Mike Okiro, Please, Succeed!

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

This reality of this fact appeared lost on me all the while, until Tafa Balogun (Big Tafa) and Sunday Ehindero passed through town as Nigeria’s IGPs during the unmissed era of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s peculiar kind of politics and governance. 

Today, Mr. Mike Okiro, a well-respected police officer, whose tenure as Lagos State Commissioner of Police is still remembered with immense relish and nostalgia   is the new IGP, and my sincere, heartfelt appeal to Mr. Okiro this morning is: Please, Sir, Succeed, Don’t Fail!

Now why am I so concerned? When Mr. Sunday Ehindero was appointed the IGP following the heavy fall of Mr. Tafa Balogun (Big Tafa) from that powerful seat, the despair and fear in the land had become chillingly palpable.  The criminal abduction of Dr. Chris Ngige, former Governor of Anambra State (with active, overt connivance of the Nigeria Police) and the subsequent destruction with utmost impunity and even flamboyance of public and private property in that same state by privileged and Abuja-powered hoodlums were still fresh in the memory of Nigerians. Acts of lawlessness and bloody violence were officially planed and prosecuted.

Insecurity in the land grew quite beyond what anyone had thought was possible in a nation ruled by human beings. Corruption and widespread aiding and abetting of, and even actual involvement, in violent crimes were so brazen and overwhelming among policemen that only a mad man would dare regard a policeman as his friend or trust him for his security.

When then Big Tafa fell, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) uncovered the boundless, primitive corruption that thrived around his massive self, whatever remained of the integrity of the Nigeria Police went up in flames. There was hopelessness everywhere, and a deliverer was urgently yearned for by well-meaning Nigerians, who had begun to entertain serious fears about the likely state of the nation should things deteriorate further. 

When he was appointed the IGP, Mr. Sunday Ehindero commenced by saying and doing the correct things, and so, some flicker of hope began to show up in some hearts, mine inclusive. At a meeting with heads of police formations in the country, he made it clear that nobody should forward any “returns” to him, and ordered that all the roadblocks be dismantled everywhere in the country.  He sounded very serious and sincere. He won my heart when he told the officers that he had maintained a good record in the Nigeria Police for many years and would not allow anyone to soil the good image he had worked so hard to cultivate at the stage when he was getting set to retire honourably.

Now that was novel. Until then, it would have been quite difficult for many people to imagine that policemen also cared about good names and decent reputation.  The general impression had been that they were mostly allergic to such things. But here was Ehindero, a policeman showing such care about his image. Oh, it was a new era indeed. For such a man, therefore, we thought, if pressures from Aso Rock to engage in vile acts that might compromise his ideals became persistent, there was no doubt that he would simply turn in his papers and walk away with his honour in tact. 

Indeed, for those few months, Ehindero continued to impress us. There was, for instance, a protest march in Lagos, and instead of sending enraged policemen to brutalize and scatter the procession, policemen were rather seen providing protection for the protesters as is done in civilized societies, and clearing the way for them. Oh, I became proud again to be a Nigerian, and thanked Ehindero in my heart. I was really overwhelmed when he even came out and apologized for the excesses of his men. A new day indeed!

I wrote two columns commending him, and urging him on, in what I thought was his genuine determination to give a new face to the Nigeria Police. While some people doubted his intentions, and laughed at what they saw as my naivety in trusting a Nigerian policeman, I chose to stretch my optimism, to believe the best about “the new era, ” and to appeal to what I saw as Ehindero’s high moral instincts. I saw my stance as an effective way of encouraging the IGP and his men to remain focused and undeterred in what I thought was their chosen path of honour, at a time they were being battered left and right with adverse criticism arising from deep skepticism.

But my joy was short-lived. Soon things began to change with incredible speed, so much so, that I could hardly recognize any more the IGP I had hailed previously. A friend mocked that I had praised the IGP too early. It was painful, but I had to agree.

Indeed, despite Ehindero’s pledge that policemen under him will “serve and protect with integrity”, corruption grew out of proportion. They were instead extorting and oppressing with impunity! The security situation in the country also degenerated so badly that policemen were regularly reported to be supplying arms to armed robbers, and extending sundry assistance to them. In an editorial on May 29, 2006, Daily Independent mournfully observed that “the security situation is so bad that Nigeria now looks so unsafe and unpredictable. Armed robbery has remained on the increase; they now operate with utmost impunity as if the law and its agents have since been banished from the land. Armed robbery victims these days emerge from the experience with very chilling stories that underline the various blood-cuddling aspects that have been introduced in the crime. The nation has gradually degenerated to near-state of war.”

If the 2003 elections in which Big Tafa’s men provided “security” were fraught with irregularities, the 2007 elections under Ehindero’s watch were described as the worst election in human history. Policemen were seen openly helping to rig the elections. The Nigeria Police have suffered the worst kind of credibility bruises that may take a long time and serious effort to heal.  Several acts lawlessness in places like Ibadan  and Awka were perpetrated right before the watchful eyes of policemen, and till now, no one has either been arrested or prosecuted for the massive destructions of private and public property, and even the loss of lives. The police became so partisan in the April elections that it only remained for it to be renamed the security arm of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Now, Mr. Mike Okiro is assuming office as the new IGP at a time of national despondency and widespread frustration and he has a great role to play in the healing process that this nation must urgently undergo. This too, is a great opportunity for him to stand out and be counted as one IGP that rebuilt the image of the Nigeria Police and restored the confidence of Nigerians in policemen.  This is a challenge I am willing to believe he would face with every determination and single-mindedness and emerge with startling testimonies. It is an opportunity he cannot afford to blow, no matter the pressures that might come from the same exalted quarters that caused his predecessors to fail.  He cannot afford to fail.

The new president has listed security as one of the top priorities of his Administration.  He must match his words with action by not interfering with the work of the IGP. He should quickly consign to our darkest past the era of untouchable godfathers and sacred animals who could perpetrate violence in any place get away with it.

Okiro must be allowed free hand to restore sanity to the nation and rescue the country from its current tag as the “Island of Lawlessness.” Nobody must be classified as being above the laws of the land. Right now, there is so much bitterness, acrimony everywhere, and the expectation is that Okiro would make his men to rise above their current branding as a partisan Force and help in the healing process and national rebirth.

The security situation in the country today is benumbing, and virtually nobody believes in the ability of the police to protect him or her. In fact, the police is seen now as part of the problem than the solution. All those policemen out there in the various highways constituting nightmares to motorists need to be redeployed and duly motivated to effectively combat crime, and not to continue to traumatize Nigerians. I am happy that Okiro has made some promises in this regard, but he should remember that Ehindrero had said the same things when he newly took over as IGP. So, he must ensure that this is thoroughly enforced and all those dangerously erected roadblocks which are known to have led to many accidents on our highways must disappear immediately. The new IGP should come up with a more creative way of combating crime in Nigeria, without those notorious roadblocks.

Indeed, policemen in Nigeria are poorly paid, ill-equipped and inadequately trained. They lack modern gadgets for effective crime detection and prevention. I trust that Okiro will address his mind to these and give Nigeria a police force everybody would be proud of. Many people still retain pleasant memories about his tenure as Lagos State Commissioner of Police, and he cannot afford to disappoint them. As one of the most respected police officers, both in the Force and among “bloody civilians”, he would surely get the support of Nigerians. I learnt that Okiro had passed through St. Peter Claver Seminary (SPCS) Okpala, long before I did.  I wish him well as a fellow old boy, as he does his best to give Nigerians a people-oriented police, a police force that should learn to cultivate the friendship of Nigerians, which it clearly squandered a long ago. Nigerian Policemen need an orientation that would make them to stop seeing Nigerians as only targets for extortion and brutalisation. Indeed, these are quite Herculean tasks, and I wish Okiro would confront them with the vigour, sincerity and dedication they demand. I am praying for him.

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scruples2006@yahoo.com 

www.ugochukwu.blog.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 Now, Mr. Mike Okiro is assuming o...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 07.06.2007 19:02