Buhari’s new IGP

When Yemi Osinbajo served as acting President in August, he appointed a southerner, Mathew Seiyeifa, as the acting Director-General of the Department of State Services to replace the sacked Lawal Daura. But when Buhari returned to Nigeria after a hospital stay in London, he reversed Osinbajo’s appointment. He removed the Niger Delta man, Mathew Seiyeifa, and appointed another northerner, Yusuf Bichi, to head the DSS as a substantive DG. Instead of being worried, many northerners were defending the President. They argued that Seiyeifa’s retirement was already due and, therefore, there was no point appointing him as the substantive DG. But they saw nothing wrong with bringing Daura and Bichi out of retirement to give them such top appointments. The vacancies at the DSS and the Nigeria Police Force provided President Buhari the opportunity to correct his mistakes over the lopsided security appointments. The appointment of another northerner as the IGP doesn’t help Buhari’s public perception. He once again portrays himself as being stubbornly insensitive to our ethnic diversity. Integrity must be synonymous with justness and fair treatment of others. Democracy may be a game of numbers, but equity is the soul of democracy. In case you missed the point, take a look at the following lopsided security appointments: Chief of Army Staff, northerner; 2. National Security Adviser, northerner Minister of Defence, northerner; 4. Chief of Air Staff, northerner IGP, northerner; 6. DSS DG, northerner; 7. Comptroller General, Customs, northerner; Director General NIA, northerner; 9.Comptroller-General of Immigration, northerner 10.Comptroller General, Civil Defence, northerner; and 11. Minister of Internal Affairs, northerner I will never support injustice because it endangers me. It could make me a future victim at the hands of a southern President. There is a danger in setting a precedent. One of the ingredients of integrity is humility and the ability to accept and correct one’s mistakes. Perceived infallibility is not and has never been listed among the virtues of integrity. People can forgive you for making a mistake, but consciously repeating mistakes robs you of public sympathy.]]>