The presidency has said that religious and ethnic considerations would not come to play in the appointment of the next Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu stated this Monday as the tenure of incumbent IGP, Mohammed Adamu elapsed today.
Some power brokers are reportedly lobbying President Muhammadu Buhari to extend Adamu’s stay till November 9 when he will be 60 years old.
By service records, the IGP, who enlisted on February 1, 1986, will attain the mandatory 35 years service scheduled for retirement on Monday.
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While there has been no communication from the presidency on tenure elongation for Adamu, there have been speculations on his successor’s tribe.
Addressing the speculations during a Monday appearance on Channels Television‘s programme Sunrise Daily, said it was impossible for tribe to be a consideration in the appointment of the IGP.
According to him, security agencies have their own ways of producing their leaders.
“If you are going to appoint the service chiefs from every ethnic group in this country, you are going to have more than 250 Inspectors-General of Police, 250 Chiefs of Army Staff, 250 Chiefs of Naval Staff.
“It’s not going to work like that. And they have their own systems of producing leadership.
“If we say we are going to use ethnicity or region as the basis, then we have lost it. This is about law and order, it is not about ethnic identity. This country finished with tribalism in the 1960s, why are we back to it now?
“But if you have two, three positions – look at what happened with the service chiefs just appointed: two from the South, two from the North. If you are talking about religion, two Muslims, two Christians. So what do you want again?” Shehu stated.
On the criteria the president will consider before appointing an IGP, Shehu said, “The President will rather have an Inspector-General of Police who will make you and me safer, protect lives and property than one who is more pronounced by his tribal marks.”
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