Mike Okiro: Jonathan Got It Right
8pm on a hot evening, I was with a friend in one of the numerous recreation gardens in Abuja, sharing a drink. Suddenly, my phone rang. It was my childhood friend, John, a police officer who has been recently promoted to a deputy commissioner of police. He informed me that he was waiting in my house. I asked him his mission in Abuja and he confirmed he was on a posting. My heart skipped. His waiting for me in my house meant only one thing; he had no accommodation and has decided to stay with me. Usually policemen on posting are neither provided with accommodation nor money to stay in hotels. Of course if he decides to stay with me, I can’t say no to him considering of our closeness, but how can I stay with him, my wife and two children in a two-room apartment?
My worry soon disappeared later, when he asked me to take him to the Police Senior Officers Quarters. When we got there, accommodation had already being reserved for him. Wow! My friend and his colleagues in the quarters were all full of praises for Mike Okiro, the former Inspector General of Police. According to them, Okiro had built the place when he was the Inspector General of Police as a transit camp for Senior Officers on posting to Abuja.
The Officers took time to praise Okiro for his achievements as the Inspector General of Police for two and half years. They went on and on. I was politely surprised and intrigued. It is seldom you find people praising their boss especially when he is longer in office.
Of course, this encounter was in 2012, long before Mr. President nominated Mike Okiro as Chairman of the Police Service Commission. This nomination has been largely praised by the rank and file of the police, security experts and the generality of Nigerians. However like every action of the President a particular section of both the press and a section of the country have heavily descended on Mr. President for nominating Mike Okiro. It is this same set of people, the “holier- than- thou” who see nothing good in all Mr. President’s actions. They arrogate to themselves, the “I know it all attitude.” They see nothing good coming from any other section of Nigeria except it comes from them. Recently they shot themselves in the foot when they condemned Mr. President for declaring a state of Emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, an action which has earned the commendation of all well meaning Nigeria including the Governors of the affected states. A case of crying more than the bereaved. As Wole Soyinka will say, “the owl cried in the night and the child died in the morning, who does not know who killed the child”. I was only surprised that a person in the caliber of the well-respected Olatunji Dare’s would descend to become a hatchet man as highlighted by his diatribe on Okiro. I still wonder if indeed the article was not a clear case of the master’s voice. Worse still is my fear that this article may be a grand design to rubbish Okiro’s sterling records because of his ethnic origin.
On reading the article, I was pained at the level our journalism has degenerated. In other climes such celebrated journalists as Dare would rise to Okiro’s defense considering his achievements in the Nigerian Police. like Orthodox churches such as the Catholic and Anglican Churches who have since joined the pursuit for materialism by embracing the more lucrative prosperity, miracle and prophetic approach to Christianity, Dare does not seem to have an option other than to join the madenning crowd.
The astonishment and bewilderment arising from the article “our unfortunate Police Officers” led me to wonder if it is possible that Olatunji Dare at his level is incapable of accessing the service record of Okiro or is a clear case of mischief. To answer this question I picked up my laptop and googled, “Mike Okiro.” I was hit with an avalanche of information and records of Okiro’s achievement when he was the Inspector General of Police. I found out that Mike Okiro was the first Inspector General of Police to review the police order which was instituted by the Colonial Government in 1958. Okiro revived the Police Games, which was moribund for eight long years, he started the Police Marathon which took place twice in his tenure and has since been abandoned. It was Mike Okiro who reactivated the Police Community Relations, decentralized the police Xsquard to monitor and prosecute erring police officers.
The Divisional Police Officers (DPO’s) for the first time in the history of Nigeria Police received directly 40% of subventions to state commands to enable them run their divisions. It is of public knowledge that it was Okiro who recommended the Amnesty Programme for Niger Delta militants and went further to actually go to the creeks to negotiate and disarm them. These a facts people like Dare would rather have swept under the carpet in other to put a lie to deceive the populace.
If our memory serves us well, we will quickly remember, that Okiro was an ally with the late President, Musa Yar’adua in the fight against corruption. The same memory will not be quick in forgetting the marvelous work done by Okiro to reed Lagos of criminals when he was the commissioner of police there. It is still this same Okiro who on his appointment in 2007 re-instated policemen who were forced into early retirement. For this, many Police Officers are grateful to him and strongly believe that their welfare will be better served with Okiro as the Chairman of the Police Service Commission.
The award of “distinguished officers of the millennium“, on Okiro last year by the Institute of Criminology and Penology is still fresh in our minds. I recall reading the following encomium by no less a person as Okiro’s predecessor in lagos, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, “Okiro is very pragmatic, unassuming, visionary and patriotic; his wealth of experience could help the country in crime investigation and management. He was an officer that seldom missed target. He conducted investigation with such forensic knowledge that suspects and attorneys bow to; he is a man of high integrity, highly principled in law enforcement, intelligent in the common sense of law, “(Nigerian Compass Newspaper, 24 April, 2012). At the same event, Mr. Vincent Chilaka, a former Police Public Relations Officer, described Okiro thus: “he is friendly and a professional to the core, he had genuine Interest in every police officer, he values the opinion of others and always alert to provide services which will be beneficial to all”
No doubt Dare is a seasoned journalist, but how on earth did he forget that Okiro stood up to the then almighty Ribadu and insisted that Ribadu most undergo the mandatory course required for all officers before enjoying their promotions.
Obviously if Dare was privileged with enough information about Okiro, he may not have harkened to the voice of those who think that the best way to get Jonathan out of office is to criticize every action of his, even when the interest of the country is best served. This is because in doing so one runs fowl of those whose patriotic zeal go beyond partisan politics. Statesmen must rise beyond ethnic and narrow political sentiments to applaud and support government when it gets it right, as it is, in this case.
Best practices in journalism encourage us to be careful in matters concerning national security.
Ray Emeana
Hon.rayemeana@yahoo.com
Wuse 2, Abuja
