Whoever is placed in a position of responsibility is directly given a trust, which comes with the believe that one is good, reliable, honest and the likelihood of him being effective. It is the liberty of the assignee to respect the trust or betray it, but the devil would be relentlessly active, in persuading him or her in the direction of betrayal.
Since April 2021, when President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Alkali Usman Baba as the 21st indigenous Inspector-General of Police, a special trust was placed on him, to provide the professional and responsive leadership that would meet the demand of Nigeria and Nigerians, an expectation he promised not only to meet, but meet very well. He even went further to say that, he would meet the yearnings of Nigerians for a policing system that will assure them of their safety and treat them with civility.
And precisely that’s the centre of my sympathy for the chief cop of the country. In a country like Nigeria, with people of divergent dispositions, guaranteeing safety and being able to treat the people with civility, can be painfully laborious, more so, in a service like the Nigeria police. Almost on hourly basis, things would be happening in a manner that would tempt the boss either to patriotism or treachery. And the devil is relentless in ensuring the latter.
For IGP Alkali Usman Baba, it’s a tripartite of travails. And I would take them one by one, starting with Magu and the temptation to tribalism.
IGP Alkali inherited the problem of Ibrahim Magu, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, who was suspended from office in the time of his predecessor, Adamu Mohammed.
Magu, a Commissioner of Police, was suspended on July 10, 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari, over allegations of insubordination and corruption levelled against him by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN.
The government set up a presidential panel headed by Justice Ayo Salami to probe the various allegations against him. Almost two years now, Magu has not been officially indicted nor reassigned, rather, he is placed on half-salary.
Magu is Alkali’s tribesman, who is seriously suffering, because the delay in releasing the Salami panel report has affected his selection for promotion to Assistant Inspector-General of Police, and as a human being, the devil’s advise to the IGP would undoubtedly be towards tribal nepotism.
He can choose to be tribally nepotistic, which would be treacherous. But he resisted that temptation, and that’s one travail I sympathize with Alkali as a police boss with the will to do justice with civility, and provide the professional and responsive leadership that would meet the demand of Nigeria and Nigerians.
While Alkali is battling with the devil against tilting towards tribalism, another calamity stroke, again with his tribesman, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari. Abba Kyari was accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), America’s federal police and counterintelligence agency, which is investigating the activities of a suspected Nigerian internet fraudster, Ramon Abbass, otherwise called Hushpuppi, of involvement with the fraudster.
The FBI wants Kyari extradited to the USA, but the police insisted on investigation first. IGP Alkali recommended the suspension of Kyari, set up a committee, which made additional recommendations to the Police Service Commission for further sanctions.
In what conforms with the idiom of, from frying pan to fire, while still on suspension, the embattled Kyari was declared wanted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), for aiding and abetting drug pushing and running his own international cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline.
IGP Alkali immediately ordered the arrest and handing over of Abba Kyari to the NDLEA for further investigations. This is a terrible travail not just for Kyari, but Alkali his boss, who had sworn to police with justice and civility, by providing the professional and responsive leadership that would meet the demand of Nigeria and Nigerians.
In-between the Magu and Abba Kyari saga, came the shortfall of petrol supply in the country, occasioned by the importation and distribution of bad fuel. That particular act had caused monumental consequences to many motorists, with some Nigerians calling on President Buhari to direct the arrest and prosecution of the NNPC GMD, Mele Kyari, who happens to be the tribesman of IGP Alkali Baba.
I don’t know what happened behind the scene, but in all these situations, as the IGP, Alkali is under trial, because of the temptation to treachery and the tilt towards tribalism, a travail that can be terribly traumatizing.
There is an African proverb that says, “You can no longer see or identify yourself solely as a member of a tribe, but as a citizen of a nation of one people working toward a common purpose”.
When this idiom is viewed through the prism of patriotism, which unites the people in times of crisis, Nigeria and Nigerians need to sympathise with Alkali Usman Baba, for being the IGP now, at such a trying moment of terrible tribal travails.
Ibrahim, a media advisor writes from Abuja