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Ehindero’s Home Truth
Comfort Obi
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I like the Inspector General of Police
(IGP), Sunday Ehindero for his frankness and honesty. A friend of mine disagrees. “Frankness, yes. But honesty, police na police,” he says.
In saying that, my friend was only echoing the general impression Nigerians have of the average Nigerian policeman. They think the average policeman is dishonest, corrupt and worse. I will come to this later.
When Ehindero was named as successor to Tafa Balogun, former IGP, I had my reservations. I didn’t think he would fit in properly. The image I had of him was that of a dull man. And I felt we needed a younger person as IGP.
But his first photograph, used in the media, 24 hours after his appointment caught me. And changed my mind. He looked very lively in that photograph. With his two arms spread, he was almost flying in jubilation. His laughter was genuine. I saw no guile. He was quick to distance himself from some of the policies under Tafa. He was quick to change the slogan of the police. He promised a more efficient, friendlier police than was the case. But more importantly, he more than hinted that Tafa ran a one man show; that he never consulted with his immediate surbordinates.
Those who felt Ehindero seemed obsene in “denying” his boss so soon got it wrong. He needed to make that point. Tafa had been arrested by the EFCC and had shocked us by the obscene amount of money he had embezzled and/or appropriated to himself. No sane person would have been proud to claim him as a beloved one.
Like a new broom, Ehindero began to make an impact on the police. He tried to change their image. He criticised them publicly. He admitted, on a couple of occasions that the Police Force he inherited was not only demoralised but shamelessly corrupt. On one of such occasions when he admitted how bad the police image is, the public hailed him. Some people wouldn't do that.
But here was this man, admitting his people were some of the worst. He knows about the mandatory N20 per bus. He knows about “Happy weekend.” He knows about “Oga, na your boys dey here o.” He knows about “Madam, see where we dey for under rain. Wetin you bring for your boys now?”
So, Ehindero banned road blocks. But na lie. In fact, they became more brazen. Once, along the Onitsha-Owerri road, one threatened to shoot us if we moved an inch because I wasn’t forthcoming in giving him N20. In Onitsha the other day, one policeman, with a sharp machete, asked me to “bring the money quick, quick and go your way.” I almost felt I was before an armed robber. There was one day I threatened to call the Police Commissioner in Imo State when some of them, on an illegal road block, asked my driver to “park” for no just cause. When he did, they began to ask me who owned “the big car” I was using. When I said it was mine, they asked: “Wetin you dey do?” I told them. Then, one of them said, “Na him we go chop?", and proceeded to call me a prostitute! For effect he added, “no be man buy am for you?” Then I decided I was going to show him what prostitutes do. By this time, he had realised he had made a terrible mistake and began to plead. It took the intervention of the state governor who sent his security people to rescue me for me to let go.
I like the police. I sympathise with what they go through while providing security for us. I appreciate the risk they take. I appreciate their helplessness in the face of superior fire power from armed robbers. I try to help out, especially along the road, as much as I can. But I hate it when some of them brazenly, or forcefully, ask for money. It reminds me of armed robbers. But I digress.
So the police paid no attention to Ehindero’s orders. Crime is on the increase. Lives have never been more insecure than now. Armed robbers are more brazen than ever. Corruption in the police force has worsened. I was sympathising with the situation and Ehindero until he made an about-face.
This came on the heels of a statement by the ICPC that the most corrupt organisations in Nigeria are the Police Force and the PHCN. When the IGP read the story, he hit the roof. He invited the ICPC officials who released the statement, a product of an opinion poll. He had two journalists who reported the story arrested. And I wondered what point he wanted to make. The IGP must know that in spite of his efforts, the ICPC statement is correct. A trip, by road, around Nigeria, will convince him and make him weep. A visit to any police station or command will make him sick.
But I’m happy that in spite of the IGP’s face-saving reaction, he has again suddenly seen the light. Addressing Senior Police Officers a couple of weeks ago in Abuja, he admitted the worst. He indicted police commissioners over crime. He called them lazy. He accused them of sabotaging efforts to curb the crime rate in the country which had become truly very alarming. He said all the police bosses do is go to sleep early in the night. Ehindero: “I said no road blocks, but if you go to our highways today, everywhere is full of road blocks... Last night I called the DIG “A” around midnight that we needed to see. Some of you must have taken your second round of sleep.”
Ehindero is right. The situation has become so shameful that armed robbers have no respect, even for police barracks. Proof: 24 hours after he spoke, a-seven man armed robbery gang invaded the Ikorodu, Lagos, police barracks by 2 a.m and cleaned them out – properties, cash and mobile phones. And you ask: where were the policemen? They were apparently asleep. As Ehindero was speaking in Abuja, seven of them who were escorting a billion van ran away when they were attacked by armed robbers, in Imo State. And then, only last Thursday, leading PDP gubernatorial aspirant in Lagos State, Funso Williams, was murdered in his bedroom, a mere 30 metres from a police station.
The NPF needs a major surgical operation which, however, needs a lot of funding. What can Ehindero, in his frustration, do? Not much! |
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