Opinion: New IGP: Will he be more of the same?

Posted by admin Headlines Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

By Dan Onwukwe ( 08023022170 dan_onwukwe@yahoo.com )

Last Wednesday, January 25, we at the SUN newspapers had an amazing fun time. We also soaked in the awesome glory of God. The occasion at our Head Office in Lagos, was our annual Thanksgiving Service and awards. It was important that the event held in spite of the current worrying times in the country, because as they say, events become significant only when looked back on.

It was therefore fitting and appropriate that Pastor Ayo Oristsejafor, who doubles as the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) was our Special Guest. In these times of deep well of anxiety and frightening insecurity caused by the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram, the choice of the cleric was well thought out.

Oristsejafor, no doubt, is a remarkable personality – extremely bright, eloquent and courageous, intellectually curious and honest with a huge appetite for the things of the spirit – the word of God. When he began to speak, you cannot ignore the message in his voice. It has loads of warning. “Nigeria”, he said, “is in trouble”. With his voice rising, you could see the anger, the pain and fear of what lies ahead if urgent measures are not taken to halt the drift. And he asked: why can a group, kill fellow Nigerians in the name of God? What kind of God will permit such atrocities in His name? These are some of the larger questions that are being asked since Boko Haram began to unleash attacks on many parts of the country.

This is the reason why Hafiz Ringim was sacked as Inspector General of Police (IGP) last week, and replaced with Mohammed Abubakar as acting IGP. Without a doubt, a strong and effective police force leads to an improved internal security of the country which would ultimately translate to protection of lives and property of the citizens. It is the central and sacred duty of any responsible government to do so. That much has been absent for over a year now that Boko Haram has held Nigeria on the jugular and ruffled President Jonathan. The sect has killed over 1,000 people, still counting. Confronted with such enormous problem, Jonathan appears incapable of containing the insurgence despite assurances made, with a citizenry he could neither influence or persuade, and the power of popular opinion slipping off his hands, the chief cop officer takes the flak.

It was however long in coming that Ringim has to go. His tenure was like a horror book that closes with each chapter that leaves its reader reeling and riling. A life of the number one crime fighter ought not be that of roses without the thorn. The job is defined when the chief cop puts himself in the thick of the problem facing the country. It is the ultimate challenge. And Ringim failed on that score. May be, the problem of Boko Haram overwhelmed him as it also seem to have overwhelmed the president himself. Once the president looked like a Rolls-Royce. Not any longer. Now, he is looking pretty like a tokunbo car with its wheels falling off.

But that throws up more significant questions: Can Abubakar make the difference? Or will he be more of the same? Can he prove to be that narrative redemption that Jonathan needs now to get us out of jail? Sometimes the stories of some individuals in the eyes of the public give so much to worry about. That tends to question the president’s sense of judgment in critical appointments. If we are to go by what is in the public domain regarding Abubakar’s previous assignments especially in Plateau state, one can say “Wahala dey o”. That’s why some people are questioning (perhaps justifiably so) his competence to respond swiftly to the Boko Haram challenge.

There are two sides to the “role” he purportedly played as Commissioner of Police in Plateau at the heat of the ethnic crisis there. One side of the story said he was partisan and overtly partial to Muslims in Plateau. Reference to such “ignoble role” has been cited in the Justice Nike Tobi panel that probed the Jos crisis of 2001. The Panel in one of its recommendations called for the retirement of Abubakar from the Police Force and even suggested that if he refused to retire, he should be dismissed. The Panel also alleged that he was one of the “sponsors” of an Islamic militant group that stoked the embers of hatred in Plateau state. For this reason, many Christians are now complaining and doubting his competence in his present, topmost job. But now he is seen by his admirers as that “rejected stone” that has become the cornerstone of the house. My take on his choice is that it could be strategic. President Jonathan may have given him a rope to hang himself, if it is proved that he has sympathies for Boko Haram. Again, in diplomacy, the best way to get your “enemy” on your side is to give one of its own a plum position. It’s like inviting your foes to a Rose Garden Party and placating them with a Russian Vodka on their way out.

Will this tame Boko Haram and its spate of attacks? Over the last two months, the sect has proved it has grown beyond a small radical religious group, to a flexible dynamic organistion capable of changing tactics and targets. This includes its latest urban guerrilla tactics. Therefore, the search for long term solution, may be something similar to the theory of “relative superiority”, postulated by Admiral William McRaven, the man who took down Osama bin Laden. The theory explains how a rather “small offensive force can defeat a larger, well-fortified defence”.

The challenge of insecurity posed by Boko Haram requires an IGP equirement of a deadly striker in a football match. So far, our security agencies, including the police are acting like donkeys, too slow and sometimes living in denial. That’s how Boko Haram has put virtually the entire nation and its citizens on the defensive. The sect wants to create a Hizbollah, a fundamentalist party in Nigeria, patterned after their own contrived god . Today, Boko Haram, not the Nigeria Police, holds that decisive advantage.

All of this asks the question: Does the new IGP have what it takes to develop that relative superiority, a simple yet effective and carefully concealed, realistically rehearsed plan and that can be executed with surprise, speed and clarity of purpose? To do this, Abubakar needs to show colossal guts, more balls than a Christmas tree. If he can accomplish that fast and bring Boko Haram to its knees, whatever “sins” he might have committed against Christians in Plateau State would be forgiven him. Redemption beckons on him and for Jonathan, who Daniel Howden of the London-based Independent newspaper notes is no longer the reformer once praised by the West, but now derided as an “indecisive” leader.

Nigerians are tired of all assurances to wipe out Boko Haram but were never followed up with a corresponding action. The president has sermonized a lot on how to crush the sect and restore normalcy in the troubled Northern states. During his visit to Kano in the wake of the Boko Haram massacre, he said, “the people doing this are not spirits, they are among us … I can assure you that we will intensify security in Kano and all over the nation to enable us fish out these miscreants”. Few days later, the militant group struck again. Even the chief of Army Staff, Gen. Azubike Ihejirika and Minister of Defence, Bello Haliru Mohammed, have seen their assurances to be “on top of the security situation” rubbished by the militant group. These words are not reassuring any more. If the new police chief won’t be like his predecessor, he must learn the deficiencies that made Ringim opaque and incapable of responding to the coordinated attacks by Boko Haram even after the sect has forewarned what it would do.

It is clear that the emergence and “successes” of Boko Haram so far can be attributed to a combination of factors among them, government’s lack of vision and incompetence to read red alert and respond accordingly. If the havoc the insurgent sect has wrecked across the country is to portray Jonathan as incompetent, the failure of the security agencies, including the police, have made matters even worse for the president. Whatever it will take to defeat Boko Haram should be seen as a wonderful breath of fresh air. One hopes the new IGP knows that. It is time for the Northern governors to show sincerity of purpose in help tackle the activities of the sect in their domain. Action speaks louder then words.

-Sunwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Jan 31 2012. Filed under Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry