The high turnover translates to less than two years per IGP with all the destabilising implications on an organisation in need of a major overhaul to face rising security challenges. Comparatively, while the NPF has had 10 IGPs from 1993 to date, the United States of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has had only three Directors in a 23 year period translating to an average of over seven years per Director. The Nigeria Police is the lead law enforcement agency charged with the constitutional responsibility of public safety and public order. It has grown over the years from a 12,000-man force to about 400,000 in 2015. However, the growth of the Nigeria Police in manpower and budget had not kept pace with the population, GDP and crime rate. The complexity of criminality, rising incidence of white-collar crimes, terrorism and high incidence of cross -national crimes makes the case for a comprehensive overhaul and renewal of the Police a necessity. The revamping of police capacity to prevent crime, keep accurate data, apprehend criminals, monitor ex-convicts, protect critical national assets, build technology-driven interface with sister agencies and state institutions like the States Attorneys – General’s offices and judiciary, is critical to the long-term security of our nation. For this purpose, we make bold to suggest that the law relating to the appointment of an IGP should be reviewed to allow for a longer tenure for the candidate so as to enable him/her oversee the institutionalization of best practices. The Police has suffered consistent haemorrhaging of its highly trained senior management team since General Ibrahim Babangida retired five Deputy Inspectors – General to appoint then AIG Aliyu Attah as IGP in 1990. Subsequent regimes continued this culture of decimating the Police management team at each appointment of an Assistant Inspector General of Police as IGP making it difficult, if not impossible, for consistent implementation of any strategic vision or reorganisation. The appointment of Assistant Inspectors General as IGPs over the Deputy Inspector Generals, though not against the law, has created the unintended consequence of elevating ill-prepared officers to Chief Executive position without, in our view, sufficient preparation. We recommend that the President should initiate a legislative process that will provide for the evaluation of officers who, at least, have five years before retirement to ascertain their competence, track record, alignment with the vision of the country and capacity to deliver new and innovative strategies for improving public safety and public order. Time has come to select an IGP that is ICT compliant, operationally courageous, with strong personal integrity and able to supervise a structural renewal of our crime fighting capabilities. In our opinion, the search process should also identify at least five other officers who can become Deputy Inspectors General and with the requisite capacity to support the IGP. On the emergence of these officers, we recommend that they proceed to a training programme that may lead them to countries that share some of our challenges.]]>