By Paul Onomuakpokpo
Since governance in
these climes is often appropriated by those we entrust with leadership as a
means of unbridled material acquisition, we are regularly scandalised by sleaze
in public offices. The reports on such venalities come to the public with such
rapidity that we do not infrequently fail in a bid to track them. But this
rapidity serves well the opprobrious cravings of our public officials. Let the
scandals break today, they are not bothered – by tomorrow other scandals would
break that would take away the attention of the citizens from those of today.
Yet, at a time of
economic recession that has thrown up the overarching need for transparency and
prudent management of fast-vanishing resources for effective governance, we
would not allow an opportunity to conserve the nation’s money to slip by. One
of such opportunities that we must seize is the recovery of some police vehicles
that have been allegedly stolen.
 |
| *President Buhari and IGP Idris |
We have been told that
the office of the inspector-general of police has been stripped bare of its
vehicles. The culprit has been identified as the former inspector-general of
police Solomon Arase. He allegedly took away 24 vehicles of the police at the
end of his tenure. Among these vehicles were two BMW 7 series, one armoured.
The incumbent Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris first made the
allegation in July. He lamented how the haemorrhage of police vehicles led to
his using a rickety one to travel somewhere with President Muhammadu Buhari.
When the latter saw it, he was so outraged that he asked him what he was doing
with it.
Three
months after, the allegation is still on. But this time, the allegation has
been framed in a way to present Arase as admitting to stealing 24 vehicles, out
of which 19 have been recovered. But Arase has insisted that he did not steal
the vehicles in the first place. He has asked his successor Idris to make
available the registration numbers of the vehicles allegedly stolen.
What is worrisome now
is that Idris has not bothered to make the registration numbers available. Yet,
this is what he must do to avoid being seen as only disparaging his predecessor
to serve his selfish purposes. The public is interested in the truth: Were 24
vehicles really stolen by Arase? Have 19 been recovered from him? What is the
outcome of the special panel Idris set up to investigate the matter? Since the
issue has been brought to the public domain, the citizens must be informed of
how it is resolved. After all, as Arase has said, Idris has access to him, he
has his phone number with which to call him and ask for clarification on his
handover notes. But since he did not do this, he must be ready to go the whole
hog; he must make sure that the truth about the alleged missing vehicles is
known to the public. If Idris’ claim is true, the police must release the registration
numbers and recover the vehicles. The vehicles are needed to enhance the
operational efficiency of the police, especially at a time funds would not be
readily available to procure new ones.
Even if Arase is not
disposed to releasing the vehicles, there are legal options open to the police
to recover them. But if Idris fails to do this, then we should suspect that he
is only making an unfounded allegation as a means of misappropriating the
vehicles himself or giving the public an excuse for his anticipated poor
performance. After all, we have become used to a situation where succeeding
governors and other politicians would accuse their predecessors of leaving
empty treasuries while the predecessors would reel out statistics of the huge
amounts they have bequeathed to the citizens.
Yes, as Arase fears,
his image is being tarnished as the drama of accusation and counter-accusation
continues. But in the long run, it is Idris who would suffer more culpability
in the whole saga. For as long as he cannot prove the allegation, it only shows
that he has embarked on a self-destructive voyage of calumny. He has only
exposed his tardy handling of his exalted office and the lack of cooperation in
the nation’s security apparatuses that has paved the way for the proliferation
of insecurity in the society. Security operatives undermine one another; they
divulge strategies of their superiors and colleagues to criminals.
The new IGP must come
to terms with the fact that what the citizens expect from him is to start
policing from where his predecessor stopped. There are many security challenges
that should occupy the mind of Idris now. As in the days of Arase, the police
are still plagued by unprofessionalism. They abandon their duties and instead
they are pre-occupied with extorting the citizens. They divert their energies
to killing innocent citizens. They collude with criminals to rob those they are
paid to protect.
Indeed, instead of
dissipating his energy on delusive claims, Idris should be concerned with how to
leave a legacy. He must rebuild the police in such a way that they would be
alive to their responsibilities. He must have the vision of leaving the police
that could be called by the citizens at night to repel armed robbers but who
would not complain of being immobilised by a lack of fuel in their vehicles. He
should fight for more allocation for the police so that their barracks and
offices would cease looking like makeshift camps of refugees fleeing from
strife-riven zones. He should make sure that the police have enough government
funding so that they can procure modern weapons that would match the
sophisticated ones of armed robbers.
Apart from regular
crime, the police are being daily mocked by their inability to stop kidnapping.
The challenge Idris has in this regard is how to get intelligence and prevent
kidnapping before it happens. And if it happens at all, the police should be
able to track down the kidnappers. The police should not allow the families of
the abductees to pay ransom or some local vigilantes to rescue the kidnapped
persons and only for them to claim the glory and recount how they fought
valiantly to save the victims.
Again, through the
planned recruitment of 10,000 police officers, the IGP now has the privilege of
midwifing a new police force. He should make sure that only the best and
qualified candidates and not the cronies of nepotistic politicians are allowed
to infest the police. These are better responsibilities for Idris to discharge
than inundating the public with unprovable allegations against his predecessor.
*Dr. Onomuakpokpo is
on the Editorial Board of The Guardian
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