The propaganda about Aregbesola as minister of interior

As active citizens, we need to review the performance of Aregbesola as minister of interior bereft of propaganda and emotional partisan considerations and rather be driven by data and evidence. As a concept, performance management helps to define and measure the contribution of an employee to the organisation’s business and provides clarity on the “line of sight” of every member to the overall goals. As a process, it helps to reconcile personal goals with organisational goals to enable the achievement of strategic intent, purpose, and ambition.

Rauf Aregbesola, as the minister of interior during the COVID-19 pandemic and aftermath, has had a huge effect on Nigeria’s socio-economic growth, affecting many parts of the country’s economy and society. One of the biggest problems has been the disruption of the economy, which has caused people to lose their jobs and see big differences in their incomes. Aregbesola proved that 21st-century leadership is about strategy and innovation. Aregbesola provided strategic and innovative leadership in the Ministry of Interior in less than one year in office. There are four main agencies and a board under the supervision of the ministry. They are the Nigerian Correctional Service (formerly the Prisons Service), the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Federal Fire Service, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board.

Do you know that the Ministry of Interior is vested with ensuring timely processing of permits for those coming to the country to establish businesses? Possibly not. Do you also know that the ministry processes expatriate quotas in line with the executive order on ease of doing business? It is equally vested with the easing of tourist visas, biometric visas at all entry points into the country, and many others.

So, how well has the ministry fared in 40 months? The Cabinet listened as Aregbesola reeled out the achievements, agency after agency.

When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Which was why the minister took the key officers of all the agencies to a resort in Ilesa, Osun State.

Within five months, the Federal Fire Service responded to 2,615 fire calls and saved 724 lives and assets worth N1.629 trillion across the country. We take things like this for granted, don’t we? May we never see the fury of fire, as it ravenously devours everything in sight with its furious tongues.

At least 3,000 capacity custodial centres were under construction and in various stages of completion in the six geopolitical zones of the country. It would assuage the problem of congestion to a large extent. They were completed.

Custodial Farm Centres were reactivated around the country for large-scale agricultural production in piggery, fishing, cattle rearing, and poultry. Tractors and harvesters have been procured to facilitate the work and contribute to food security in the country.

There was a rehabilitation program aimed at reducing the rate of recidivism (that’s big vocabulary, which means going to jail again and again) by engaging inmates in both vocational and entrepreneurial initiatives. About 1,000 inmates were enrolled for the 2020 WAEC/NECO examinations, while the number of study centres of the National Open University of Nigeria has been increased to 10 across Custodial Centres.

The Border Management Strategy (BMS) has begun and is being implemented at all international airports in the country. Management Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) is now deployed at all air borders. It’s very easy to fish out anyone with criminal records from anywhere in the world attempting to enter the country.

Nigerian passports can now be applied for online, while there’s also Visa-On-Arrival with biometric features at all air borders.

At the social end, the statutory marriage process was automated to make things easier.

The Federal Fire Service was now present in all states of the country, with 28 newly procured fire engines deployed.

Read also: Aregbesola, a failed ex-Osun governor, now canvasses good governance – APM

Six new fire service training schools have been established across the geopolitical zones to cater for human capital development needs.

Over 5,000 officers of the Civil Defence have been deployed to protect IDP camps and reoccupy liberated towns and villages in the Northeast.

The ministry trained and deployed over 1,500 personnel as Agro-Rangers in Yobe and Adamawa states to protect farmers and their farms. This will eventually go round the country as required.

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was sworn in as the Minister of Interior in August 2019. During these 20 months, he has manned the leadership position, and far-reaching reforms have taken place in the ministry and its paramilitary agencies. Since his assumption of office, the Ministry of Interior has witnessed progress, transformation, and a solid foundation. Under Aregbesola, the Nigerian Correctional Service has completed over 713 projects that were started since 2016.

Within the 20 months of Aregbesola as Minister of Interior, the Nigerian Immigration Service upgraded from manual to electronic processing of temporary work permits in line with the digitisation process of the entire workflow process going on in the NIS. This upgrade would have a positive effect on the ease of doing business in Nigeria and has the potential to create direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians.

Aregbesola commissioned the Female Armed Squad Unit of the NSCDC. The objective is to provide female guards to protect schools in line with the Safe School Initiative policy directive of the minister, which is aimed at keeping children safe in schools. This will support the efforts of other security agencies in addressing the recurring cases of kidnapping of schoolchildren, which have been going on for years.

Nigerians who have either lost their passport or had it expire before renewal and need to travel home now have the benefit of obtaining the one-way temporary passport. The NIS introduced the one-way Temporary Passport to replace the Emergency Travel Certificate. The change will undoubtedly make travelling back home easier for many Nigerians who may have lost their international passport during a journey.

Aregbesola met congested and overcrowded custodial facilities upon assumption of office. He knew this was contributed to by the criminal justice system in Nigeria. The situation worsened with the outbreak of COVID-19 and the consequent lockdown of societies. With the support of the Nigerian Correctional Service and, of course, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior introduced the virtual counsel/court sessions in the Nigerian Custodial Centres to ensure unhindered adjudication of justice while still adhering to the COVID-19 pandemic protocols.

The Federal Fire Service is a major success story during Aregbesola’s 20 months and one to be proud of. Between August 2019 and December 2020, the Federal Fire Service responded to over 1500 fire calls, saved hundreds of lives that could have been lost, and saved assets worth trillions of naira. This was achieved with the procurement and deployment of new fire engines across the country to boost emergency response. The Federal Fire Service is now present in all the states of the federation and has become the most responsive, saving lives and preventing humanitarian and economic disasters.

Inwalomhe Donald wrote via inwalomhe.donald@yahoo.com from Abuja.