Following the screening and apparent confirmation of new Service Chiefs by the National Assembly, all eyes are on Nigeria’s paramilitary agencies where there is a disturbing distribution of prime positions.
The four Service Chiefs represent an equal balance of the national equation as the two divides of the country, North and South, are represented in what appears to be a true reflection of the Federal Character principle.
Chief of General Staff, Lucky Irabor hails from the South-South Geo political zone. The Chief of Air Staff, Isiaka Amao is from the South-West. Army Chief Ibrahim Attahiru as well as his Navy counterpart, Awwal Gambo emerged from the North -West The import is that there are two from the North and the same number from the South.
This balance does not exist in the Paramilitary agencies as all of them are headed by officers from the Northern part of the country. And there seems to be no end to the imbalance as the Senate has been asked to confirm the appointment of the Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Haliru Nababa from Sokoto State in the North -West.
Should the Senate go ahead to confirm Nababa, the North-West Geo political zone will have three of the prime spots in the paramilitary organisations. Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Muhammed Danbaba, is an indigene of Jigawa State. Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abdulrasheed Bawa hails from Kebbi State.
The North – Central zone is leading with four plum positions. Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and Commandant General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Ahmed Abubakar Audi, are from Nasarawa State.
Controller General of the Federal Fire Service, Liman Alhaji Ibrahim represents Niger State and from Kwara State comes Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Boboye Olayemi Oyeyemi. It is like what was not given to the North -Central in the military was handed over in the paramilitary.
The North- East is also fully recognized. Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali is a Bauchi man. Chairman of the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Buba Marwa hails from Adamawa State.
The glaring one – way direction of these appointments should worry the Senate as there is no officer from the South-East Geo political zone who has been considered worthy of elevation to manage even one of the paramilitary agencies. This is neither democratic nor commendable.
The Senate has statutory responsibility to confirm or reject a Controller General of the NCoS in line with the new Act establishing the Agency in 2019. Perhaps, this is the time to strike a balance. It sounds like injustice to scheme the South and the South-East out.
It will definitely sound politically correct and fair to find a place for the South-East which has no representation in the top bracket of the military and now in the paramilitary. The Senate is not a rubber stamp arm of government. This is time to prove it.
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From all indications, Bawa, the new boss of the EFCC may be confirmed even if there are underlying protests. This is because his appointment is in line with one of the recommendations of the Justice Ayo Salami Panel which investigated the EFCC and its immediate past chairman, Ibrahim Magu.
The Panel recommended that police officers should not be seconded to head the EFCC after Magu’s departure. Bawa was never in the Nigerian Police Force as he enlisted as one of the pioneer cadets of the EFCC in 2005. By the time of his new appointment, Bawa was a Deputy Chief Detective Superintendent (DCDS).
That rank which he attained in 2016 is also causing ripples because as a level 13 officer, he falls short of the EFCC Act which stipulates that only an officer on salary grade level 15 or above can be appointed chairman. However, in a deft move, the 40-year- old has been promoted to a commensurate rank.
The import is that with the North-West having two Service Chiefs and three Heads of paramilitary Agencies, the South-East has been denied the opportunity of getting a deserved place in the security architecture of the country.
It is obvious that something must be done to correct this frightening imbalance. Confirming Haliru Nababa, from the North-West, as Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS)will further hurt feelings in the South in general and South-East in particular.
Maybe, it is time for Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari to apply some diplomatic engineering to stem some of these skewed appointments that are bound to continue stoking tension thereby keeping the polity in ultra red precarious mode.
