Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Bishop Mathew Kukah, has advised Nigerians to strive to change negative narratives, live impactful lives, and leave lasting positive legacies for the country and humanity.
Bishop Kukah gave the advice in Abuja at the 3rd year memorial and 2nd Annual Impact and Legacy Lecture in honour of late Innocent Chukwuemeka Chukwuma, the Founder of Cleen Foundation.
The foundation is known for promoting public safety, security and accessible justice through the strategies of empirical research, legislative advocacy and publications.
Speaking on ‘Power of One, Dreams and Nightmares: Thoughts on Innocent Chukwuma’, Kukah said it was important for humans to dream, make impact and leave positive indelible prints in the lives of others.
According to him, I begin by telling you about people like Pope John Paul, Malala Yousafzai, Martin Luther King, and a host of others who have used powers positively.
In his words, the late Innocent took up a passionate commitment, and we must continue to push these frontiers that has brought greatness in Nigeria.
“I used this to illustrate the choices that people have made in life and how they have used powers in their hands, either for good or bad.
“The late Innocent took up a passionate commitment and we must continue to push the frontiers that brought greatness to Nigeria,” he said.
He also said memorials are only for those who make impacts.
He urged everyone with ideas on curbing crimes and enhancing policing to strive to make impact irrespective of age and location for the betterment of the country.
Also, the Chairman of Police Service Commission, Dr. Solomon Arase, said the idea of community and intelligence policing in the country could be attributed to the efforts of late Chukwuma.
Arase said it was through the effort of Chukwuma that the trends and patterns of crime and its terminology were introduced into Nigeria’s policing vocabulary.
He said the efforts of the man brought people from the metropolitan police and conveyed about 500 police officers from Nigeria to go and study what they were doing in the United States.
His efforts and those of Prof Etannibi Alemika, Kemi and the MacArthur Foundation also brought into Nigeria one of the best police officers in the world who started talking about community partnership in deepening internal security management.
“The man Innocent Chukwuma has left things that are imperishable and should be sustained,” he said.
On her part, Josephine Effah Chukwuma, wife of the late Innocent Chukwuma, said one of the family’s efforts at immortalising her husband was the establishment of Innocent Chukwuemeka Chukwuma Empowerment Foundation, ICCEF.
Former Minister of Education, Obi Ezewkesil, representatives of Ford Foundation, Civil Liberty Organisation, YIAGA Africa and others at the event commended the convergence of great minds to foster continued development in policing.