Although some philosophers had repeatedly argued that if God wants to destroy a nation, he sends wicked men and women to preside over its affairs, I take exception to this philosophical paradigm. Instead my position is that, if God wishes to destroy a nation, he allows the people, out of their free will, to earnestly devote their energies in promoting trivialities in place of concrete national debates, thereby systematically up-lifting falsehood to the level of national culture.
This is true of Nigeria’s contemporary situations. Today the social condescension has reached a level in our country where issues capable of engendering national unity, national socio-political and economic development are completely relegated to the background and left in the graveyards of mockery and abandonment.
Instead, we have unfortunately foisted on our body politic, as a mark of self inflicted socio-political injuries, a culture of lies and a predisposition towards promoting trivialities to high heavens. Right now, no issue has attracted negative comments in the last couple of days, most of which are ridiculously presented in the social media, like the doctored video of the Inspector General of Police (IGP)’s speech in Kano recently. The approach of most of these commentators is to portray the IGP as a man who is not capable of delivering public speech. My position has nothing to do with whether the video is doctored or not.
For even before it was cleared that the said video clip was specifically doctored to blackmail the person and the office of the IGP, I had already been alarmed with the trivialities with which the issue was handled, especially in the social media. The most bizarre aspect of the narratives of the so called IGP’s inability to eloquently deliver a speech in Kano has largely to do with failure of the commentators to point a similar ugly experience in the annals of the entire career of the gentleman officer. Thus, the failure of these anti IGP elements to support their writings with historical references clearly demonstrated their evil intentions.
For if it is true that the IGP is such a daft whose ability to deliver public speech is doubted, could it have taken this long to manifest? This alone would have served as moderating factor to those who 24/7 are looking for opportunities to smear the name of IGP in order to hang him. Otherwise how would the critics justify their positions taking into consideration that here is a man who had in the past attained various positions on merits, positions that entailed regular speech deliveries within and outside the shore of this country. No narrative about the IGP, in fact about the entire history of the Nigeria Police, has been so annoying and so misplaced and veers off the region of reality than these shameful and ridiculous reactions to IGP’s speech Kano. If, for instance, shortcoming in presentation of a single speech, on the ground that it happened, can be used to erode the entire presentational credibility of a man who has lived his life largely as speech giver, then we must agree that condescension and levels of irrationality have attained alarming proportions in some quarters of our country. We must learn to break up the downward pull of negative forces in us. In this way, we will see things more from objective perspectives than from the biased corners of our minds.
Even if it was a mistake made by the IGP in the singular speech delivery, which is inevitable in human beings, when has it become part of our culture to celebrate other peoples’ mistake? I do not frown at criticisms. In fact, I welcome them especially if they are objective. After all, in a democratic setting, one cannot do without them.
In fact, they serve as greases with which democratic mechanisms are oiled. However, criticisms are counterproductive when they are mischievously relied upon as chief instrument for blackmail as it is in the case here. So, my position is that if we must criticise, concrete issues capable of moving the system forward must be contemplated. On this note, those amplifying the IGP’s speech in Kano in order to ridicule the gentleman officer and his office are not only the mischief makers in our midst but have also shown themselves as un-repentant promoters of uncultured speeches. One consolation here lies in the fact that historically, those in the forefront of championing national reformation are known to be targets of the beneficiaries of the old order.
So, it is not a surprise that IGP Ibrahim Idris, being one of the most committed in the anti-corruption war, is being unduly crucified by the agents of the old order. Thus, all the verbal, electronic and even diabolical missiles being thrown at him by enemies of progress are strategies employed to destroy him and his credibility for playing a pivotal role in engendering a new social order in our father’s land. His emergence as the IGP has dealt a devastating blow on the activities criminal gangs in our country.
Today, the most notorious members of kidnapping and armed robbery gangs who in the past had made life unbearable for Nigerians are either being prosecuted in various courts or are on the run. Today, the Nigeria Police is being gradually repositioned to take it rightful place in the socio-political and security scheme of things. Disturbingly however, all these monumental achievements which Ibrahim Idris professionally brought to bear in the hitherto moribund Police system are not seen as capable of attracting national discourse. Instead, an isolated issue of speech presentation has become a major national issue.
What an insult! There is a school of thought which leverages in the fact that the overzealous manner with which IGP carries out his assignments could have attracted a large scale of hatred towards him. Yet, another is of the view that these dangerous blackmailing tendencies charactering the opposition were the same thing those in power today did to Jonathan’s administration. According to this school, nothing should be a source of surprise to any because, what goes round comes round. I beg to take an exception to these arguments because what one person may see as overzealousness may be perceived by another as total commitment to duty. In the context of Mr. Ibrahim Idris, I am full of conviction that his is nothing but commitment to the service of fathers land. Granted, harsh foundation was laid for irrational opposition in the previous political discussion.
But if I am permitted the latitude of viewing the current issue from proper perspective, I would say the irrational, harsh opposition, needless blackmails and trivialization of national issues are taken too far. One issue which is salient here is that the attack on the IGP is an indirect attack on the presidency. This is so because, whatever the police boss has done that earned him this unjustifiable cruxification is undeniably anchored on the total commitment he demonstrates in carrying out the implementation of the government’s security policies. Against this backdrop, what the IGP deserves is commendation from the president. This is a man who has surrendered everything for the attainment of security objectives of the administration, at his personal detriment.
In a political administration, when a significant number of appointees sit in the fence for the fear of public criticisms and condemnation, it is only logical that the goose that lays the golden eggs should be well kept to enable it live longer to lay more. Mr. Kolade writes from Kano
