Last Tuesday’s sudden removal of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Suleiman Abba, came as a shock. It was like a thunderbolt from the blue. Perhaps, except for those who delivered the killer-punch, nobody expected it. All of a sudden, the journey ended for Abba via an announcement on the twitter handle of Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity. At the time the news broke at about 1:24p.m, Abba was busy working in his office.
I was in my office on that day putting finishing touches to a crucial assignment when I got a call from Abuja. Sola, the person on the other end, brushed aside protocol or banters and simply said: “Egbon won ti yo Abba,” meaning, Sir, they have removed Abba.” I was momentarily startled, but I quickly pulled myself together and asked: What happened? Sola replied: “Well, the news is all over the place and Solomon Arase, the Deputy Inspector General in charge of Intelligence, has been named as acting IG with immediate effect.” At that point, I could not proceed any further. I just hung up. Time was 2:30pm.
Barely an hour later, specifically at about 3:30pm, I put a call through to Abba. We exchanged greetings and I said: “What is this news that I have just heard?” Abba replied: “Well, I am in my office and nobody has told me anything.” What this means is that though he was the subject of the news or the man at the centre of the news or even the news itself, he had only heard the news of his removal, perhaps, through some whispers or gossips around him. That was probably why upon my inquiry, he did not ask me what I had heard and simply said he was still at his desk working.
By the time I finished talking with Abba, I became more confused. It never crossed my mind that the news may not be true after all. Of course, I knew it could be true judging from the clout of the person who broke the news to me. But here was the man, the subject of the news, still in the dark over the whole episode. I remember the procedure that eventually culminated in his appointment as IG about nine months ago. Some two or three days to the expiration of the tenure of his predecessor, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, on July 31, 2014, he was invited to the Villa and briefed. From then on, things started happening until the announcement of his appointment was finally made public and the handing over and taking over was done on Friday, August 1, 2014. That appointment followed a normal pattern.
Regrettably, the removal of Abba from the exalted office of the IG, just nine months after he assumed office, has been carried out in a manner reminiscent of the days of yore under the jackboots when good reason was jettisoned for kangaroo ways of life. Abba was removed via a message on twitter, followed by a terse statement while the victim was kept in the dark. He was neither queried, nor invited for debriefing or even given any letter to that effect. His masters or traducers, simply went on air and shuffled him into the ever-lengthening casualty list of discredited and disgraced government appointees.
By 11:30pm on that Tuesday when I put another call to Abba, he was just having his dinner at home amidst several people who had thronged his residence to sympathise with him. When I asked him whether he had been served a letter at last, he told me that up till that time, there has been no official communication with him to the effect that he had been removed. To me, that looks like “man’s inhumanity to man.” It is tantamount to a sort of mental torture as his mind will be wandering all over the place trying to hazard a guess on what could have happened.
The office of the IG is a very important and sensitive office that should be treated as such. At least, courtesy demands that the decision of the president, whether good or bad, should be communicated to the occupant of that office whether he has fallen out of favour or not. The IG’s office is not a motor park and the IG is not a motor tout who could be dumped and abandoned by the roadside at anytime. The right procedure and protocol should be applied. I mean you don’t treat people shabbily for whatever reason. It is high time this form of jackboot mentality in governance is consigned to the dustbin. Whatever must have happened, the way and manner we react to pressing issues go a long way to depict the type of persons we are.
During the Aminu Tambuwal saga at the National Assembly, last year, I was blunt with Abba when I told him that he should always be guided by the law in whatever he does as IG. That he should not stick out his neck for anybody because when the chips are down, the same people he is trying to protect will not hesitate to sacrifice him. It was as if I had a premonition of what could happen much later. Now, the chips are down and Abba has been made a sacrificial lamb. Therefore, he may have to carry or bear the scar of that inglorious encounter with Tambuwal like an albatross, all alone. Such is life. Today, it is Abba’s turn, who knows the next victim?
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‘Regrettably, the removal of Abba from the exalted office of the IG, just nine months after he assumed office, has been carried out in a manner reminiscent of the days of yore under the jackboots when good reason was jettisoned for kangaroo ways of life’
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But why are our police officers always treated so shabbily? Unlike the army, over the years, the police have not been able to insulate themselves from politics or political interference. Many of the officers either get involved in politics because of greed or because they are constantly dragged into it by power-seeking politicians. Some police officers also believe that their survival in their chosen career is solely dependent on the amount of political influence they can wield or throw around. Some of them also join cult groups and all the rest of them to keep their jobs or attain rapid promotion. This is because many of their superiors, godfathers or those who determine their fate, are high-ranking, bonafide members of these secret cults. In that case, since the politicians now determine their fate, they have no option than to genuflect before them for personal aggrandizement. But trust politicians, they are masters in the act of using and dumping people.
Right from Abba’s first day in office, his detractors had been going about peddling all sorts of falsehood at the Presidency, all designed to put spanners in the wheel of progress. I once asked him about this and he told me that it has assumed a permanent feature of life in the police for people to concoct stories and peddle them around. Even if you had to be picked among some potential IGs, those who are not so lucky instantly turn themselves into the opposition to your tenure. It must be pointed out that by doing this, it is the police force that is being systematically decimated and ridiculed, not the occupant of the office. There is no doubt that this trend will continue as the struggle for power in the police is something that is very intense and almost everybody is involved. Even in police stations, policemen struggle to be posted to ‘juicy’ beats. It is an overwhelming anomaly.
Abba meant well for the police. He was interested in building a new image entirely for the organisation. His major focus was re-orientation through attitudinal change but all that has now become history. Soon, a whole generation of police officers may be whipped out again, the second within one year. This will surely impact negatively on the morale of the members and accentuate their desire for corrupt enrichment in order to secure their future.
Now, an acting IGP has been appointed in the person of Solomon Ehigiator Arase. I have my reservations!
