IGP visit to police stations

A renowned Indian philosopher and leader -Mahatma Gandhi once said that the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. This testament goes to show how divine and rewarding it is for one to serve his or her nation.

It also reminds us about the virtues of patriotism and loyalty. However, ensuring security for the citizenry these days is one of the many challenges nations face especially in our part of the world. The recent nationwide tour by the Inspector General of Police is not only timely, but important as well. The tour was geared towards improving the effectivenåess and efficiency of police service delivery at all regions.

Assessing the general welfare of our men and women in uniform goes to further demonstrate how government cares and values their service to the nation. In many developing countries including The Gambia, serving men and women face numerous challenges such as accommodation, mobility, fuel and uniforms and other working tools. So the tour accorded the police high command the opportunity to hear from security personnel themselves about their general conditions and obstacles hindering their work.

We are aware that some of these items requested by the men and women on the ground were addressed, but there still remains more to be done.

Mobility and general living conditions are a challenge. And IGP Jobe during the tour distributed 25 new motorbikes among different police stations across the country.

What is required of any security apparatus is to serve the nation with utmost loyalty and dedication. And in doing so, equipping them to live up to those expectations is important as well.

The tour, also saw mass promotion of officers to various ranks within the force. We gathered that over 200 officers were elevated to various ranks. This is encouraging as promotion is now merit-based as opposed to the former style, where promotion was on  ‘whom you know’ basis. 

Let this promotions serve as a motivating factor the uniformed men and women to do more in the service of the nation. We also hope that the items presented would be used for their intended purposes.

“I think police officers are modern day heroes. I think they protect us.”

Cuba Gooding, Jr.