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There are horses that are used for racing, there are those used for warfare, while there are those used to disperse public demonstrators and there are those specifically used for security parades and during Olympic games. In all of these functions, the horse owner determines which area each of the horse is deployed to, bearing in mind their skills and specialisation. The owner rightly puts a round peg in a round hole.
So are the five security pillars of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. It is pertinent to note that the Chief of Army Staff, Leitenant General Tukur Buratai, and the four others mentioned in the first part one of this article, namely, Mr. lbrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Muhammadu Babandede, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Muhammed Adamu, are the most willing hands committed to Buhari’s vision to tackle insecurity in the country, because they are presently the winning team.
Truly, had the former IGP, Mr. Ibrahim Idris carried out his assignment dutifully by ensuring a tight security policy in the country, the Buhari administration would have been scored very high on security issues, when added to the performances of other agencies. Also, all the concerns about insecurity in the country wouldn’t have been severe.
His nonchalant attitude may have grossly contributed to the overall insecurity in the northern states of the country today. His appointment was controversial, with the retirement of 22 senior officers above him and coming on the heels of the controversy behind the scientific murder of the INEC electoral commissioner in Kano together with his wife and daughter while Idris was the commissioner of police. His entire tenure was punctuated with controversies of feuding with the Senate, disobeying the President and coupled with matrimonial palaver and his marriage to his office staff.
Many believe that Idris ought to be facing a tribunal by now, instead he was allowed to jet out to London the same week he left office. Part of the rot in the police under Idris was the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which is presently facing a presidential panel of inquiry that has already indicted many officers for various offenses.
However, Adamu has braced up to the avalanche of rot in the police and he is gradually repairing and rebuilding the public’s confidence in the police. The police force, sequel to his determination, is wearing a new mentality, with a momentum that is propelled by professionalism and restored integrity, and getting more focused. Hardworking officers, crack detectives and fantastic investigators that were abandoned either due to their ethnic or religious leaning during the Idris dispensation have been reinstated and recalled back to effective duty and they are producing results. Example is the recall of officer Ben Igwe, a crack crime fighter now among the arrowheads leading the war against Kaduna road kidnappers under “Operation Puff Adder,” which was launched on April 5, 2019; they have recorded such mind-blowing success across the country, with 63 kidnap victims rescued unhurt by police operatives. Also, 2,175 suspects were arrested for the following offences: kidnapping, 852; armed robbery, 865; murder, 359; and cultism, 99, with 834 arms recovered, including two rocket launchers and 19,009 live ammunition. No wonder the President described the IGP as one that is already getting lean. Had Adamu failed in his leadership role and expectations, would his men be on the streets fighting criminals and coming up with these stunning results?
The true mark of a leader is his ability to strategise and get result. Adamu has shown that his appointment was well deserved. The new IGP knows his onions, as he had widely reached out to imbibe more expertise. It is such refined and patriotic leaders that the police force needs to refocus the institution and propel it to greater heights, where the ordinary Nigerian would not only reckon with the world standard of policing, but a police they can embrace as their friend when passing critical information. Truly, with the second term of President Buhari, one believes that Adamu has exhibited enough guts to tackle the insecurity in the country, knowing full well that the internal security architecture of the country rests solely on the police., although his utterances on national issues most time does not go down well among the informed in the society and usually sends wrong signal despite his good intentions.
Interestingly, the “darling “of Nigerians and the man who has helped to give the Buhari administration a positive image, from every indication is very ready and determined to continue with the onerous task of fighting corruption in the country.
Magu, the “scorpion” police officer with the sagacity of a lion, has been stinging the corrupt elite in Nigeria, and he is daily strategising on better ways to clamp down on these characters depleting the economy. So far, he has been able to secure a total court conviction of 1,145 between 2015 and 2019 from 10 states of the country from May to date is 344. Securing a conviction in a crooked country like ours is an uphill task, considering the harsh situation in the country. The record stands out far above his predecessors.
However, the strong iumpression is that the government is not extricating itself from the commission so that it can fully exercise its statutory powers. A situation where party stalwarts are provided cover when they are investigated or charged for alledged corrupt practices by depreciating the efforts of the commission is faulty. Nevertheless, many still hold the commission in very high esteem, believing that the fear of EFCC is the beginning of wisdom in Nigeria.
Another security leader is Bichi, DG of theDSS. A complete opposite of the controversial past DG, Mr. Lawal Daura, who was already rusted mentally in the area of his profession before he was recalled. The damage he did to the image of the service needs years of articulated brainwork to repair. Thank goodness Bichi came right on time, like Adamu of the police, to change the sliding tide of unprofessionalism in the service. Bichi truly personifies the author John Maxwell’s popular quote that, “A leader knows the way, shows the way, and leads the way”
The service has not been entangled in any national controversy in recent times. The recent general election attests to his firm control of the service. Moreover, the DSS has been gaining more public acceptance due to his new gradual reform structure.
These institutions need to be encouraged in their reform initiatives and management, such that the country would gain from their professional excellence and their standard would be lauded globally.
All the five security leaders have one attribute in common: their humility and inter-agency cooperation. Indeed, you don’t change a willing and winning horse, a truism globally accepted.
(Concluded)
