Speaking with Saturday Vanguard, former Inspector General, Mike Okiro said, what the President has done is right. “Mr President has the prerogative to appoint or remove any IG.” He stated that if the said IG has no capacity to do the job, or he is found incapable of discharging his duties to Nigerians, then he should be fired. Although he declined to comment further, but stated: “What he has done is right.”
In the same vein, the former governor of Kogi state, Alhaji Abubakar Audu wondered why Ringim was tolerated for so long before finally getting the boot few days ago. “As far as I am concerned, I won’t say, it is timely, because I don’t know why they tolerated him for so long.
A lot of things have gone wrong especially on Boko Haram and other mysterious killings.” He explained that Ringim has never gotten anything right since his appointment as the police boss. “I don’t think, there is anything that he has gotten right since he became the IG. So, I think the President was patient and very tolerant. Otherwise, what is happening now would have happened long time ago and the situation would have been arrested. He queried that the force under the leadership of Ringim could not unravel or stop the series of bomb blasts including the bombing of his own office – Police Headquarters, Abuja. In Nigeria, people occupying various positions do not resign voluntarily especially if there are records of failure on the offices they hold.
Lagos based lawyer and human rights cum political activist, Mr Bamidele Aturu opined that it is not just the question of Mr. Ringim alone, adding that the former IG deserves what he got. “I do not want us to make him a scapegoat.
The problem is about a big failure of security and of intelligence in Nigeria and which has been the case for quite sometime now.” He continued: “The incompetence and lack of professionalism that we have witnessed not just on the issue of Boko Haram but also criminal issues all over the country in the last few months is unbelievable.”
He argued that it is not all about Ringim, adding that other security agencies including the NSA should have been sacked to pave the way for a new creativity on the part of the intelligence and security agencies in the country.
“It is not only Ringim that should be removed, the truth is that all of them have failed, so we just have to clean all the system; and begin afresh to fight crime and until we do that, I tell you worse things are on the way,” he said.
Lending his voice to the issue, Yahaya Ndu, a politician took a swipe on the federal government saying government had said the issue of Boko Haram was political and it ought to have employed a political solution to solving the problem. While calling for a for a Sovereign National Conference to determine the new formula for living together amicably, he said: “I have heard people saying they are so happy that Ringim is removed, to me, it makes no sense because what we need to address in this country is institution and not individuals.”
“This government is confused because the issue of removal of IG and appointing a new one has nothing to do with this issue. Government is only looking for a scapegoat to cover for its failure to address the real issues.”
One of the most brilliant lawyers in Nigeria today, Prof Yemi Osibajo corroborated the views of Aturu saying that there was a need for real change on security and according to him, the first step was to appoint a new IG. “I think, it is timely, nevertheless, I would have expected it much earlier.”
He continued: “I think, he ought to have resigned voluntarily because there was a major security lapse, especially after the escape of the suspect, I think the IG ought to have handed over his resignation.”
Former governor of Ondo state Dr. Olusegun Agagu stated that if the President who has the prerogative to hire and fire feels it is time he has to go, so be it. He maintained that the determination of the success or failure of Ringim’s leadership only rests upon his employer, the President but prayed for God’s guidance, courage to enable the new Police boss succeed on the job.
Right now, the heat is on the new IG, Muhammad Abubakar whose appointment has been lauded in some quarters while also receiving some knocks from faceless Nigerians particularly on the facebook.
But former governor Audu said his expectation for the new IG was to get to the root of the matter of Boko Haram, adding that the indecency that has paraded the efforts in tracking members of the group down must be removed. “We are watching him and if he fails to deliver, the President should know what to do before it is too late,” he said.
Prof Osibajo in his own view advised the federal government to restructure the police force saying: “We ought to have realised that policing is a local thing and that is to say that if you are gong to police Kano, there should be a state police in Kano and the same goes for other states under the control of the chief security officer in that state. You cannot have an effective police force in a federation that is large as this which is controlled from Abuja.
For instance, the Boko Haram saga needs policemen who understand the terrain and speak the native language. You cannot put a policeman from Ebonyi or Oyo States in Kano at this time expecting him to be effective on the Boko Haram issue. He doesn’t know the place, he doesn’t speak the language. You can’t have a police force of foreigners in a local environment, it will not work.”
He stated that it will be difficult for the new IG to do much because of the wrong structure of the police force. He surmised that the effect of terrorism requires local intelligent, “everywhere that terrorists operate in, the first battle you must win is the battle of intelligence in order to tidy up the intelligence effectively. Intelligence should be the people who are trusted in the environment, you can’t be trusted when you are foreigner coming to be as spy. So, intelligence is the crucial power for dealing with terrorism.”
Yahaya Ndu, in his own opinion said:“We must come to the round table to move forward. The same way the people who have been milking the nation dry in the name of subsidy and the president doesn’t want to deal with those people; the same way the president said, he knows those who are sponsoring the Boko Haram and instead of identifying them so that the police can arrest them and deal with them, it is shielding them and removing and appointing IGs, to me it doesn’t make sense,” he stated.
The pro-democracy campaigner, Bamidele Aturu surmised that although he was not expecting anything dramatic from the new IG but advised that he should study the errors of his predecessor and build on it.
“I am not expecting any significant changes under his leadership because he was part of the leadership of that regime and we have not been told anything that he did that is out of this world, so we just have to manage with him since the president is not thinking of the complete overhauling of the security system.”
He added: “We are just doing this fire-brigade approach of the president just changing the leadership just because people are saying, change the leadership. What we are saying is that, change leadership and also refocus and have creativity and let us bring some level of creativity to fighting crime,” he stated.
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