In what is widely seen as a dent on the political credentials and chances of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and and the gubernatorial candidate of the party Senator Bala Mohammed ahead of the forthcoming elections, President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed a former PDP national chairman and governor of Bauchi state, Adamu Mu’azu, and other chieftains of the party in Bauchi into the APC.
Other defectors to the APC are another former governor of Bauchi, Isa Yuguda; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Yayale Ahmed; a former PDP deputy national chairman North, Senator Babayo Garba Gamawa; a former deputy governor, Abdulmalik Mahmood; Kaulaha Aliyu, Dr Musa Babayo, Ambassador Adamu Jumba and Senator Abubakar Maikafi, the defeated NNPP guber aspirant.
The President welcomed the hitherto PDP bigwigs at a time that can be described as apt and at an event many see as elegant, big and intimidating, especially to the opposition PDP in the state. The event took place in Bauchi, considered as the political home of the President, during APC presidential campaign.
In fact, nothing underscores the fact that the President is at home politically in Bauchi more than the sight of some supporters performing sujud (prostration) when the President’s official vehicles drove past them.
What’s more, recently, a prominent politician said in our contemporary political history, only the late Sardauna and Tafawa Balewa can contest for popularity in the North with Buhari. This sentiment was shared and widely expressed during the President’s visit to Bauchi and many people were heard saying that the President is more popular than the late Sardauna. Why? Because, according to them, and rightly so, during the Sardauna’s time there was less population in Nigeria and fewer challenges associated with governance.
Speaking in alignment with the peoples’ sentiment, the President said: “I am happy to be here in Bauchi, my strong political hold, to receive PDP and NNPP defectors to our great party APC, especially as we approach the general elections. The defectors’ decision (to join APC) is timely and a watershed in the history of the APC in Bauchi state.”
Though true, the development is more of a watershed in the individual political life of the President who has since his foray into politics in 2002 consider Bauchi, even without its ‘big men’ as his political base.
Thus, this latest defection by the big guns in the state to the APC is, no doubt, a major setback for the PDP and, especially, its presidential candidate who had before now viewed Bauchi, a state in the North-east where he comes from, among those to be won by him.
The development is, of course, troubling particularly to the aspiration of PDP gubernatorial candidate and former FCT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed who, naturally, with the resources at his disposal and array and calibre of the hitherto PDP big guns in the state as well as the crisis between the APC governor and National Assembly members from Bauchi had hoped for somewhat easy journey to power in the state.
Thus, Bauchi appears to be set to hugely disappoint Atiku and Mohammed, unsurprisingly as it always did, even without the likes of Yuguda and Mu’azu.
Unveiling the new police boss
The cloud of uncertainty that shrouded the police and its leadership was happily and successfully cleared this week as President Muhammadu Buhari decorated Mr Mohammed Abubakar Adamu as the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP).
Adamu, until his appointment, was an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) and he took over from Mr. Ibrahim Kpotu Idris, who retired from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) after attaining 60 years of age and 35 years of service.
In the coming days, Adamu’s appointment would be ratified by the National Police Council and the Council of State.
Justifying President’s confidence in him, the new IGP said he would evolve new strategies to address issues of kidnapping and other security challenges.
“I want to thank Mr. President for considering me worthy to be the next Inspector-General of Police,” Adamu said. “We know that there are security challenges that we need to tackle in the country-kidnapping, abduction and other security challenges.”
Interestingly, Adamu underscored the need for continuity in the affairs of the police and expressed his readiness to continue from where his predecessor left. He said that from the strategies put in place by the former IGP, the police under his watch will restrategise and make sure that they tackle challenges squarely. And they must!
Ordinarily, the duties of the police are to maintain law and order in the society, protect lives and property, prevent the commission of crime and where committed, detect those responsible and bring them to justice, using the instrumentality of the law.
But, as most Nigerians argue, the police are failing on these counts such that, as the President said, until military troops are drafted to deal with upheavals in any parts of the country today, people no longer feel secure.
What that development suggests is that there is an urgent need for the new IGP to reform the police for the difficult task at hand. As the situation is, what the polity can boast of presently is a police force that has become easy game for a more sophisticated world of crime.
Today, policemen seem to be more comfortable doing guard duties at the residences of members of the political and business elite rather than in fighting crimes. Yet, the new IGP and his police folks should know that we cannot continue to outsource policing duties to an already overstretched military.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, we state that the best approach to fighting crime remains effective intelligence gathering that not only helps in pre-empting and disrupting criminal activity but is also indispensable for the investigations of crime.
But only a well-equipped and professional police can gather the close-to-the-ground information that is necessary for such exercise and where this crucial intelligence does not flow, as it is the case today in the country, the system is endangered. Of course, for the police to be effective in fighting crime, they must begin to work and make Nigerians trust them.
In the previous attempts to reform the police in the country, various committees have been established by successive governments to facilitate such exercise but they have mostly been dominated by people with security background who view such assignments as their exclusive preserve.
It is, therefore, no surprise that most of their reports have often focused on increasing policing capacity in the areas of personnel strength, materials for work and welfare; as though once these are right, the police will be effective and efficient.
While not belittling the significant difference a properly equipped and trained police can make in addressing the safety and security challenges confronting the country, experience from other jurisdictions has shown that much more is required for the police to win the confidence of the people and be more efficient and effective at performing their functions.
No doubt, if the police must be effective and efficient, the federal government should pay attention to the issues of inadequate articulation of the performance appraisal system, duplication of policing agencies, weak oversight agencies and corruption. More important, the need to improve the bartered image and public perception of the police is very crucial to the success of any reforms and recommendation.
