Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG Zanna Mohammed Ibrahim (retd), has warned against what he described as “hasty implementation of the directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive for the withdrawal of police officers from VIPs.
DIG Ibrahim (retd), pointedly said unless Nigeria confronts the deep structural problems that have long weakened the country’s policing system, the presidential directive will fail like similar other directives that were issued in the past.
Ibrahim noted that attempts to enforce past directives collapsed owing to political interference, pressure from businessmen, influence from power brokers, and exploration of legal grey areas.
The former police top officer noted that the problem goes far beyond presidential orders, saying that successive Inspectors-General of Police issued same instruction over the years, but lacked the structural support to enforce it.
In the words of DIG Ibrahim; “VIP protection has become an economy inside the police. Nearly one-quarter of Nigeria’s police workforce between 80,000 and 90,000 officers are currently deployed as personal security to politicians, businessmen, entertainers, expatriates, religious figures, malls, banks and private individuals seeking status”.
Ibrahim noted that the VIP escort system has become a “cash cow” that generates official and unofficial revenue streams for officers and commanders, thereby making the structure extremely resistant to reform.
He noted that the diversion of personnel to VIP duties has severely weakened policing nationwide, stressing that police stations are under staffed thereby exposing rural and peri-urban communities as response times have become slow and rendered intelligence gathering weak.
Ibrahim said that crime prevention has become reactive instead of proactive, stressing that many influential Nigerians view police escorts as a “right of office” or a “status symbol”. He said that unless there are structural reforms, withdrawing the VIPs escorts would be difficult.
