By Tunde Akingbondere
The media space is currently enmeshed in the loud argument over the tenure of the Inspector-General of Police(IGP), Kayode Egbetokun as well as the propriety of the amendment made to the Nigeria Police Act in the face of clearly stipulated legislative procedures guiding the entirety of our age long laws.
This intellectual debate became quite popular with the courageous media salvo on the IGP by the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Omoyele Sowore.
Sowore has over the years commissioned himself as a trenchant voice of the people, particularly in the light of his vigorous but quite caustic social media remarks critical of corruption, police brutality and the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration.
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It is possible that Sowore has dismissed the belief that anything good can come from the Tinubu led government, particularly in the light of his consistent civil disobedience against this administration.
Meanwhile, apologists of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), despite being scared of Sowore’s politicized activism, must have tried unsuccessfully to downplay his audacity and radical anti-establishment moves in the estimation of Nigerians. One of the sensible thoughts that won the minds of the Nigerian people about Sowore is his recent opposition to the lGP’s continued stay in office.
Sowore opened the can of worms by declaring several times on the social media how illegal the Inspector-General of Police is in the light of the original pronouncement of the Nigerian Police Act with respect to the mandatory retirement of the officer of the Nigerian Police at the age of 60 and on attaining 35 years of service.
As a reply to his designation of the number one police officer as “Illegal IGP,” he was at first invited formally, interrogated on his various alleged anti-police activities before being slammed with bail conditions his lawyers deemed unrealistic within a reasonable time.
Even Sowore’s insistence that he preferred being detained by the police to submitting his international passport went viral on the social media space.
He was later arraigned in court some days after his arrest on a 16-count charge under the Cybercrimes (Prohibition and Prevention, etc.) Act before Justice Musa Liman of the Federal High in Abuja. The police accused Sowore of intentionally and knowingly sending messages through his verified X account, where he referred to the IGP as ‘illegal IGP Kayode Egbetokun’, a publication the police considered to be false and aimed at causing a breakdown of law and order.
While Sowore is not a lawyer, he has addressed the issue from the prism of a conscious citizen who despite not being interested in the recent amendment to the constitution, is more concerned with what the law stipulates before the alleged hasty amendment.
Critics of his line of thought, including the Attorney-General of the Federation, reminded him of the powers of the National Assembly to amend laws. The AG stated how the sections 7 (3) and 7(6) of the Nigerian Police Act prescribing 60 years as the mandatory age of retirement has recently been impeached by an amendment process initiated by the National Assembly.
By virtue of this amendment, Kayode Egbetokun, who was appointed in June 19, 2023, will no longer retire on September 4,2024 but conclude his four years tenure as the Inspector-General of the Nigerian Police irrespective of his age as at the time of the conclusion of his tenure.
The purport of Section 7 (3) of the Police Act is that the IGP shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Police Council from among serving members of the Police Force. This provision is a restatement of section 215 (1) of the Nigerian constitution. Under section 7 (6) of this Act, the IGP is given a 4-year tenure. In the course of the deliberation of the police bill in the 9th Assembly, the consensus was around appointing a person to the office of the IGP for a 4-year term subject to his not exceeding 35 years in the force or attaining 60 years of age whichever is earlier. This is also the position of section 18 (8) of the Act. Upon Egbetokun’s appointment on June 19, 2023, his tenure was ordinarily billed to end on the 4th of September, 2024, upon his attaining age 60. Tinubu, being aware of the provision of the clause in section 18(8), quickly initiated a bill that was sent to the National Assembly, seeking the amendment of section 18 (8) by smuggling in a fresh provision which states that “Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (8) of this section, any person appointed to the office of the Inspector-General shall remain in office until the end of the term stipulated in the letter of appointment in line with the provisions of section 7 (6) of this Act.
Meanwhile, it is heard in good authority that President Tinubu who has hidden interest in the office of the Inspector-General of Police must have disrupted the existing protocol by breaking into the procedures, cadres of the Nigerian Police, particularly by exerting his influence on the legislature which reportedly exhausted the stipulated processes of transforming a bill into a law within 20 minutes. The implication of this is that the bill was considered, debated, vetted, and possibly sent to appropriate committee (s) for a proper refocusing or amendment within 20 minutes or in less than 24 hours. In the real sense of it, can this law be said to have been appropriately passed as law in the light of its glaring disconnect with the people.
Many Nigerians were not aware of this amendment until Sowore was hounded over his criticism of the IGP. In a saner clime, the protest of Nigerians against this purported law would have abolished it, just like the protest of the Nigerian undergraduates led to the abolishment of Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact in 1961. The Anglo-Defence Pact had earlier passed into law as Sessional Paper No. 4 of 1960, after a total of 166 Members of Parliament (MPs) voted in support while negligible 38 voted against it. A cumulative of these numbers amounted to 204 out of a total of 312 MPs who drew various allowances from the government’s coffers. The protest by Nigerian undergraduates stalled the proposed pact.
Nigeria is now in a sorry state and in an era where the president can have his way with the compromised legislature at any time. The recent development has validated claims by many people who have canvassed a moderate pay and unicameral legislature as against what we currently have as a bicameral legislature with huge allowances. These calls are in the light of the lawmakers’ little relevance in the welfare of the average Nigerians.
If President Tinubu is desperate about retaining his former ADC as his Inspector-General of Police, he has a willing legislature that is readily available to swallow his decrees without putting any thought into them. Is the mind of the legislature expected to be a blank slate upon which anything can be written.?
Interestingly, the Police Service Commission (PSC) recently sacked some officers for different offences, including being overdue for retirement, but the number one policeman in the country who should ordinarily be resting at home by now is riding on the back of the president’s immunity with brazen impunity.
The truth is: It is honourable for IGP Egbetokun to resign now.
Tunde Akingbondere, a graduate of law and author, writes from Ondo State
