The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has quit the office; An Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, has been nominated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fill the vacancy thus created. As is usual in this climate with such change of guards in sensitive, high-profile and mouth-watering positions, controversies and colliding explanations have rent the air. Officially, Egbetokun resigned on his own volition – that is, voluntary resignation – and for personal or family reasons. What a conscientious family man!
Grapevine sources, however, gave a different version of Egbetokun’s departure from his job: That he was advised to quit by Mr. President. That is a polite way of saying he was sacked. Or, better put, he was offered the opportunity to soft-land. I am sure you know there is some “advice” you cannot decide to ignore, like when a student is advised to withdraw from a course or from the university in its entirety! Such a student cannot say, “Thank you, but I choose not to!” He has to go – and go he must!
Let us not go into the rumour mill of what allegedly soured the relationship between Egbetokun and Mr. President, but some cogent possibilities come to mind anyway.
I was in Abuja in April 2024 helping a friend to organise a seminar when a senior police officer standing-in for and purportedly reading Egbetokun’s address at the National Dialogue on State Policing came down unsparingly on the government decision to create state police to arrest the worsening state of insecurity in the country. Vice President Kashim Shettima, representing Mr. President, had already spoken in support of the same state police. He sat listening, stone-faced. The embarrassment is better imagined than felt.
Although the police authorities later tried to mend fences, the harm had been done. The security situation has since grown worse; yet, the promised state police still have not seen the light of day. Many cite the lukewarm attitude, to put it mildly, of the police top echelon as one reason for this. With the United States’ President Donald Trump breathing down the neck of the Nigerian authorities on this same issue of insecurity, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be wise to sacrifice anyone to save his own neck, if you bear in mind recent happenings in Venezuela!
Another source said Egbetokun “took familiarity for contempt”; being, as it were, the Chief Security Officer to Tinubu as the governor of Lagos state. “He cherry-picked orders. Withdraw police orderlies from influential Nigerian, he was tardy about it. He forgot two things: That it is the same teeth the leopard uses to train its child that he also uses to discipline it. He also forgot that another top police officer similarly close to Tinubu was waiting in the wings.” AIG Olatunji Disu, the new sheriff named by Tinubu, was also Tinubu’s Aide-De-Camp (ADC) as the governor of Lagos. I think we should stop there!
No, because if I do another source, who accused my colleagues as causing Egbetokun’s downfall, will also accuse me of covering up facts. He said: You journalists were his nemesis. You blacklisted him before the whole world. Mr. President felt that slap on his own face very badly”. He must be referring to the International Press Institute (IPI) blacklisting Egbetokun for the incessant and riotious way the police under him assaulted press freedom with the arrest and detention of journalists for no just cause.
Egbetokun should have retired on September 4, 2024 when he clocked the mandatory retirement age of 60 years but the president leveraged the amendment to the Police Act to grant him tenure elongation. Appointed in June 2023, Egbetokun would have had up till June 2027 to wear the police uniform but for this sudden, even abrupt, departure from office.
A gale of controversies
If controversies trailed Egbetokun’s tenure elongation and, now, the circumstances of his exit, no less controversies have also trailed the nomination of his in-coming successor, AIG Tunji Disu, who was promoted to his AIG rank only in March last year (less than a year ago) and has only 48 days to clock the mandatory 35 years in service, when he would have had to retire. If confirmed as IGP, Tunji Disu will now have up to four years more to spend in service – at the pleasure of the appointing authority, of course!
In accordance with what is called established police or military tradition to maintain service discipline, it is said that most, if not all, of the police officers senior to Disu will have to resign from the police force so that yesterday’s senior officers will not have to salute and take orders from yesterday’s junior officer who has now become today’s superior officer. Some have argued, though, that this rule or tradition is not etched in gold. Trust Nigerians, there have been exceptions to the rule in the past. The IGP can use his discretion. Some officers may also not bother themselves with any “seniority nonsense”; as one source put it: “Na salute I go chop?”, he quipped!
Nevertheless, social media is already abuzz with the names of Deputy Inspectors-General (DIGs) and Assistant Inspectors-General (AIGs) of Police that may have to make way for the new IGP to dey kampe in office. And this has become a source of irritation for some. For one, officers who are not tired will be forced to retire prematurely – and this at short, unplanned-for notice. Much human capital is lost in the process. This scourge was rampant during military rule, when each regime-change was accompanied by a massive purge that only weakened the military over time.
Tenure insecurity also affects professionalism and commitment. Can you blame anyone who, aware of the possibility of such a circumstance, elects to make hay while it shines? Around 20 or more officers said to be senior to Disu may be packing their bags, ready to say goodbye to the Force. I am not surprised that the media is awash with the name of one of them, DIG Frank Mba, one-time Force Public Relations Officer and the delight of journalists. Some senior journalists were even saying they expected him to have been named as the in-coming IGP!
The Igbo curse in Nigeria
One such advocacy for Mba, by Steve Osuji, got me to write this piece. Could what Osuji alleged be true? Or was it mere scare-mongering, the usual, but worn-out cry of Igbo marginalization?
Osuji would not be comforted by what he saw as the by-passing of Mba! He said: “Sorry Frank, you suffered the Igbo curse in Nigeria… DIG Frank Mbah, if only you were a Yoruba or Hausa-Fulani, you would have been an IGP today. Yes, you’re probably the best IGP Nigeria never had! Smart, brilliant, well turned out and super professional. People see you at work and wish they joined the police. Some wonder why most officers of Nigeria police are not made in your mold. From your days as a junior officer, you were exceptional and a cut apart. While it was your time to make IGP, a retiring IGP was handed an indefinite tenure… BECAUSE YOU’RE IGBO! Yes, Igbo suppressors loathe to hear this but that’s what it is… Again, sorry Frank. Take heart. Someday, if not in our time, it shall be in our children’s time; liberation shall come for Ndigbo. Merit shall be the parameter of measure and everyone shall get their just due…”
I read this over and over again. What is “the Igbo curse in Nigeria”? Scripture says “life and death are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18: 21) and also that we must endeavour to keep our “heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4: 23). I am unapologetically Yoruba but my prayer, despite that I have fundamental reservations about Nigeria, is that my Yoruba ethnic group and people will suffer no curse in Nigeria! There shall be nothing called “Yoruba curse in Nigeria!” Amen.
Fortunately, I came across a reputable national daily that said this about Mba: “Going by recent practice, Disu’s seniors might have to submit their resignation letters. We might have those who may choose to stay behind and salute their juniors. The fact is that among the DIGs, we have people whose colleagues are still ACPs (Assistant Commissioner of Police). Somebody like DIG Frank Mba, though those he joined the force with as cadets are still DCPs (Deputy Commissioner of Police) and the likes.”
And I wondered whether or not Osuji was aware of this fact. Disu, for instance, started out as Mba’s senior by far and has more grounding as an all-round police officer judging by his enviable duty posts; though Mba, obviously, might have been more prominent in the public glare because of his own PR job. So, how did Mba get his rapid promotion, climbing on the head of his mates and seniors, in the face of “the Igbo curse in Nigeria”? Where was Osuji’s “the Igbo curse in Nigeria” at the time?
I think it is Osuji we should say “sorry” to, not Mba! And it is Osuji that should also take heart! No one should try to de-market a fine officer who has enjoyed an illustrious career. Mba served all of us well – every Nigerian. He never cut the picture of an Igbo champion that Osuji is desperately trying to conscript him as. In April 2024 when my team organised the said workshop in Abuja, I made it a point of duty to visit Mba’s office and drop a note for him (because he was not available). But everyone knows that the post of an IGP is a political appointment, which is made at the discretion of the appointing authorities.
Powers of the Police Council
Contrary to what has mischievously been loaded on the public, the president is not the ONLY authority who appoints an IGP. Femi Falana, SAN, has said this ad nauseam, ad infinitum. According to law, there is a police council made up of the president, the 36 state governors, the chairman of the Police Service Commission, and the IGP. The permanent secretary in the Police Affairs Office serves as its secretary.
This council advises the president on the appointment of an IGP. There are at least five Igbo governors in the council. If they feel like Osuji feels, they have a platform to air their views. They can withhold their concurrence and make their reasons public.
Mercifully, presidential aide, Bayo Onanuga, has said that in compliance with the Police Act 2020, the president will convene a meeting of the council to formally consider the recommendation of Disu by the president; if Disu gets the council’s nod, then, his name will be sent to the Senate for screening and confirmation – which are usually done in the open – and there are Igbo members in the senate who, if they share Osuji’s belief of an “Igbo curse in Nigeria” can equally make their views known.
Quitting when the ovation is loudest
To conclude, let me warn that other than where it is lawfully sanctioned, extension of tenure and third-term ambitions are usually not the best. Ask OBJ! Examples also date back to Biblical times. Consult the story of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20: 1 – 19 and 2 Kings 21: 2. I wouldn’t know if Egbetokun now rues the benefits of the tenure elongation of less than two years that he got, if he were to depart in a gale of controversy, with a legacy of 35 years at risk. Perhaps, this, then, is what is meant when actors are advised to quit the stage when the ovation is loudest!
Making haste slowly
Yoruba elders also have this word of caution for the likes of Mba: When promotion is super rapid, when all things are amazingly looking up, when you are leaving your colleagues and superiors far behind, watch it! Life’s journey is not a 100-metre dash but a long-distance race. When the world is saying, “it is sweet, it is sweet!”; be careful!
Orlando Owoh, the juju music maestro, captured it well in one of his songs when he said: Igba o ki n lo bi orere/Aiye o ki nlo bi opa ibon/Bi oni ti ri, ola o ri be/L’o mu Babalawo d’ifa ojoojumo!”
I wish Acting IGP Olatunji Disu success before the Police Council and the Senate!
*Bolawole ([email protected] 0807 552 5533), former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of the Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the “ON THE LORD’S DAY” column in the Sunday Tribune and “TREASURES” column in the New Telegraph newspapers. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.
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