As I roused myself from bed, on the morning of 31 August 2025 after attending the 70th birthday shindig of my Edo College classmate, I picked up my phone to scroll the messages, and was hit by the scoop from another Edo College old boy; himself a veteran newshound, and who is aware of my friendship with Dr. Solomon Arase, and broke the news to me that Arase was gone!
Blimey! How?
Discomfited, in coming to terms with the scoop, the internet dispelled any doubts, which I might have entertained, as it was abuzz in announcing his passing!
Reticent as he was, he barely commented on my posts, on the issues of the day, which I habitually inundated him with, on the ubiquitous WhatsApp.
Towering to the skies, as he stood freely at over 1.9m, he was easily a delight to behold in the olopa uniform!
I recall that a mutual friend, to whom I introduced Arase to way back in the early 1980s when he enlisted in the Nigeria Police Force, was prescient; as he alluded him as Nigeria’s future Inspector General of Police (IGP)! How prescient our friend got!
One can imagine how I felt, when President Goodluck Jonathan crowned him as Nigeria’s 18th IGP in 2015!
Not one to rest on his oars, although he joined the police in 1982, after serving out the mandatory national youth service, with a degree in political science from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; he switched to Law, chalking up the LLB, BL, LLM and ultimately a Ph.D in Law!
To be sure, Arase had an eventful life. At the independence of Namibia in 1990, he was headhunted by the United Nations to lead the UN Police contingent for the maintenance of a peaceful transition of the newly formed nation in Windhoek, which he discharged creditably!
Which is why I am sure the folks in faraway Windhoek will be pained at his passing, not least because Arase helped midwifed the police architecture that continues to endure in that country for the last 35 years and counting!
It would be hard to describe the Solomon Arase persona without noting his sense of fairness to all. I recall when a cousin of mine got to know that Solo was a friend of mine, and at the time serving out a stint at the police station at Panti, Yaba, Lagos. That was circa 2009. The said cousin wanted to leverage my friendship with Solo to inflict maximum punishment on a fellow with whom she had a dispute. Arase’s intervention and mediation were not satisfactory to my cousin, who wanted the other party wholly condemned and to sustain maximal penalty. Arase would have none of that! To the best of his judgement, Arase had to be equitable. He was a deputy commissioner at the time. That’s Arase for you!
His hospitality towards me was of legendary stuff as he would pull all stops to make me comfortable whenever I am in Abuja — even when he was DCP at the time!
In the intervening period, when he became a Commissioner of Police for Akwa Ibom State, to when he became the nation’s IGP, we did not interact. I merely read about him in the newspapers!
We linked up again after these years when my son wedded, and when I published An Encyclopedia of Business and Management (2024), in commemoration of my 70th birthday on 18 July 2024. On both occasions, his signature generosity kicked in.
When he was abruptly dropped from the chairmanship of the Police Service Commission, I sought to know what the matter was. He was characteristically stoic, let alone, forthcoming.
The circumstances of his death are still cloudy — even inscrutable for me! I heard he was at a function in faraway Rabat, Morocco, and damn, something went awrily amiss for the crack cop himself!
Where the heck is Sherlock Holmes!?
There goes a fine man thru’ and thru’!
He was easily a great guy!
He pulled himself up with his own bootstraps!
Go thee well!!
Adios amigo!!!
