When she assumed office as the Director General of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, on the first day of December 2020 detractors played to the gallery, querying her credentials.
They claim Mrs. Sulaiman-Ibrahim’s credential does not match the requirements stipulated by the NAPTIP for the top job, quoting Section 8 (1) of the NAPTIP Act 2015 which mandates any appointee for the position of the director-general of the agency to be from the directorate cadre in the civil service or from an equivalent cadre in any of the nation’s law enforcement agencies.
Rather why should they not see her appointment as a call to national service, especially coming at a time the change mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari is making a quiet revolution in the transformation in every strata/ agency of the country. No agency at this time can afford to be left behind in writing the history of achievements of President Buhari’s administration.
After taking over from her predecessor, Julie Okah-Donli, the new DG, Mrs. Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim knew she had to prove critics wrong and exhibit the sterling qualities her boss saw in her, which others did not see.
Undeterred by her detractors, the new appointee swung into action immediately. She started by bridging every gap between the agency and every stakeholder, including the Nasarawa State Governor.
This yielded in the recent launch of a Judicial Research Centre (JRC) on 10 February 2021. A feat made possible by the support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with funding from the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) of the US Department of State.
It is believed that the Judicial Resource Centre will define NAPTIP and other stakeholders’ roles as actors in the fight against trafficking in Persons and further deepen the already existing partnership between NAPTIP, UNODC and INL.
According to a Press statement, “the centre is a much-needed space, providing NAPTIP’s officers with access to adequate resources – including relevant research books, law reports, journals, and databases – to support them in building stronger cases when prosecuting trafficking in persons s. Conveniently located next to NAPTIP’s training centre, the JRC also provides a space for both trainers and trainees to conduct research and work on training-related assignments”.
It further read that the centre was established as part of UNODC’s project to strengthen the capacities of state and non-state institutions to assist, support and protect victims of trafficking in Nigeria, adding that the project will further enhance coordinated legal and other services for trafficked victims in Nigeria through capacity building, technical advice and institutional development directed to NAPTIP and other relevant ministries and agencies of the Nigerian Government.
Also, according to a statement by NAPTIP, in the first week of January 2021, her agency rescued and handed over some 22 under-aged children to the Kaduna State Ministry of Human Science and Social Development who were later united with their parents.
A politician and businesswoman, Mrs. Sulaiman-Ibrahim’s stint in public office started at Abuja Geographic Information Systems, AGIS, before moving to the United Kingdom where she worked in the human resources field. She is a certified Software development consultant.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim later joined Mary Kay and later became a senior sales director. She was a special adviser on strategic communication to the minister of state for education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and a former member of the Nasarawa State economic advisory council.
Mrs Suleiman-Ibrahim is known for her displeasure at the increasing rate of child trafficking, employment of children for begging and other exploitative labour in the country. This is a passion she has exhibited from her days before being appointed.
As a matter of fact, one of things that qualifies a DG of the Agency is an unquenchable passion for the job, one that Suleiman-Ibrahim possesses. Born in Jos, Plateau State, Mrs. Suleiman-Ibrahim attended Aruwa Nursery School, Abuja and Jabi Primary School, (now, LEA Primary School, Jabi), for her nursery and primary school education.
At the age of 19, she graduated from University of Abuja with a degree in sociology. At the age of 21, she received two master’s degrees from Webster University, an MBA and MA. She did her mandatory National Youth Service Corps at NNPC, Kaduna zonal office.
Suleiman-Ibrahim, a Keffi, Nasarawa state indigene, played a vital role as a member of the Nasarawa State Advisory Council, which shows how close she is to her home-State.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons is a law enforcement agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria, founded in 2003 in order to combat human trafficking and other similar human rights violations.
The Act establishing the Agency stipulates that the agency must have a board, to which the director-general is the secretary, and the board must be made up of representatives of the government, all of whom must be within the directorate cadre in any of the ministries of justice, women affairs, labour and productivity, the police, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Nigerian Immigration Service and the National Population Commission (NPC).
These Government agencies are key stakeholders in the day-to-day administration of NAPTIP.
The children she handed over to Kaduna State Government were rescued by the military, which intercepted a Peugeot J5, on January 8, 2021, conveying them. But for the timely intervention of the Military with the swift role played by NAPTIP under the strict supervision of Sulaiman-Ibrahim, the children were being taken from Kwasalo village in Ikara Local Government Area of Kaduna State to Nasarawa State for exploitative labour.
These strides, achieved in a short while and many more will go a long way in battling the alarming upsurge in the number of cases of human trafficking all over the Federation.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspapers
