By Oguwike Nwachuku
There is a world of difference between Divakar Roopa Moudgil, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer belonging to Karnataka Cadre, and Imo State Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, in Nigeria.
Roopa, as she is fondly called, is the ideal police officer any society needs because she is at home with the reason for policing.
For Ezike, many have their doubt.
Compare how Roopa is influencing the Indian society with her style of policing with the way Ezike is going about his in Imo State through organising awards, you will understand why respect and accolade trail Roopa, and why her name is feared even among the most prominent politicians in her country, all of which may be far from Ezike.
Though Roopa is younger than Ezike in police work, having spent 16 years, achievements are not always determined by the number of years in an office but what is achieved.
As the first woman IPS officer in Karnataka, Roopa was awarded the prestigious President’s Police Medal for Meritorious service on January 26, 2016 and is regarded as very brilliant and one of the best and most dedicated in the police.
Born and brought up in Davangere, Bangalore, Roopa comes from a highly educated family. Her parents, who are also public servants, provided their two wards, including Roopa, good education.
From day one, Roopa distinguished herself by daring those who thought police work means fraternising with criminals who use the police as cannon fodder for their selfish desires.
As a Superintendent of Police, Roopa arrested Uma Bharati, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, at Alnavar following court orders for a 10-year-old rioting case.
Again, while serving as DCP in Bangalore city, she withdrew some police personnel unauthorised to be deployed as orderlies to serve VVIPs and influential politicians, including a former Chief Minister and other Ministers in powers, leaving a minimum number for their effective security, thus allowing for optimum utilisation of police force under her watch.
Also, while Roopa was DCP of City Armed Reserve, she withdrew many police vehicles wrongly deployed to serve former Chief Minister of the state, Sri Yediyurappa, as escort and pilot vehicles, because he was not entitled to such privileges out of office.
Roopa is always in the Indian news for her proactive role in maintaining law and order.
The thinking of many in India and outside is that it is hard to find a police officer with such a credible work record spanning 16 years.
Many also remark that Roopa never shies away from taking a firm stand on controversial issues related to social harmony and corruption as often propelled by politicians and those in positions of responsibility.
Because of that, she is at the receiving end from both BJP and Congress politicians. But does she care?
Given that her target is always to achieve difficult results, Roopa as a DIG, CID in economic offences and head of the cyber cell, became effective in solving a number of high profile cybercrimes, creating awareness among the general public about cybercrimes and the laws on them.
What Roopa did in dealing with the menace of cybercrimes, she replicated against drug offences by organising drug awareness programmes for students as part of the social role and responsibility of the police.
I have not taken so much interest in Roopa until during the week when a brother sent me one of her outings at TEDx Talk which I watched on YouTube and became speechless about her gait and strong feeling of fulfillment as a police officer equipped with the Constitution to do the right thing and get people to trust her judgment as equal stakeholders in a society that belongs to all.
The day the YouTube TEDx Talk was sent to me coincided with a programme I watched on Channels Television on Wednesday, February 21 where Ezike featured prominently.
What thrilled me while watching the programme, Metrofile, was that what Roopa is fighting in India as one of the reasons the police cannot effectively carry out their responsibilities there is flowering in Nigeria with all the razzmatazz that goes with it.
“I find many of the fears of bureaucrats to be unfounded and baseless” was how Roopa dealt with issues of defamation and privilege motion notices affecting her job.
She also spoke of how she powered her way through political pressure, what she sees as a course of action available to all bureaucrats.
Roopa added: “Being a bureaucrat in India comes with its daily dose of challenges and hurdles. More so, if you are a woman. But what happens when you decide to take on the mighty and powerful….?
“If I’m alive and kicking and able to deliver a TEDx Talk before you all, you can imagine the robust protection and the law available to the bureaucrats.”
Roopa highlighted the challenges she faces as a woman in a male-dominated police force, saying, “the peril is that the woman officer could be ignored, taken for granted, taken lightly, her instructions can be thrown into the air at times.”
Karl Marx once said “bureaucracy is an iron cage,” but in Roopa’s regrets and optimism as a bureaucrat she said: “I find that our bureaucrats have chained themselves. They are the ones holding the chains.
“The day they break away from these self-imposed chains, the day they start exercising their real powers, we will see a new India.”
Roopa’s idea of a proper bureaucrat has failed all the tests there ought to be in the Nigerian system if its police and the workings of the officers and their men are anything to go by.
Recently, Ezike organised an event where the Imo Police Command gave out awards to certain persons, with Governor Rochas Okorocha getting the prime award.
The awards indicated they were for excellent performances in different spheres.
On that day, glowing orations flowed freely from Ezike who awarded Okorocha as the Most Outstanding Police Governor of the Year.
It was also an opportunity for Ezike to express gratitude to traditional rulers, other security agencies and communities that partnered with the Police Command in crime fighting.
What really underscores the fears raised by Roopa with the Nigerian scenario is that the Owerri ceremony had in attendance dignitaries that included a serving Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Valentine Ntomchukwu, and some members of the Police Service Commission (PCS) who ought to check such nonsense where bureaucrats are in the chains of public officers they themselves instigated as Roopa observed.
This is the era of awards. And by this period every year in Nigeria, the act of awarding members of the public for one achievement or another is elevated to a religion.
We have seen it all – the credible, non-credible and the ridiculous. All sorts. I leave you to place Ezike’s award to his recipients, and what the intention was.
I often ask myself why our society is still terribly challenged and replete with all manner of vices, underdevelopment, poverty and incompetence starring everyone in the face with the barrage of awards that are given out every year to the so-called “deserving” members of the public for their contribution to the development and good of the society.
What we see in the wider world in terms of award ceremonies has also found expression in our citadels of learning where first class degrees are awarded to students in manners that could best be described as reckless.
This is the only country where the number of first class graduates has refused to impact on our development and wellbeing. Today is simply not about the number of students being awarded first class degrees.
The fact is that the institutions which ought to be wary of some of the awards given out to members of the society, like the police, because of the negative implication they may have in our society have joined in the same scam for whatever reason.
Before now, many thought the act of giving awards to deserving individuals and institutions in our society were principally the exclusive preserve of the media and related sectors. How wrong can they be!
In fact, time was when political office holders craved for awards from the media and related organs to underscore what they are painstakingly doing in terms of service delivery to the people.
I am not saying politicians have stopped looking forward to being awarded one way or another for their genuine services to the society.
However, that all manner of awards are handed out to public officers by those who ought to serve as a check on the activities of the public officers like the one organised by Ezike is both confounding and scandalous.
The ignominy that was Ezike’s award leaves much to be desired. What exactly has the governor done that is extra-ordinary that the police in Imo State should abandon their statutory responsibility of protecting the lives and property of the people to be involved in the charade of award giving?
Let us assume that Okorocha has done so well to be recognised by the police, but does the Constitution allow such public display of sycophancy, booth-licking, and waste of government time and tax payers’ resources on a public officer who did what he should do to ensure that lives and property are protected?
And to say that a DIG sat comfortably by while the misnomer was on display tells one that we need a Roopa in Nigeria to deal with the types of Ezike and Ntomchukwu who probably have their professional roles attached to the apron strings of public officers like Okorocha.
Yes, the Roopa kind of person ought to be around to remind them of their statutory duty because they have lost touch with what such roles should be as police officers.
In fact, I will be surprised if the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, was not part of that infamy if we are guided by some of the scandalous things that are happening in his time that are inexplicable to say the least.
The Ezike award this time around also showcases too many things – his continuing subservient to Okorocha at the detriment of service to the people. Morning they say shows the day.
We are talking about a state that is facing a serious political uncertainty and in the midst of that, the Police Commissioner has pitched his tent with Okorocha, a man many Imo indigenes are saying has elevated impunity and authoritarianism to a worship.
If you are in doubt as to Ezike’s unalloyed demonstration of affinity to Okorocha then you need to come to terms with his dress code on the day of the award.
He and his men wore the usual Okorocha muffler that indicated they were more of politicians in the cloak of police officers in Imo.
A friend who also watched the award ceremony retorted sarcastically: “You must have checked very well before you discover that Ezike was not one of Okorocha’s aides going by the muffler he and all his men were putting on.”
The best thing that can happen to Imo State indigenes now or before the election is for Idris to urgently transfer Ezike out of the state. There are many reasons to do so, and Imo people know them. The civil society are also aware.
But the worst fear of the people could be that as the election period draws closer, Ezike cannot be trusted to function as the Police Commissioner for Imo State as long as he remains in the chains of the man who caused him to give him an award for superlative performance. Whatever that means.