Iyke

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: March 17, 2009

There are indications that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sir Mike Okiro, will retire sometime in July. If that information is correct, then he should be preparing to proceed on his retirement leave in April. Okiro will be bowing out not because he has served the maximum 35 years. No. He is going because he has attained the 60-year age limit for public servants.

There is no gainsaying that Okiro has served Nigeria meritoriously and an appreciative country rewarded him adequately. As he goes, the question that should concentrate the mind of every Nigerian is who becomes the next IGP? And the reason is simple. When it comes to security of lives and property of the citizenry, the raison deter for every government, the job of the police is like no other job.

Ordinarily, who succeeds Okiro should neither be a subject of speculation nor intrigues; not for a government that has garnered so much political capital by elevating the rule of law mantra to a state creed, and definitely not for a security agency where hierarchy is everything. There is a natural order of succession and the most senior in rank should step into the big shoes he is leaving behind. But these are neither ordinary times in Nigeria nor is Nigeria itself, even at the best of times, an ordinary country.

These are no ordinary times because, though two years away, the politics of 2011 has come into flower. In a country where the police take it as part of their primary responsibility to aid the political party in power to rig elections, in picking the police chief, professionalism becomes a lamb to be slaughtered on the altar of political expediency.

The intrigues are bound to adorn a more sinister garb when the next in rank to the retiring IG is an Igbo. Now, to the uninitiated, that won’t make much meaning. Howbeit, the Igbo phobia is not only real, it is alive and kicking.

That explains why almost four decades after the debilitating civil war, the Igbo are still contending with the axiomatic glass ceiling. It explains why there are still some jobs in this country where, although there are no official rules to that effect, there are barriers that stop the Igbo from getting to the top. And to be precise, there has always been a conspiracy to deny the Igbo the opportunity of one of their own becoming the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Will this change in 2009?

Time will tell. But as I write, the South East geopolitical zone remains the only one yet to produce an IGP since Nigeria got her independence on October 1, 1960. In the past 49 years, the North East has produce three. Alhaji Kam Salem was Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police all the nine years that General Yakubu Gowon was in power (1966 – 1975), which made him the longest serving IGP so far. Adamu Suleiman was IGP in the early days of the Shehu Shagari Presidency (1979 – 1981) and Gambo Jimeta was brought on board by General Ibrahim Babangida.

From the North West came two; Alhaji M.D. Yusufu who served in the Murtala Muhammed/Olusegun Obasanjo era from 1975 to 1979 and Ibrahim Coomasie who served between 1993 and 1999. From the North Central came one, Aliyu Attah, who served in the latter part of the Babangida military Presidency between 1989 and 1993. South West has produced four IGPs (the highest so far for any zone). Obasanjo ensured that in the eight years he was in office as civilian President, only his kinsmen were entrusted with the daunting task of securing Nigeria – M.A.K. Smith (1999 – 2002), Tafa Balogun (2002 – 2005) and Sunday Ehindero (2005 – 2007). Before them, Sunday Adewusi had served as the IGP under Shehu Shagari between 1981 and 1983.

The South South has also had its fair share having produced three IGPs so far. In fact, the first indigenous IGP, Louis Orok Edet (1964 – 1966) in the heady days of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, hailed from the zone. Etim Inyang served in the latter part of General Muhammadu Buhari’s 20-month rule and the early days of Babangida (1984 – 1986). And of course, Mike Okiro who is the incumbent hails from the zone.

And the question needs to be asked! Why is it that the South East has never produced an IGP? Could it be because the entire Igbo race has been unable in the past 49 years to produce officers worthy of the plum job? Even those who initiated this policy and are hell bent on perpetuating it will agree that nothing is farther from the truth. The Igbo have produced some of the finest officers that have made the Force proud both at home and abroad.

If this is the truth, as indeed it is, then why this glass ceiling?

For the avoidance of doubt, let me state here and now that I am neither an apostle of Quota System nor a devotee of the god of Federal Character. Why? The way these policies are implemented rewards indolence, promotes mediocrity and spurns excellence. I am a student of the school of thought that believes that people should be able to pull themselves by their own bootstraps, rather than waiting to be given an opportunity over and above fellow citizens simply because they are from a particular part of the country. If Nigeria must make any meaningful progress, our best brains must be tapped to serve the country. Part of the problem here is that in a most invidious manner, excellence is always sacrificed as a burnt offering to the deity of torpor (Federal Character).

And it is on merit that I say the Igbo have officers who can effectively step into Okiro’s shoes and make Nigeria proud. One of such men is Ogbonna Onovo, a Deputy Inspector General of Police (a rank he has worn in the past seven years – March 2002 till date, making him one of the longest serving DIGs in the history of Nigeria’s Police Force). By the time Okiro retires in July, Onovo, who was born February 7, 1953, will only be 56 years (four years short of the mandatory retirement age of 60). Having joined the Police as a cadet officer on August 1, 1977, after graduating from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, when Okiro retires in July, Onovo will still have three and half years to serve before the mandatory 35 years.

He has seen it all, both as a field man and administrator. He is an officer and a gentleman with international recognition. As the Chairman of the National Drug law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), he won “special commendation award” from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) “for his meritorious contributions to the war against drugs” (2000); “letter of commendation” from Her Majesty’s Customs Services, United Kingdom “for his tremendous contributions to anti-narcotic smuggling” (2000); “letter of commendation” from the Yorkshire Constabulary, Leicester, United Kingdom “for his role in the arrest and prosecution of a fugitive drug baron for murder” (2000); and “Spirit of Detroit” Medallion Award from Mayor Andy Coleman of Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. (1992), among others.

Two times in recent years, he has been by-passed. When Ehindero retired on June 1, 2007, President Yar’Adua appointed him acting IGP being the next most senior officer. Twenty-four hours later, that decision was reversed. Many thought he would resign in protest. He didn’t because Nigeria is the issue and service is his calling. It is a mark of the strength of his character and discipline that he served under a junior officer without any rancour.

But this time, there will be no justifiable reason unless the lightning rods of the almighty and victorious Nigerian army that dealt with the Igbo in the past and thoroughly defeated the “rag tag Biafran Army,” as the then Adjutant General of the Nigerian Army, Ambassador Oluwole Rotimi, haughtily reminded us recently, are still seeing the Igbo as a conquered people that should never be allowed to accede to certain positions in their own country.

But for how long will that mindset continue to prevail? Denying Onovo the position he is eminently qualified to occupy because he is Igbo will be a great disservice to the country because ultimately, the nation which will be denied his wealth of experience will be the ultimate loser.