Meet the most influential Nigerians in the UK

Chief Supt Victor Olisa  Photo: Rueters

The UK has always been seen as one of the toughest places for immigrants especially black people, to make an impression due to discrimination and stereotyping but these Nigerians have succeeded in various fields despite the racial hurdles. They are often referred to as British in the media but we know they are real sons and daughters of the soil. Throughout January, I will be featuring UK's most influential Nigerians living in the UK. 

Today I bring to the spotlight, Police Chief Superintendent Victor Olisa, the Borough Commander for Haringey in London. In 1982, while some of us were not yet born, Commander Olisa started his  sparkling career with Surrey Constabulary.

Born in 1959 in Warri, Delta State of Nigeria, Olisa was came to live in London as a youngster. He earned a BSc Hons degree in Biochemistry at the Royal Holloway, University of London from 1979 to 1982. He also attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In 1990, he joined the Fraud Squad section of the City of London Police, where he spent three years as a detective inspector supervising a number of investigative teams. Between 1995 to 2005, the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he gained his PhD. In April 2006,  Victor Olisa was promoted to the position of Superintendent.

He gained a wide range of experience both as a uniformed police officer and as a criminal investigator working in the London Borough of Southwark.

Victor Olisa also worked with the Home Office as part of the team developing the Stop and Search in the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. He eventually led the Metropolitan Police Service Stop and Search team in 2010.

He was the Borough Commander in Bexley in 2012 and joined Haringey Borough as Commander in March 2013. 

Recently, he has been the face of the MPS on the streets of Tottenham in the aftermath of the Mark Duggan incident in London.

He currently lives in Surrey county in southern England, with his physiotherapist wife and two teenage children

Achievements

• one of the three chief superintendents from black minority ethnic backgrounds currently working for the Metropolitan Police.
• the first Nigerian and black man to assume the position of Commander in the United Kingdom