By Mobolaji Sanusi
“Accountability for police officers should be an expectation, not an aberration.”—-Alex Padilla
Olatunji Rilwan Disu is now affirmatively the country’s mint Inspector General of Police. By that stroke also, Kayode Egbetokun now belongs to the league of former police IGs. This scenario brings to fruition, the saying that change is the only constant thing in life while power, though sweet, remains the most temporary of all human possessions.
Disu’s unexpected ascension to the nation’s number one cop’s throne is inevitably providential. Egbetokun would never have imagined that his four-year tenure as IG would be short-lived by a president he had robust relationship with, for decades. And that his successor would be someone with barely a month to his retirement from the police service. What a mysterious way fate intervenes in the affairs of man.
Disu’s providential ascension has a twist of fate with that of former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who by sheer destiny, took over power from despotic late general Sani Abacha who as Head of State, suddenly died few days to signing Abubakar’s final disengagement letter from the military. In similar fashion, Disu also took over from Egbetokun who may have been looking forward to his now successor’s April 3, 2026 final pullout from the police force when he would have attained the statutory retirement age of sixty.
But fate had other plans for Disu. From the expectations of being retired and thinking of what retirement holds in stock for him, the unexpected opportunity of spending an additional four years as Nigeria’s Number One Cop, fell on his laps. Disu has every reason to be grateful to the Almighty Allah for life, and to President Bola Tinubu for considering him worthy of this last minute national assignment that prolongs his service years to this potentially great country. The president must have reposed so much confidence in him to have handpicked him to sit on this exalted seat from the multitude of more senior and equally competent police officers.
Now’s the time for Disu to justify this presidential confidence by turning the police force into a dream institution by the end of his long-enough-tenure of four years.
Few days ago, l listened, on the social media, to an interview ascribed to the outgone inspector general where he was saying he expects Disu to continue where he stopped. Egbetokun played his part to the best of his ability. In one of his ascriptive words, he said: “Do the best you can, serve the people to the best of your ability and show commitment to the highest standard of integrity and public trust.” Whether Egbetokun gave his best; whether his ability complemented his service to the nation; or if his performance in the saddle of police affairs sincerely reflected his professed commitment and un-garnered public trust should be left for historians to judge.
However, one thing is clear, Egbetokun’s tenure was too business-as-usual for our country’s policing that is in dire need of visionary police leadership. His tenure was controversially troublesome, uninspiring and sadly so for avoidable personal sustenance. He got distracted with issues that had no direct impact on police institution’s efficacy and efficiency. Amongst others, he abruptly cut short the service lives of over 400 senior police officers for parochial reasons despite industrial court’s ruling that they should be reabsorbed. Nigeria by his unfathomable action was denied the rich experience and knowledge of these officers at a time when the country is being under policed and security-harassed by feudal criminals. He also wasted so much time on his ill-conceived tinted glass permit policy that prioritized revenue collection over the much desired security consideration. His son’s involvement in a N100 million security votes purportedly transferred in tranches into his bank account, purportedly in “error” by the Anambra state government is another embarrassing stain on his tenure.
Disu cannot continue this depressing routine approach to policing as we expect him to be the desired agent of change we have been longing to have in this country. The new IGP has the golden opportunity of setting right the policing template for the country under this president. Inspiringly, he has set the right tone for achieving this. While speaking at his inaugural conference with strategic police managers in Abuja midweek, Disu set the foundation of his agenda for the police when he declared: “The police must be firm in enforcing the law, impartial in decisions, professional in conduct and strictly neutral in all electoral engagements.” He needs to know and be reminded that his free flowing declaration should not be limited to electoral engagements but to all facets of police interface with the Nigerian public.
Nigerians desire and will henceforth look forward to seeing an impartial police under his leadership that is firm on enforcement, truly professional in conducts and more importantly take fellow Nigerians’ protection as their uncompromising duty.
The afore-stated are achievable but sincerely not under the existing abysmally low morale and poor welfare conditions of officers and men of the police force. The police institution as it stands today is equally deficient in all things that make policing responsibility easy to carry out. Policemen are poorly paid and the plight of their retirees, like most retirees in the country is very pathetic. How then can police bribe-taking from the people be stopped when selfless service is poorly rewarded in retirement by our warped system.
Sadly, the debilitating plight of retirees is enough reason for those serving policemen to give utmost consideration to how to take care of their old age while still in active service, at whatever cost, legal or otherwise. The new inspector general of police should note that otherwise good policemen have been turned to an abusive and criminal minded beings by the feeble system in place; this is not akin to only the force but applies to all facets of the country’s existence. The implication of this was sadly captured by Mary Frances Berry where he said: “When you have police officers who abuse citizens, you erode public confidence…” Any police institution not well catered for will abuse citizens which tells more about the paramountcy of well packaged and remunerated enforcement institution.
Therefore, in the new number one cop’s own police jurisdiction, he needs creative intelligence of fresh practicable ideas to convince the president to approve his clearly set out marshal plans for redressing these challenges-within the shortest time of his assumption of office.
Disu’s marshal plans must start with the police stations which is the first point of perception creation of the police institution by aggrieved people visiting there. Jalopy operational vehicles, poor running costs, battered uniforms, inadequate or complete absence of writing materials amongst others logistical problems are the lots of police stations in the nation. In any station where there is a semblance of sanity with regards to aforementioned, the heads of such stations must have received help from the community, privileged individuals, complainants or even suspects whose relatives or through self help brought out money to help provide minimal decency, most times. Yours sincerely knows this during frequent visits to police stations, in line of duty as a solicitor.
Good enough that Disu has a listening leader in President Tinubu who is currently determined to decentralize police affairs in this country by establishing state/community policing. This is laudably a true federation’s initiative that is long overdue for the country. He needs inputs, expertise and experience of genuine police patriots like retired Deputy Inspector-General Leye Oyebade and retired Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni amongst others who despite having been out of service, keep exuding practical ideas on the country’s policing needs and how to achieve them. Some of their ideas on the nation’s policing needs are things that can be found on the social media.
Going forward, Disu must fully support the president’s passionate initiative of bringing about state/community policing; and this he has started by putting in place the steering committee for achieving this. In addition, he must endeavour to put a halt to the ravaging tradition of reactive policing.
Surely, Nigerians look forward to seeing under Disu’s tutelage of the police force a proactive, digital and intelligence driven law enforcement institution. Of course, accountability of the police force under him should be an expectation, not an aberration—apologies to Alex Padilla. Our new IG should equally note that his recent elevation is a call to duty and a golden opportunity with history. He has this one last providential chance to create an indelible legacy and hopefully, he would not fritter it away.
• Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS. (sms/whatsapp-07011117777)
