By Ebiowei Dickson
Recent developments across the country’s internal security architecture have shown that the Nigeria Police Force has never had it so bad like it’s currently having since it was established many years ago.
This institution which was established 25 years after the formation of the London Metropolitan Police came into being to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians as provided for by the country’s grundnum and other extant enactments. Recent happenings at the Louis Edet House have shown that the Force is still living in past glories despite the efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians.
There is no single day that passes by without the incidence of one crime or the other been reported by the country’s news media; if it’s not a case of high profile kidnapping, it would be crimes bordering on the loss of lives of innocent citizens who go about in search of legitimate means of livelihood or destruction of unquantifiable properties, with its concumentant negative impact on Nigeria’s already traumatized economy.
It is President Tinubu’s determination to stop the high rate of crimes and win the war against insecurity that informed his decision out of the box by appointing a retired police officer, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as his National Security Adviser (NSA) which was a clear departure from the anormally of appointing retired army officers as National Security Advisers (NSA). This singular misnomer, experts positioned that it might be responsible for the country’s inability to contain internal security challenges, having regards to the misapplication of bringing in military personnel who are ill-trained and not equipped to fight and contain internal security issues which is the natural purview of the Police qnd best world standard practices. Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons why the country is still grappling with the challenges of Boko Haram, ISSWAP, kidnapping and banditry for over 20 years. The longest in modern history of any internal security insurrection.
President Asiwaju Tinubu took the right decision by appointing a Police officer as his National Security Adviser against the background that the Military’s core mandate is that of external aggression and therefore not a better choice in internal security intelligence gathering, compared to the Police Force. This is however not far fetched, considering the fact that the Nigeria Police Force is the agency saddled with such responsibility, since the main work of the NSA is to coordinate all the security agencies into achieving desired results of protecting lives and properties, he gave that opportunity to the retired police officer whose efforts are to a larger extent commendable.
However, instead of improving on the country’s solid internal security architectures to protect the lives of Nigerians, the Nigeria Police Force under Mr. Kayode Egbetokun abandoned the tasks of protecting lives and properties for the pursuit of irrelevance like tenure extension and the third party insurance.
As a result of that, this great institution with visible presence in all the 774 local governments areas and over 5000 police divisions across the federation is still bogged down by the miasma of incompetence and avaricious desire to sit-tight in office against the constitutional frameworks and provisions.
The civil service rule is clear and unambiguous in its provisions as a frame work for all public servants in the country irrespective of the fact that the institution in which the public servant operates is that of law enforcement. This extant well established guidance and regulations stipulated that upon clocking 60 years of age or 35 years of service, which ever comes first, such a public servant must retire from service. Mr. Egbetokun falls short of this having refused to retire, despite clocking 60 years of age on the 4th of September, 2024, thereby damaging the integrity of the institution and that of the office of the Inspector-General. It is obvious that Mr Kayode Egbetokun has placed more premium on his personal ambition and he is self serving to the detriment of efficiency, competence and the security of the country.
Like the law of ‘Cause and Effects’, his preference for regime security over national security is brewing mutiny in the force as most officers no longer take orders from him. It should be disturbing to every patriotic and well meaning Nigerian to fold his or her arms and watch such unprecedented display of incompetence that is the bane of the force under Egbetokun, where Police restricted documents, wireless messages, otherwise classified such as senior staff list, internal memorandums, etc have found their way to social media platforms and online publications. He had created so much dirt and confusion within the Force’s hierarchy and dragged every potential real and imaginary threat to his sit-tightism to the domain of public space, thus, ridiculing the personage, the office and the institution. Those penciled for this media trial and public ridicule whom he considered his likely successors include and not limited to AIG Idowu Owohunwa, AIG Ben Igwe, AIG Adebowale Williams and AIG Abduyari Lafia. This desperation has led him to throw the Force and its command and structure into dangerous precipe. The saga between him and DIG Dasuki Galadanci and his suspicion of DIG Frank Mba has somehow force Mba to seek the help of Reno Omokri to amplify his loyalty to Egbetokun and lack of ambition in a tweet where the renowned public commentator said Mba is contented being a DIG.
According to sources within the Police Force, DIG Galadanci of the FID whose application for tenure extension was being rejected and most of the affected Police Officers vowed to defend the Constitution of the country.
According to reports the following officers—Idowu Owohunwa, Simon Lough (SAN), Benneth Igweh, Aina Emmanuel, Salama Wakili Abdul, and Adepoju Olugbenga—have refused to retire, insisting that Egbetokun, who has also exceeded his official retirement age, must exit simultaneously. Infact, some of the officers have filed actions against both the IGP and Police Service Commission at the National Industrial Court, challenging his post retirement actions and its legality.
The officers are of the position that every action taken by Egbetokun since last September 4, his official retirement date, is illegal, including, but not limited to, the issuance of retirement letters to them, which they have refused to honour.”
And with his obvious refusal to hid the advice of the Police Service Commission to bow out of service since his retirement date was last year, and the confusion created by his incompetence, the Force can no longer function effectively under his watch.
When the police is not coordinated to provide security services for Nigerians due to looming mutiny breeding within this very important first line of defence in the country’s internal security architecture, the President and his handlers cannot afford to watch while these persist in the interest of the country.
Instead of allowing Mr. Egbetokun to create the impression that there is a constitutional crisis in the force, the President should do the needful to save this great institution from shame and any unforseen circumstances because having a police force with divided loyalty is not good for the survival of any democracy, especially under Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu who has invested so much for the establishment of this democracy that we are all enjoying today.
Mr. Ebiowei Dickson writes from Yenagoa