By Japhet Davidson

ON the surface angle, when one see the title of the book The Missing Main Course of a Delicious dinner, the person’s mind will go to a special type of food but that is not the case in this piece by a centenarian Sir Daniel Uwaezuoke.

According to Sir Daniel Uwaezuoke,  a former finger print expert with the Nigeria police, The missing main course of a Delicious dinner is a response to an observation by one of his sons about some serious omission in his autobiography titled Destined to Triumph.

In the 74 page six chapters book, the author recounts supplied what he felt were missing in his account in his autobiography within 20 years he spent in the then CID headquarters in Lagos before he got to his zenith in the Nigeria Police.

In chapter one, the young Daniel relived the difficulties of joining the Nigeria police  then and how he later joined and was transferred to Lagos where he worked in the fingerprints department. What is  fingerprints and how do one identify them, these are some of the issues addressed in the book.

Chapter two recounts the creation of a special branch in the CID that was charged with the duty of reporting the increasing activities of prominent Nigerian nationalists and how he was drafted to the branch. How did he fare in the new branch, how the job took him out of Lagos and  how he excelled in the new job was addressed.

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In chapter three, the author highlights what happened in the fingerprints section, how one Inspector Akinyemi who was incharge of the section joined politics and left and how Mr Owe Oxendale Griffiths from Welsh took over. Here, also the different kits introduced by Mr Welsh  and how the new changes helped him in the job.

Chapter four detailed the coming of John Lynn as the head of the CID headquarters was a welcome development as he was a man committed into his job and in the course of his tenure he arrested one of Nigeria’s leading politicians Chief Obafemi Awolowo alongside his party’s leading figures and charged them for felony. The author also narrates how he worked with Mr Lynn and achieved a lot of success.

In chapter five, the author took the readers to how he fared during the Inspectorate Course at the Southern Police College, Ikeja. Though, the course was based on purely general police duties which did not include anything about fingerprint, he was able to come out successful. Here, the author also recounts some of the ills in the police force which is still happening today, how money exchanged hands, bribe taking for promotion, corrupt and secret cult influences and other evils that were prominent then.

Finally, chapter six takes a look at the various courses he attended in the UK.  The first course at the West Riding Police Headquarters in Wakefield Yorkshire, England, the second course  at the Scotland Yard Fingerprint School in Chelsea, London and all that happened during the period.

The author also attached some photographs he took with prominent men and colleagues during the period.

The book in all tries to bring out the special gift in him that made him to excel in all the areas he was assigned. A brilliant contribution from a centenarian on how not to give up in life.

Vanguard