The Federal Government has appointed Emmanuel Olukemi Rotimi, a professor at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, as a member of the Policy Advisory Committee supporting the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill.
Rotimi was selected based on his extensive academic research into the history and evolution of policing in Nigeria, particularly his studies of the country’s former decentralised policing structures.
The proposed National Policing Bill is expected to establish a legal framework for the operation of both Federal and State Police Services.
The Presidential Working Group, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, has been given seven weeks to prepare a draft of the legislation and submit it to the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The Policy Advisory Committee is headed by retired Justice Mohammed Abdullahi Liman. The committee is responsible for providing policy direction, guiding the drafting process and reviewing the proposed legislation before its finalisation.
Rotimi, who lectures in the Department of History at OAU, has spent several years researching Nigeria’s policing institutions and their evolution during the colonial and post-colonial periods.
His master’s research examined the Native Administration Police Forces in Western Nigeria between 1905 and 1951, while his doctoral research focused on Native Administration Police Forces across Nigeria between 1900 and 1970.
He is also the author of The Police in a Federal State: The Nigerian Experience, published in 2001. The book examined the origins, structure and development of Native Authority and Local Government police forces before their eventual abolition.
The appointment brings an academic with specialised knowledge of Nigeria’s policing history into the ongoing efforts to develop a new legal framework for policing in the country.
READ ALSO:
