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Tunji Alapini Opens Up On Life At 63

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Top Celebrities

As Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Police, Tunji Alapini, who rose to become an Assistant Inspector General of Police, was quite sociable. But in retirement, he has taken his sociable side notches higher. In an interview with ORUKPE NELSON, he spoke about life outside the force, family and sense of style.

You still look quite fit years after leaving the police. How did you achieve this?

Well, it’s the grace of God and the fact that I mind my business. I don’t bite more than I can chew and I don’t stress myself unnecessarily. I don’t do what people don’t expect me to do. When I’m tired of something, I give myself rest. The most important of all is God’s grace.

It’s often believed that civil servants are less sociable; but you’re mostly around celebrating with people…

First of all, you have to understand that I’m a Lagosian. I’m in my village now – Lagos. Yes, I was a civil servant as a retired police officer, but then you must know how to draw a line between those who are in the civil service and those in the military and paramilitary for you to be able to understand that when we’re in service, we mixed with a lot of people and not docile. We are highly mobile and have crossed parts with a lot of people. Along the line of duty, there are people we meet who will later grow to become our friends and we will relate well with them after service. Depending on the goodwill built whilst in service, one can grow the friendship more than the regular.

How would you describe life after service?

It’s been wonderful. Life after service has been tremendously peaceful for me after living a regimented life. Life of being influenced to make decisions against your wish just because it’s an order that must be adhered to. Being able to live your life the way you want it, deciding when you want to wake up and when you retire to bed. It’s now not for someone else to determine your bedtime or when you wake.

When we were in service, you’d never know when you would sleep but you’re only certain of when you must wake. It’s when you wake that your day starts. I’m so happy now that through the grace of God I can determine when I want to sleep and wake up bearing no emergency. I can more so decide that this is where I want to go, this is what I want to eat and this is the party I want to attend. No one compels you to anywhere any longer. Everything is now your choice, then it was all theirs. I’m now happy that I can live my life the way I want it.

It was purely a call to service, but what other things would you say the force took away from you?

The force took away my privacy, it took away my sincere judgments most of the times because you would understand that in a regimented environment where there are patterns of what to do, you may want to do things differently when the authority thinks otherwise. You cannot go against your service, you would have to do it the way they want it as long as it’s within the doctrines of your organisation and within the ambit of the law. At times, as an individual, there are certain things you would do differently if you had a choice. Those are the things the force took away from me.

What are your memorable experiences in the force?

All these ones will surface in my memoir which is being written at the moment. Those writing it have got up to chapter three and when it’s published, you’d see all of that in it.

You look much more relaxed if not finer that when you were in service, what are the things you do to keep fit?

Well, I move around a lot. And when you use the word ‘young’, I don’t know if a 63-year-old man is still young. If 63 is young at a time that I’m a father and a grandfather, then I feel blessed. When it comes to my look, I choose what I eat carefully, I exercise a lot. I like to do things by myself other than engage others, I’m not sedentary. I’m highly mobile, so it’s not most of the times that I find people doing things for me.

Exercise in my apartment is a norm because I stay in a story building and if I want to take something upstairs, I go there myself. I don’t call people to bring things, because when you start doing that, you’d become sedentary. If I want to wash my hands, I don’t say “go and get water for me from the kitchen”; I go there and clean my hands. These are some form of exercise useful to the body but a lot of us don’t realise it. Climbing up the stairs and descending about ten times a day is enough exercise for the body.

You were very close to becoming the Inspector-General of Police; how did you feel retiring as an Assistant Inspector General?

I wasn’t close to it and please let’s leave it there.

How was life growing up in Lagos?

It was beautiful because we grew up together with many others, disappeared and we’re back together now. There are several friends I’ve founded who were my primary school mates today. We went to secondary school and we dispersed all over the world.

Now we’re all mostly retired and back again. The old Lagos evokes beautiful moments – staying in Lagos and being under the watchful eyes of not only your parents; where everybody was your parent. Where I stayed was called Brazilian Quarters, Popo Aguda, it stretches from Tinubu up to Sandgrouse. And it had over 200 houses and every parent knew each other.

That was an era when every parent knew the children in every house along that street. I stayed in 152 and if you moved to number 13 at a wrong time as a kid, they’d be asking ‘what are you doing around here?’ Before they snapped their fingers, you’d already be home. And you’d be surprised that at 7pm, the same person is at your home to shout your name to confirm whether you’re home or not.

That’s discipline and being your brother’s keeper. But nowadays, even here where I stay in Lekki, you don’t even know your neighbours. You step out to the door of your neighbour to introduce yourself and he’d say, “I don’t want to know you”.

That is the level we are in the society. These are the things that I miss – the sweet communal life. These were the things we grew up with. Those were the binding things that kept this nation together in those good old days. That is what is tearing down the good fibre of this country today. Everybody lives like an individual now.

If you would share some morals with police officers currently in service, what would this be?

They should make up their minds on what to achieve with the force. Like the Yoruba would say: “whatever you won’t appreciate at night, begin to reject it in the morning”.

When you’re joining the force, search your conscience on what you’re particularly going to achieve with that uniform. Are you going there to be a core professional? Are you are going there to corrupt yourself?

Are you going there to serve ethnic or religious purpose? If you’re going there to be a true professional with the resolve to do the job for which posterity will favour you, then begin that from the first day you get in. Those you meet in the morning, you may not see again at noon and the impression you create will leave with you for a lifetime. The best thing is to ensure you’re doing the right thing from beginning to the end.

What’s the major lesson life has taught you these past years?

Be truthful. There’s no alternative to truth. With truth you’d not have any problem. When you speak the truth or do the right thing, you really don’t have to look back. If they ask you ten years after, you’d repeat the same thing. If you speak the truth today, if they ask you 10 times, you don’t have to remember anything. But if you’ve bent the rules to please certain individuals, you’d start stressing out to remember how you did the things you did.

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