AJIMOBI CONDEMNS POOR ATTITUDE OF NIGERIANS TO READING

The Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has decried the poor
attitude of Nigerians to acquisition of knowledge, stating that
indiscipline, culture of impunity and quest for accumulation of
wealth, rather than the search for knowledge, were obstacles to
progress and development in Nigeria.

He stated this at the formal launch of a book entitled
Policing in a corrosive environment authored by his Chief Security
Officer, CSP Francis Ojomo, which held at the Jogor Centre, Ibadan.

According to the governor, the poor attitude of Nigerians to knowledge
was a function of lack of understanding of the chain link between it
and wealth.

The governor, who condemned all forms of indiscipline associated with
Nigerian public office, observed that the low turn-out of people at
the event was a reflection of the attitude of Nigerians to honesty,
integrity and hard-work.


While going on memory lane of his first encounter with the police
officer, the governor said he encountered Ojomo at a road block about
five years ago while he and his wife were traveling to Lagos, with him
behind the wheels.

The governor recalled that on that day, he was stopped by some
policemen who mounted the road block and who allowed him to go after
ascertaining that he had not ran foul of the law but all of a sudden,
Ojomo, who stood ahead of the mounted road block, stopped him and
asked why he had not given himself up for screening.

According to the governor, all entreaties to the police chief that he
was a Senator of the Federal Republic did not stop him from ordering
him to come down from the car and open his car boot, maintaining that
Ojomo insisted that even if he was president of the country, he would
still search his car to be sure he had not contravened the law.


While commending the police officer for his intellectual exploits,
Ajimobi described Ojomo as a gallant police officer, a pride to the
police force and Nigeria and a man who was integrity and honesty
personified, whom he felt there was no greater honour to be done him
than by ensuring that himself, his wife, the deputy governor of the
state and all the state executive council members, attended his book
launch.

Speakers after speakers at the event commended Ojomo, especially
during his tenure as the Divisional Police Officer in the Mapo area of
Ibadan where his incorruptibility earned him the sobriquet of Kogbowo,
kogbobi.

The reviewer of the book, Professor Olawale Albert of the Department
of Peace and Conflict, University of Ibadan, described it as a major
contribution to knowledge and the ongoing reform in the police.

He said that the five chapters of the book recaptured the history
leading to the establishment of the Nigeria Police, noting that Ojomo,
in the book, stressed the need for community policing as the way
forward to the nation’s security challenges.

In his remarks, the author said the book was written to expose the
degree of corruption in the society, especially as it concerns the
police force, stressing that any society that thrives on bribery and
corruption will crumble.