Current IGP Mohammed Adamu is expected to leave office today, Monday, as
he attains the retirement age and speculations have emerged on who his
successor will be.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, presidential spokesman
Garba Shehu said it is impracticable for top security appointments to be
made based on factors such as ethnicity or regions.
“If you are going to appoint the service chiefs from every ethnic group
in this country, you are going to have more than 250 Inspector-General
of Police, 250 Chief of Army Staff, 250 Chief of Naval Staff,” he said.
“It’s not going to work like that. And they have their own systems of
producing leadership.
“If we say we are going to use ethnicity or region as the basis, then we
have lost it. This is about law and order, it is not about ethnic
identity. This country finished with tribalism in the 1960s, why are we
back to it now?
“But if you have two, three positions – look at what happened with the
service chiefs just appointed: two from the South, two from the North.
If you are talking about religion, two Muslims, two Christians. So what
do you want again?”
The spokesman added that the appointment will be based on who can best
help to protect lives and properties across the country.
“The President will rather have an Inspector-General of Police who will
make you and I safer, protect life and property than one who is more
pronounced by his tribal marks,” he said.
Mr. Shehu also commented on the latest Corruption Perception Index
report published by Transparency International.
The report had ranked Nigeria 149 out of 180 countries surveyed, one of
its worst ratings in years.
TI cited an absence of transparency, nepotism, lack of adequate
anti-corruption legal frameworks, the prevalence of bribery and
extortion in the Nigerian Police, corruption in the security sector,
among others, as reasons for the low rating.
But Mr. Shehu said the report was not an indictment on the Buhari
administration but on Nigerians.
“This one by TI is not a judgement on Buhari or his administration or
its war against corruption, it is a judgement on Nigerians,” Mr. Shehu
said. “Because if you look at the major indices they used in arriving at
these conclusions, they used eight indices, six of which found Nigeria
as being more or less at the same position, nothing has been lost.
“The two that they dwelt on, that caused this backsliding, are
essentially Nigerian problems. When they look at the varieties of
democracy, they are talking about the political culture of this country,
vote-buying, thuggery. Is it Buhari that is a thug? We are not doing
thuggery. And we know those who are doing it.
“And when they talk about the justice project – which is a big minus in
that report – they are talking about perceived corruption in the
judiciary. These perceptions are essentially not correct.
“Yes, there are issues in that sector, but wouldn’t it have been nice to
note the reforms that are ongoing in that sector. So many changes are
going on. Acknowledge it, so that you encourage those judicial officers
that are upright and the system keeps getting better.”