IGP Sunday Ehindero and My 7-Task Challenge

By

Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD

alukome@comcast.net

Burtonsville, MD, USA

January 31, 2005

“All the world is a stage. All the men and women merely players. We have our exits and entrances, and one man in his time, plays many parts. His acts being seven ages”.

“I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me, the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to me on that day.”

INTRODUCTION

It cannot be fun to be a policeman or a member of his or her family in Nigeria. This is because of the disdain and contempt with which policemen are held within Nigerian society due to their corrupt and intimidating ways, both real and imaginary, but more of the former. 

So when recently one fine morning (January 18, 2005; see Press Release below) we read that Tafa Balogun of Ila-Orangun (Osun State) had become tired or was retired as  the 21^st Inspector General of Police for under an egregious cloud of corrupt multibillion-naira fraud, it was a further body blow to the institution that he headed.  In March 2002, he had replaced the police-strike victim former IGP Musiliu Smith of Olowogbowo (Lagos State), the 20^th IG and first university graduate to head the NPF since the force as it is presently known was established in 1930.

In time, bros Tafa has since been replaced by a Bible-quoting, philosophizing mathematician-lawyer-policeman Sunday Ehindero of Oka-Akoko (Ondo State), who,  in outlining his 10-point-agenda in replacement of Balogun’s 8-point strategy (for comparisons, see Table 1),  has pledged  (in his words) “to endeavour to blend the (sic) Bentham’s utilitarian protective security of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain with the Kentian doctrine of the dignity of the human person and freedom”.

Na wah o !

Big English apart, it is the operations and corruption of the Nigerian Police Force that I quickly wish to X-ray here and challenge bros Sunday about.

OPERATIONS

Between December 2003 and March 2004,  Mr. Tafa Balogun together with a 5-man delegation from Nigeria visited three police departments (Houston, Atlanta and Chicago) in the United States,  to under study their implementation of community policing and how it could be adapted to the Nigerian situation.  Estacodes apart, during the visit to Houston, he learnt that there were 19, 000 different police forces in United States - not one central one like in Nigeria.  Furthermore, he was informed  that the population of Houston was 2 million and that the combined personnel resources of the Police Department (HPD) was 7,000, made up of 5,400 police officers and 1,600 civilians, which, at 1 policeman to 370 citizens, brings Houston within the  United Nation’s 1-policeman-per-400-citizens international guidelines.

According to Balogun, in 1999, Nigeria had 130,000 policemen (roughly 1-policeman-per-1000-citizens), but that after Obasanjo approved a 40,000 annual recruitment exercise in 2002 or thereabout, that number has now risen to over 300,000, bringing the country within spitting distance of international guidelines.

Task Number One for Sunday Ehindero is therefore one of transparency and accountability:  to ascertain and declare the ACTUAL number of policemen under his control, and their distribution in terms of desk-job, traditional field work, mobile deployment, traffic job, official “guard” duty and other miscellaneous guard duty of policemen and businessmen !  This will assist in “improving

public perception and image of the Force.” (Balogun Agenda # 8; Ehindero Agenda #10)

Tafa Balogun also indicated that the Obasanjo government has bought over 1,500 additional patrol vehicles for the NPF.  One can guess that most of those were deployed in Balogun’s “Operation Fire for Fire” (OFF or FFF) – enhancing Balogun Agenda # 1 but violating the spirit of Balogun Agenda # 8. On  the other hand,  Ehindero will now have OFF rubbed off all the vehicles and replaced with a kinder and friendlier slogan “To Serve and Protect with Integrity”  (Ehindero Agenda #10).

In fact, when one realizes that the urban population of Nigeria is probably no more than 25 million people, and there are really no more than 50 urban centers in Nigeria (even some of the state capitals are not urban), 150,000-200,000 policemen properly deployed in 1,000 patrol vehicles will make a huge presence and difference in police service delivery in the country. (Ehindero Agenda # 7 and #9).

That is Task Number Two for Ehindero:  a re-deployment of police resources where they are needed most in the country, not where each can make the most money and deliver “returns” to their superiors.

Task Number Three has to do with the commendable community policing (Balogun Agenda # 3,  Ehindero Agenda #4):  Ehindero does not have to return to Houston, Atlanta and Chicago to learn that you cannot police a community if you are not a member of that community, otherwise, you are an INVASION force.  Thus in the absence of the desirable state police, Ehindero can still deploy State Commissioners of Police to be from their states of origin; as many police officers as possible to operate within or as near as possible to their states of origin; and to live within the communities in which they reside rather than live in police barracks.  It is in this same spirit of devolution that Ehindero’s Agenda # 9 (“Empower field officers operationally by  devolution of powers to improve the standards,  reliability, consistency, and responsiveness  of the service”) is to be commended.

The final point here has to do with Balogun’s Agenda #7 (“Inter-service/agency cooperation at all levels down the line”) which one would have expected to “Contribute positively to improving the quality  of justice delivery in Nigeria” (Ehindero Agenda #8).  However, Balogun’s cooperation with the INEC over the 2003 elections was cooperation taken too far, - or was it  the occasion in which COP Ige abducted Governor Ngige for a while,.or in which under instruction from the the president  the security details of Ngige were withdrawn ?

So Task Number Four before Ehindero is to be selective about what agency to cooperate in certain manner, always having in mind true delivery of justice and fair-play in Nigeria.  For example, the NPF should cooperate more with ICPC and EFCC – including over ex-IGP Tafa Balogun - and less with INEC.

CORRUPTION

Corruption has become a cankerworm that impedes economic, social and economic development in Nigeria, and to see the top cop of the country UNDER SUSPICION for such massive fraud (see Table 2) is most demoralizing.  Like Caesar’s wife, he should not even be this guilty of suspicion.  To read that the Oba of his village, or some indigenes from his state are pleading for him to be let off quietly and lightly – that is even more demoralizing, and reminds me of a senior colleague who laments that it appears that certain segments of Nigerian society have become inured to corruption provided the corrupt person delivers some “returns” to them too !

Tafa Balogun failed his own Agenda # 4 (“Serious anti-corruption crusade, both

within and outside the Force”), and it is now Ehindero’s turn to be tested on his Agenda # 5 (“Zero-tolerance for police corruption  and indiscipline.”)  Obviously, when Ehindero made a statement recently that he would frown seriously at any of his subordinates trying to make financial “returns” to him, was he hinting at something his predecessors did or what?

Anyway, whatever he was saying, his Task Number Five is as follows:  He should declare his own assets PUBLICLY and let the world know it, period.

Beyond Ehindero himself is the crass corruption which the suffering Nigerian masses encounter daily at the hands of policemen as they travel along the highways and byways of Nigeria and at police stations.  The irony is that we read that during his term,  Balogun effected a lot of arrests (via sting operations) and dismissals of N20-note-bribe-taking policemen, while allegedly smiling to many bank accounts to gallizion of naira.  Unfair, very unfair.

Not only should Ehindero continue with this particular Task Number 6 of keeping the robber road-cops off-balance on our highways, but he should enhance it throughout Year 2005 with Task Number 7:  making millions of leaflets to be handed by Policemen to citizens saying “Do Not Bribe Me, Please; I Don’t Accept Bribes”, and millions of leaflets to Citizens to be handed to Policemen saying “Do Not Demand Bribes from Me, Please; I Don’t Give Bribes.”

It might sound like an amusing campaign, but I am persuaded that it will be effective.

EPILOGUE

When we read that the Chief Justice of the Federation Uwais is under a cloud of bribery (by Governor Ibori over Ibori’s (non)imprisonment saga), which he has hotly denied; the Chief Police Officer  Tafa Balogun is dismissed over suspicion of corruption; Governor Dariye of Plateau State is under investigation by NPF and Scotland Yard (England) over millions of dollars in various banks in Nigeria and England; Governor Ngige of Anambra continues to be harassed by Chris Uba who, along with PDP Secretary Venatius Ikem, has stated that Ngige’s 2003 gubernatorial election was rigged from beginning to the end in his favor, with both Obasanjo and former PDP Chairman Ogbeh since in the know; when the President of the Senate Nwabara continues in office with amazing electoral malfeasance (for example not a candidate, not the election winner);  when the Supreme Court cancels Ogun presidential elections for egregious violation of simple electoral standards (an overage of 670,000 votes over gubernatorial election held on the same day); when the finger-prints of the police are all over many of these issues in question; then the Nigerian can be forgiven if he just gives up and says “To Hell with Nigeria!”

But everybody should not give up. 

If somehow we can reform the Police and the Judiciary, then punishment for crime will become a greater certainty, and the carefree opportunistic crime which besets our country will surely reduce significantly.  If somehow, we can truly get a Sovereign National Conference to truly address what ails us as a country, then our social, economic, and political dysfunctionality might just begin to be resolved.

With respect to the Police, though I have now pl, ace a 7-Task challenge before the Bible-quoting, philosophizing Sunday Gabriel Ehindero, B.Sc., M.Sc, L.LB., BL, NPM, fwc of Oka-Akoko.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://allafrica.com/stories/200203080057.html

The Politics of Musiliu Smith's Exit

This Day (Lagos) OPINION March 8, 2002

http://allafrica.com/stories/200203090103.html

New IG Tafa Balogun Assumes Duty, Moves to Stop Strike, Dialogue with Rank and File

This Day (Lagos) March 9, 2002

http://allafrica.com/stories/200205180131.html

New Deal for Police As Government Adopts IG's 8-Point Programme

This Day (Lagos)  May 18, 2002

http://allafrica.com/stories/200301060423.html

Footprints of the Top Cop [Balogun named Super Crime Burster of year 2002]

This Day (Lagos)  January 6, 2003

http://allafrica.com/stories/200307071005.html

Nigeria's Security One of the Best - Interview: Inspector-General of Policy Balogun

Weekly Trust (Kaduna) INTERVIEW July 5, 2003

http://allafrica.com/stories/200403150851.html

Our Problems – Tafa Balogun

The News (Lagos) March 22, 2004

http://allafrica.com/stories/200404260353.html

Nigeria is Safe – Tafa Balogun

Vanguard (Lagos)  April 25, 2004

http://www.cleen.org/comm.html

Community Policing Takes Chief of Police to United States

CLEEN Foundation (April 2004)

http://allafrica.com/stories/200401260642.html

Why Police Can't Stop Extortion

This Day (Lagos) January 26, 2004

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/north/nt47012005.html

Vanguard Online Edition : Ehindero unfolds ten point agenda ....

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/headline/f119012005.html

My agenda for Police —EHINDERO, NEW IGP

Vanguard, January 19, 2005

http://allafrica.com/stories/200501190259.html

Why Balogun Was Removed - Ehindero Assumes Office

Daily Champion (Lagos)  January 19, 2005

http://www.nigeriapolice.org/AN ADDRESS DELIVERED.doc

Ehindero Address Delivered to Maiden Conference of Senior Police Officers at Force Headquarters in Abuja

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:obBziASOFJgJ:www.nigeria.gov.ng/1479December10

Press Release No. 1569

January 18th, 2005

TAFA BALOGUN RETIRES FROM POLICE, NEW IG APPOINTED

The President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has approved the notice of retirement of the Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Tafa Balogun from the Nigerian Police with effect from 6th March 2005.

In a statement signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Ufot Ekaette, the out-going Inspector-General will commence retirement leave with effect from Tuesday, 18th January 2005.

According to the SGF, the President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in accepting Tafa Balogun’s retirement notice has expressed his appreciation on behalf of the nation for his past services and wishes him a happy retirement.

Meanwhile, the President has also approved the appointment of Mr. Sunday Ehindero as Acting Inspector-General of Police with effect from Tuesday, 18th January 2005.

Table 1:  Comparing Tafa’s 8-Point Strategy with Ehindero’s 10-Point Agenda

Table 2: Six Companies and The IG’s Imprest Account held at Fountain Trust Bank
 

Source: Sunday Punch, January 23, 2005

http://nigerianmuse.com/nigeriawatch/officialfraud/?u=Tafa_Balogun_ThePunch_compendium.htm

Exposed: •Six phoney companies that nailed Tafa Balogun •How Obasanjo confronted him