Confusion in Presidency over appointment of new IGP

There appears to be emerging confusion in the Presidency over the appointment of a new Inspector General of Police on the retirement of the IGP, Mohammed Adamu. President Muhammadu Buhari is seeming under pressure in dealing  with the sensitive issue of ethnic pressures in appointing a new IG of Police following public uproar of perceived northernization of federal appointments by the president in the All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

The Presidency, accordingly, on Monday attempts to douse tension, promising that the appointment of the next Inspector-General of Police by President Buhari will not be based on ethnic considerations.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Channels Television on Monday morning monitored from Lagos, stated that it is impracticable for top security appointment to be made based on factors such as ethnicity or regions.

However, Garba Shehu may be reacting to public disquiet over the president’s ethnic pressures in federal appointments which the presidency is struggling to make amend in recent or current appointments, though, without completely eliminating the primordial pressures from the president’s decision making.

Garba Shehu had stated: “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.

“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?”

He argued that the appointment will be based on who can best help to protect lives and property across the country.

According to Garba Shehu, “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.”

IGP Mohammed Adamu is due for retirement on Monday having attained the retirement age; and does not seem to be seeking extension. Invariably, the search for the successor has commenced.