Yet Another Disgraceful Exit

We must not allow ourselves to be blinkered by the past but work towards a future free of suspicious.

The exit or sacking of the former Inspector General of Police, Mallam Hafiz Ringim January 25, 2012, has brought to fold yet another disgraceful exit of Chief law enforcement office in the last thirteen (13) of our democratic journey. Ideally, the tenure of Mallam Hafiiz Ringim, the sacked Inspector General of Nigeria Police Force, should have ended long ago, if only we have a functional society that cherish integrity and respect to human dignity. Unfortunately, this is Nigeria, where anything goes. A country where resignation and sense of shame has no basis in our moral and leadership lexicon; until we are disgracefully sack or told to resign, before we realized that we have overstayed our welcome.

Historically, since the return of Nigeria to democratic rule in 1999, with the exception of Musulimu Smith; all the former Inspector General of Office ended up with controversial circumstance which lead to their disgraceful exists from Luis Edet House as number top law enforcement and crime fighting officers. Mr Tafa Balogun top the record as the most corrupt police office in the life of the Nigeria, at least for now, based on what we know. The operation fire for fire man, not only misfires himself, but, was disgracefully clammed into prison for excessive greed and corruption running to billions of naira. His successor Mr Sunday Ehindero was found to be engrossed in corruption scandals; attempted or sold the residential home of the IGP to himself without clarification, and groused violation of human rights as suffered by various civil society and opposition leaders. No doubt, to my mind, Mr Sunday Enhidero by appearance and close observation was an elderly gentleman, but, was rubbished by the former despot Chief Olusegun Obasanjo through his sinister and deceptive manipulations.

Interestingly, the arrest of his driver trying to smuggle over 45 million out of the Luis Edet House at the booth of his car immediately after Mr Ehindero handed over power to his successor, which after investigation was found to be directly linked to him; disgraceful exit - a man who introduced the slogan of “To serve and Protect with Integrity”. To serve and protect with integrity man could not understand and sincerely realized that, integrity is not a slogan, but, a serious business that if not adhere to will expose a person as a hypocrite, as it is about characters not slogans.

Then entered Sir Mike Okiro, a gentleman per excellence. I was so happy when he was appointed, because based on his pedigree in Lagos and his success in containing the menaces of OPC and Area boys’ rascality in Lagos, was to me the biggest assets Mr Okiro was coming to the Luis Edet House with. I was confident the man will turn the table around, unfortunately, my expectation was misplaced, that left a deep mentorship problem for me, like am now suffering from my intellectual mentor Professor Attahiru Jega of INEC. Sir Mike Okiro could not control the situation in the rotten police force. Not only did he find himself circled left, right and centre with corruption, but, the Police force was engrossed with serious credibility problems, indiscipline, corruption and inability to solve crimes and criminality. Sir Mike Okiro retired with a lot of credibility problems and was disgracefully relieved of his appointment by the Late Yar’dua’s administration.

The arrival of Mr Ogonna Onovo, a fine gentleman and patriot of all time; I still hold him in high esteem; I believe Mr Onovo had a intellectual prowess, discipline, good spirit and mind to change the weave of corruption and indiscipline in the force; unfortunately, the incident of kidnapping especially in his home region the South-East, seriously diminishes all his efforts. To the extent Mr Onovo had to cry for sympathy as it was reported in various media mediums to his people who he believe want to exit and disgracefully retire him from the force. To him he represents the symbols of long years of Igbo struggles and years of marginalization within security circle. That cry and appeal fell on deaf ears, as kidnappers intensified their trade that finally unceremonially and disgracefully exited him without necessarily achieving his dream for the force. I still believed it was a conspiracy against the man who wanted to change the face of Nigeria's Police Force, by the spoil children of yesterday colonialism and today’s national hopelessness, who seem to be enjoying from the mess we are in.

In a retrospect, the coming to power of Mallam Hafiz Ringim, heralded rising expectation on the part of Nigerians that incidences of kidnapping, armed robbery, assassinations, violence and Boko Haram's little insurgencies at that time, will be tackle and lasting solution to crime and criminality will be a thing of the past. The former IGP tried in his own wisdom and ability to tackled the crisis at hand, but, to my thinking and research I conducted personally, lack of motivation, vendetta, lack of strategies, intelligent know how, arrogance and excessive romance and monetary intercourse with politicians were fundamentally the sources of his misadventures. Mallam Hafiz Ringim was more of a politician than a crime fighting boss. As according to inquiries I made through friends and acquaintances in the force, that, Mallam Hafiz Ringim spent most of his precious security and law enforcement time in the Presidential Villa than Luis Idet House, where his presence was highly needed. This can be explained within the prism of new sophisticated weaves of sycophancy and ego massaging introduced by the new owner of Nigeria around the Presidential Villa, which according to sources, the new man in a new Nigeria enjoyed most.

If we are to grade Mallam Hafiz Ringim based on his performance, we can rate him as thus; in term of fighting crime and criminality F9; intelligent gathering F9; tackling the menace of Boko Haram F9; dedication to service E8; fighting enemies (oppositions) of government A1; disrupting peaceful protest A1; issuance of threat, intimidation, harassment to civil societies and opposition A1; negligence to duty and released of suspected criminals A1; humility and sense of self worth E8; etc. This is interesting, from the fact that, Mallam Hafiz Ringim, could not understand, realize and appreciate that his duties and responsibilities and that of his office was to protect the lives and properties of the belligerent Nigerian people; not as gratification to do the bidding of the emperor and their cronies. No doubt, the performance of Mallam Hafiz Ringim was eventful and tragic in the life of fragile country like Nigeria. Definitely, we saw the sacked coming, especially with the purported release of high profile criminal like the alleged Christmas day bomber at Madalla, Mallam Kabir Sokoto.

As Mallam Mohammed Dikko Abubakar step in as the new law enforcement office, it is equally important for him to know that history is already building a Hall of Fame or Hall of Shame for him, in case he failed to turn the current insecurity we are witnessing today around. As an insider, we hope he is aware of the fact that, from historic point of view and contemporary realities of our co-existence, the Nigeria Police Force, have submerged almost beyond redemption, if the agonies of negligence, corruption and unethical conducts are anything to go. Endemic corruption, indiscipline and lack of professionalism have been the banned of Nigeria Police Force.

The knew IGP must understand and appreciate the fact that, failure of spirited and good men and women in police force and disgraceful exits of his former bosses lies in playing politics with politicians with the security of life and properties of Nigerians through unhealthy romance and monetary inducement from scammers, drugs barons, armed robbers, criminals, politicians and unpatriotic government directives especially in time of protests and instability. He must be wary of the fact that his allegiance is to Nigerian people not some preconceived ruffians and evil forces. And he must differentiate himself and his office from personal gratification and loyalty to his benefactor visa vie loyalty and sincerity to Nigerian people who have high hopes on him, especially at this critical time. We hope he understands and appreciate the fact that; the police are meant to love and protect the people, not political office holders, family and cronies.

We hope the new Police Chief will concentrate on rebuilding an institution that has lost all the credibility and respects from eyes of Nigerian and friends of Nigeria. I think this is the time to put into use your research thesis submitted to the Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies Kuru during your training 2005 titled “The Nigeria Police and Public Safety: Towards An Alternative Security Framework”  There is no time this research work is apt than now. The rising case of insecurity and lack of public safety is endangering life and properties; therefore, public safety should be paramount and alternative security framework is required, because the old one is not working. Interestingly, from your resume and various training you had attended so far, I think you are very qualified for the job and the President made the right choice; but, qualification is one thing, the will, courage and ability to successful turn around the contemporary situation is another thing.

I think the man needs our support to make him achieve greatness and restore our insanity and close the various killing industries we have established in this land of lost opportunity. I think this unnecessary distraction is on call for, especially at this critical moment. I want to ask my fellow compatriots; what is the qualification of someone been tagged as “Fundamentalist”? Is it the love of someone’s religion and adherence to it’s teaches or what? If that is the case then all of us are fundamentalists in one form or the other period. I think most of the people that are shouting here and there have not seen the Justice Niki Tobi committee report nor do they know the exacts wording that indicted him? If you have seen it, please we want to know, the exact wording that indicted him? Why now? Why not when he was commissioner or Assistant Inspector General of Police? Why did we call for his appointment to be terminated at this transitional period? I think we are becoming so cynical in everything in this country especially when it comes from the northern part of the country, that, sometime changes and survivors come by without us realizing it, until when it is too late we begin to laments again.

To me this is just hypocrisy on our part and operation brings someone down period. I think what the new Inspector General of Police needs at this critical time is our prayers and encouragement to unravel the mystery around the Boko Haram insurgence and various security challenges at this critical time. Naming calling, blame game and calling for removal are an unhealthy suggestions and hypocrisy on our part, please.  I wish him well and hope you are able to restore our sanity please and close these killing industries established by some ruffians that seem to be profitable for them. Finally, remember history beckons on you to rise above partisan and self interest to the challenges of national survival. And remember the two halls of Fame and Shame are there for you to choose from which one you want history to build for you. All the best, with Allah’s blessing Amin