Still On The Media

Still On The Media, National Security: The Inspector General Of Police, Et.al.

Emeka Oraetoka

Media, Threat To Democracy-Senator Smart Adeyemi, Former President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists [NUJ], National Mirror, Friday, October 10, 2008.

It must be said that one of the most dangerous threats to our democracy today is the pattern of ownership of information dissemination outfits in Nigeria . A checklist of print media in Nigeria revealed that the publishers of these outfits are ex-executive office holders, incumbents, and billionaire businessmen; with their burning political ambitions. These print outfits now serve as media to market their ambitions and pull down real or perceived obstacles to their goals, in the name of serving as the voice of the voiceless, watch dogs and so on. Although it must be understood that there is nothing wrong with our print outfits genuinely serving as voice of the voiceless and so on, a situation whereby only the political publishers’ interest and voices are heard, in most Nigeria print outfits is a threat to national security and cohesion.

Senator Smart Adeyemi, former President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists [NUJ] who can be regarded as an authority in journalism and media ownership, according to National Mirror of Friday October 10, 2008, said that the greatest threat to our Nation is the media. According to him, those who are establishing media houses today are members of the ruling class who do not have the interest of the people at heart. Further, Senator Adeyemi said “the interest” of most media owners “is the money, the power, the economic benefit of setting up a media house and the political influence. And because they don’t care about the welfare of Nigerian journalists, who live in poverty, they [the journalists] live in corruption. It is the greatest threat to the stability of this country”---.Adeyemi’s position on media ownership in Nigeria has clearly shown that we are in for a hard time as far as objective information dissemination for national security is concerned in Nigeria today.

In my last piece, attempt was made in showing how subversive reports by mostly those print outfits owned by these desperate “politician publishers”, jostling for their political interest in the name of loyalty to the public, were planted in the newspapers and some foreign based internet information dissemination outfits. With the alarm raised by the Peoples Democratic Party (P.D.P), some week’s back, that some elements are planning to destabilize the country; the argument of subversion of the State by some print establishments can no longer exist only in this writer’s imagination. Though the allegation by P D P has been challenged by people and equally dismissed by them as ranting, the vital question remains, is the print media serving the interest of Nigeria or that of their publishers?

The sustained report in some media outfits of the planned retirement of the Inspector General of Police, Sir Mike Mbama Okiro, and the issue of who replaces him, suggests not only sustained blackmail of the President and Commander- in- Chief of the Armed Forces, Umar Musa Yar’Adua into appointing the officer being packaged by them, but a clear attempt at usurping the function of Mr. President as the Chief Security Officer of Nigeria. It is a settled fact that the fundamental function of the President is maintenance of security and peace in the country; therefore, the appointment of Mike Okiro as the Inspector General of Police is first and foremost, based on Mr. President’s belief as the Chief Security Officer of Nigeria, as well as the Commander- In -Chief of the Armed Forces, that Okiro best fits into his vision of effective internal security of Nigeria, simpliciter. The suggestion in The Guardian of Sunday, March 22, 2009, page 6, where a certain agitated Igbo man dismissed the confirmation of Okiro as Inspector General of Police, as a the “triumph of 2007 politics of management of the Niger Delta people over due process in the police service”, is not only suggestive of blackmail but a sure attempt at questioning the President’s integrity, and a clear encroachment into his security function. This is the terrible extent the marketing of DIG Onovo as the next IGP by his promoters has gone.

In-fact the hypocrisy of the cover story of The Guardian in question above titled: Anxiety in South/East Over DIG Onovo’s Fate could be cleverly masked by discerning minds, by the realization that Mike Mbama Okiro, is an Igbo man from Rivers State, just as Onovo is equally an Igbo from Enugu State. Even the assertion that South/South geographical zone has produced 3 Inspectors General of Police since the inception of Nigeria, is misleading for the mere fact that when Etim Iyang and Louis Edet were IGP, there was nothing like South/South as a geo-political zone; what we had then was South/East region. The so called agitated Igbo over the appointment of Okiro ahead of Onovo, according to The Guardian report is hereby reminded that the current Chairman or President General of Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo is from the same South /South zone. Possibly, he [the agitated Igbo] could shed more light on why Ralph Uwechue, instead of a man from South/East was made the President of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo. Although, the mind-set of the people of South/East to Policing as a job could be responsible for core Igbo man’s absence in the role call of IGP’s before Mike Okiro. For instance, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in his book, MY ODYSSEY, related how his mother had to travel all the way to Ghana from Onitsha , to intimate him of the displeasure of the entire family over his decision to join the Police.

For one month running the Guardian newspaper has been defending “Igbo cause” as could be seen from its report on DIG Onovo and the “injustices” meted out to him and so on. This laudable “effort” by The Guardian should have been extended to Igbos in Delta, Rivers and so on. After all, the Igbo are the same everywhere. To single out Onovo as Igbo man, Okiro, as probably an Ibibio or Urhobo man, is to say the least, mischievous and subversive, or so it appears to me. Taking the stampeding and blackmailing of President Yar-Adua, further, one Felix Oguejiofor Abugu, wrote in the same Guardian of Saturday, March 28, 2009, in continuation of Onovo must be IGP, with this caption; Onovo: Not Favour But The Right Thing Be done. Writing as if he is the supreme Chief Security Officer of Nigeria, he said; ---I take my reaction to the alleged moves by the Federal Government to deny DIG Ogbonna Onovo the coveted position of Inspector General of Police [IGP] when current IGP Sir Mike Okiro retires, from the point of view of our incorrigibility---the assumption of this writer is probably that Nigeria has no constitution that gives the President the power to appoint anybody he wishes as the Inspector General of Police, from the ranks of eligible police officers. This is what Senator Smart Adeyemi probably talked about.

It has been suggested that the main reason behind the encroachment of the media into issues that are exclusively for security purpose, is the categorization of certain establishments as belonging to civil service order. A situation where the Police Force, Prisons Service, Custom Service and Immigration Service are categorized as pure civil service establishments is not healthy for national security; as who becomes head according to civil service rule will continue to attract mischievous media attention; this may in turn, affect internal cohesion of these mentioned establishments negatively. It may also affect the integrity of the President from the media that is firmly in the hands of ambitious politician publishers. When the head of a security outfit should retire must not be a function of media speculation. The National Intelligence Agency and State Security Services are security out fits with heads, yet they have clear history of internal cohesion and smooth operation because leadership succession is not on the basis of civil service rules.

Pronouncement: Federal Government must as a matter of national interest and securities re-categorize the positions of Inspector General of Police [IGP] Comptroller General Of prisons [CGP] Comptroller General of Immigration [CGP] and insulate them from civil service rule or law. The amended rule may read thus: Any body who attains 60 years of age or 35 years in service which ever comes first must retire, except the heads of these establishments. There is no doubt that if the retirement age of these set of paramilitary outfits heads is solely determined by the president because of their strategic nature, the country will be better for it, security wise. What baffles me is that the Inspector General of Police, who the constitution recognizes as a member of National Security Council is still regarded as a core civil servant, whose retirement must follow that order. Yet, police is not part of Nigerian Labour Congress [NLC], they are not entitled to leave, just like the core civil servants.