AIG Sadiq I Abubakar: Blazing The Trail In Police Academy, Wudil
By Aminu Garko
When on April 14, 2023, AIG Sadiq I Abubakar, took over the mantle as the new Commandant, Nigeria Police Academy,Wudil, Kano state, the reactions that greeted his assumption as the head of that great citadel of higher learning came with appeals of high expectations. This is so considering the fact that he is a son of the soil, an indigene of Kano state from Garko Local Government Area.
So, for AIG Abubakar, leaving Abuja where he served as Commissioner of Police of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to Wudil was, indeed, homecoming. He was coming to keep building and sustaining a project established right at his door step, a task he wholeheartedly accepted to accomplish with great spirit of patriotism.
Following his uncommon track-records as FCT Commissioner of Police, the management, staff and under-graduates of POLAC, Wudil, knew they were in for a fresh air of leadership built on integrity, dedication to duty, trust, hard work, perseverance, humility and human development.
Taking the mantle of leadership from the 22nd Commandant of the Academy, AIG Ahmad AbdurRahman, AIG Abubakar did not only promise to build on the legacies of his predecessor, but to also breadth in fresh air into the POLAC community and bring about innovations designed to take the institution to greater heights, giving it the needed platform to compete with its types across the globe.
In less than three months after assuming duty, AIG Abubakar has blazed the trail in virtually all the areas of human and socio-infrastructural development in the institution. He has taken very seriously training and re-training of lecturers and staff of the institution for quality service delivery. He has also been very keen in ensuring adequate provision of social amenities and infrastructural facilities needed to enable under-graduates and tutors assimilate lessons, knowledge, and education, being their primary aim of enrolment.
Taking cognizance of the fact that we live in a world of growing technology, AIG Abubakar has set in motion a project geared towards digitalization of the learning facilities at the institution, to enable the under-graduates keep abreast with trends across the globe. Also close to his chest is the welfare of both academic and non-academic staff, as well as under-graduates within the POLAC community.
Discipline, dedication to academic activities and coordinated extra-mural activities have characterized the Academy since about three months ago AIG Abubakar took over as the new Commandant. Building on this principle of turning around the Academy for the better, AIG Abubakar has been making passionate appeals to philanthropists, private organizations and international donors to channel their charitable activities to POLAC, Wudil, with a view to giving the physical infrastructures in the instruction a face-lift because government can not do it alone.
Established 35 years ago, precisely, in 1988,
the Nigerian Police Academy, Wudil, Kano state, is a Federal Government-owned institution designed to train police officers in Nigeria. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in law enforcement and related fields. The Academy is accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC), and is recognized as a degree-awarding institution. According to data from NUC, the Academy is the 37th Federal University, and 124th university in Nigeria. The pioneer faculties include: Faculty of Science; Faculty of Law; Faculty of Social and Management Science; and Faculty of Humanities.
The aims and objectives of establishing the institution include, among other things, to provide an institution capable of producing qualitative manpower especially at the ASP and Inspectorate cadre, to meet up with the middle-level manpower requirements of the Nigeria Police Force. The Academy was also established to equip trainees with competences backed by sound academic background, high professional and moral standards for effective law enforcement, and selfless service to Nigeria.
However, it should be noted that the selection into the Academy is done on a quota basis of which each state of the federation is given an equal number of slots. Selection into the Academy starts from the state level to the zonal level and finally the Force Headquarters Abuja.
More so, the Police Service Commission (PSC) has the sole responsibility of appointment into the Nigeria Police force, application forms are obtainable from the PSC or Force Headquarters websites after advertisement in national newspapers, broadcast stations and the websites.
Indeed, in 35 years of its existence, POLAC, Wudil, has not betrayed its aims and objectives as it has recorded tremendous achievements in academic excellence over the years. Since establishment, the Academy has so far, trained over 7000 Cadet officers. It should, however, be noted that the Academy also accommodate the training of foreigners as some of the graduands were from the Republic of Gambia and Sierra Leone.
Looking at the profile and track records of AIG Abubakar, observers have continued to express optimism that he is on a mission to reposition POLAC, Wudil and sit it on the front pew of leading Police Academies across the globe, with well-equiped infrastructural and academic materials and required human resources prepared to produce well-trained, knowledge-packed cum intelligent crime-busters capable of changing the face of crime-fighting in Nigeria and across the globe
