress Hall* of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, for the auspicious event. Former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, chaired the event which was attended by all surviving former IGPs at the time. Arase equally authored *Readings on Election Security Management* and *Selected Readings on Internal Security Management,* both of which were publicly released early this year. Not forgetting the many papers he presented at conferences and workshops across the world, many of which were published in books, journals and monographs. *Policing Nigeria in the 21st Century* published in 2024, was one such monograph.
All of these underscored Arase’s intellectual disposition, even as he remained an eternal quester for knowledge and more knowledge, despite his background as a political scientist. He proceeded to earn a degree in law which served as veritable enablement for the humanistic slant of his policing ethos. For reminders, under his watch as IGP, the *Operational Manual of International Human Rights Protocols and Guidelines for the Nigeria Police Force,* was launched in 2016. By the very title of the document, Arase sought to extend the frontiers of the standardisation of the human rights operations of the Nigerian Police, to bring it to parity with global expectations. Especially in a milieu where the police was infamously notorious for human rights infractions.
Following the unfortunate demise of my good friend, Donald Ngongor Awunah an AIG and younger colleague to Arase in 2022, the former IGP called me to get a description of Awunah’s home. He desired to pay a condolence visit to his family and I indeed volunteered to be on hand to receive him on his visit. He spoke glowingly about Awunah who was an ACP when he, Arase, was Police Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State. He described him as a crack, unobtrusive detective who helped to make light of his job on that beat. He comforted Awunah’s wife, Dooshima, her children and Tivlumun Nyitse, through whom I met Awunah several years ago. Arase assured on that occasion that he was just a phone call away, should the family have any need.
On a few occasions, I visited his Jabi, Abuja office from where he oversaw the operations of the Police Service Commission, (PSC), which he chaired for a few years. For the records, Arase it was who led the Commission to take possession of its present office complex and operationalise it, after it was abandoned and disused for years because it was not fully completed and the access road, just earth. “We will continue to develop and improve on the facilities now that we have moved in,” he told me on my first visit. “Or else, it will become totally decrepit and become a waste.” He desired that I availed the Commission my experience in public communication, in training select officers. Compelling as our propositions were, and eager as he was for me to be onboarded, the uncanny conspiracy between bureaucratese and liquidity inadequacy ensured we never quite got off the ground, until he was replaced.
Settling back home after church service on Sunday August 31, 2025, it was Tony Olofu who called to convey the sad news of the passing of IGP Solomon Ehigiator Arase. I knew I couldn’t be misinformed by Olofu. I couldn’t resist double-checking on the internet nonetheless, and there was the official family statement signed by Solomon Arase Jnr his son, confirming the development. *Egbon,* as I used to call him, was just one year shy of the league of septuagenarians. He was a remarkable personality, amiable, accessible, devoid of airs, shorn of affectation. He was predominantly a regular guy who loved to engage and dialogue. He was an invaluable repository of knowledge and experience on law, policing and security. He will be truly, sorely missed. May his affable soul rest in peace.
*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*