No Igbo indigene has been appointed as IGP, since Independence and Igbo people requested the in-coming government, as a matter of equity, national growth and fairness, to name any person from the Igbo speaking states as Ehindero’s successor.

Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo and Mike Okiro who are in charge of ‘A’ and ‘C’ departments. The Igbo whose sons are occupying the number two and three post in police hierarchy want an IGP post

is it time for equity?

frankly i find the whole equity and fairness thing weird.

In my own opinion what woud be fair and equitable would be that only ethnic minorities should be given federal posts. Then we might have an incentive for the tripod of majorities to break up to their smaller constituencies, and end their ruinous domination of the smaller ethnicities.

The Hopefuls

Ogbonnaya Onovo, DIG

Born 7 February, 1953, in Enugu, Onovo attended Presbyterian School, Abakaliki; Izzi Boys’ High School, Abakaliki; Mary Knoll College, Ogoja; and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He holds a degree in Political Science, specialising in International Relations.

He joined the Nigeria Police as a cadet officer in August 1977. He was promoted DIG in March 2002. Onovo has attended various detective courses, junior command course, senior management course as well as the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS. Among the positions he has held on his way to the top are the chairmanship of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), DIG, D Investigations Department. He is currently the DIG, Administration Department of the Police.

On account of experience, the 54-year old is best placed to succeed Ehindero. Another factor that could work in his favour is that he is still five years away from his retirement date. He may, however, lose out to geo-political considerations.

That is the NEWS profile on Ogbonna ONOVO.
The question I ask of the bit in bold is, what is that geopolitical consideration all about?? The outgoing IGP is not from his zone as to say because his zone has produced the IGP in the last 4years.

May be officers from some zones of the country are not Nigerian enough to head to police.
If Ribadu is made IGP I will not be worried because I will assume he would have achieved that on merit but if it becomes someone else not Ribadu, not ONOVO.
Then Ogbonna Onovo will surely ask himself how much Nigerian he is because of the language he speaks.

Cant we be ashamed to be reasoning like this ? why is it that unless someone from ur tribe is at the helm of affairs , you would always feel cheated ? who told you that having an igbo man means the lot of the igbos would be bettered ? almost all of our past leaders were from the north, have this made northerners better than the rest of Nigeria ? have the babangida , abacha and other northern ex leaders of Nigerian bettered the lot of the north ? the answer to all this is no and what it proves is that competence has nutting to do with ethnicity .
would the Yorubas say that obasanjo has made them better than the rest of Nigeria ? again the answer is no . so the IGP should be someone that is competent , someone that knows that he would not be there to protect his tribe , but to protect the interest of every single Nigerian no matter what state or tribe they come from .
This is why we have been slow in our democratic march , cos we assume that unless our tribe man is there , then we are been cheated . when will the time come for us to vote someone in government based on how competent they are and not cos of weather they are from our tribe or not ?until that day comes , i think we would just be deceiving ourselves thinking that we are practicing democracy .
Personally, i feel with what he has achieved with efcc , Ribadu is the best man for the job of IGP , let us come out of this tribal mentality bullshit and join the rest of the civilized world.
Now b4 they would call my head i am a pure igbo man ( okoro boy )

@egoldman

If your post is a direct response to mine, I suggest you read my post again.

The IG can come from anywhere.

Why all the ethnic and tribal politics and calculations?

I have seen people from the South West that never liked OBJ even though he was the president for 8 years.

Let the best man be given the job.

In My opinion RIbadu does not have what it takes to be the next IGP. He has not been a DPO, he has not overseen a State Command and he did not go to War College or NIPSS, but he has performed and delivered more than those that went to War College but still lacks the experience and exposure to oversee suck a crucial post.

Obasanjo himself signed the directive which states that before an officer is promoted or gets to the rank of Commissioner of Police, AIG or Deputy Inspector General of Police, he must have undergone courses at the NIPSS or the National War College.

So the implication of appointing Ribadu would lead to the retirement of so many officers who are senior to him in rank and mass Chaos.

Afam:

The IG can come from anywhere.

Why all the ethnic and tribal politics and calculations?

I have seen people from the South West that never liked OBJ even though he was the president for 8 years.

Let the best man be given the job.

Okay, Afam will agree on this. Let the best man get the job.
OBJ is from my state and will continue to say he is not worthy to be the President of this Great Country. Let call spade a spade and not an agric. tool, OBJ's 8years is a misrepresentation of what an average YORUBA MAN trully stands for: JUSTICE FOR ALL.

it amazes me when i read stuff like this, are yourba , igbo and hausa's the only ethnic groups in nigeria? right now what we need is someone who can do the job, not whether someone is from zone a or zone b, or north-north, south-south. will they help us progress further? enough with this zoning and ethnic stuff!

If the two people under Sunday Ehindero are from the same place as him, would they be overlooked because of their geo-political origin? (what zone is Ehindero from?)

I think those that are in line to replace Ehindero (and the whole police force)should make their position know to the federal government, they should speak out loud that they are perfectly okay with perfomance and qualifications alone as the criteria for promotion and not state origins!

I think most nigerian newspapers just

The IG can come from anywhere.

Why all the ethnic and tribal politics and calculations?

I have seen people from the South West that never liked OBJ even though he was the president for 8 years.

Let the best man be given the job.

Afam you have been an advocate of Presidency moving to the North after 8years in the South, in the run-up to last election you always pointed out that Pat Utomi is simply wasting his time. If that is not tribal politics or calculation then what is it?

We can not choose President on tribal calculations and start advocating detribalism that we hardly believe. Yaradua was not more qualified than Donald Duke.

As far as am concerned the only high-class police officer who the cap fits, which I would not even have bothered if he was from the South West (the region that have produced IG in the last 8years) is Ribadu.
If Ribadu becomes IG, fine he got that on performance but telling me all those other guys who will be chosen with old school status quo rules should be chosen without putting geopolitical zone into consideration is funny. As that is simply double standards.

Exactly, no double standards please!!!

@MAMAJAMA

Why should Igbo IGP be a joke?

The day we start to view people in any post from the competency point of view is the day we start moving forward , all this talk about tribes and zones would never move this nation forward, it would only make us more ethnic minded .

I don't think IGP posts are zoned though, I do know certain positions are zoned though, that's the program in Nigeria.

Well its a wrong program ?

Making RIBADU IGP will lead to disaster, his subordinate will not respect him, and will disobey his orders. he does not have the experience and the exposure to lead a police force. this is a national issue not just a department like the EFCC

RIbadu performed beyond everyones expectation as a leader of the EFCC but IGP post is more cubersome.

My father is a senior police officer, I used to watch movies and go to TAQUA ABEY with him as a kid, I can not remember the last time we sat down as a family to do simple things.

My father is a senior police officer

That explains why you are so particular about police affairs.

Your dad is a senior police officer?I don't want to sound mean but all senior police officers are corrupt,Ribadu needs to do some serious house cleaning

yep. I was raised and been part of police all my life.  and we police children are suffering compare to all this military boys families.

mrmayor if I may ask you, what makes you think RIBADUD is as clean as a whistle? remember in Nigeria its not a crime until you are caught. I personally know RIbadu he is a man of integrity but he does not have what it takes to lead the Nigerian police force, ask those that are in the force and they will tell you. you don't send a boy to farm without the right equipment. he will be eaten alive. making him the IGP will be setting him up for failure. the Next IGP will be coming from the ops. let me hold my tongue.

uza what is this your business doing on this forum, we are talking about important issue and you are soliciting business

McKren:

Afam you have been an advocate of Presidency moving to the North after 8years in the South, in the run-up to last election you always pointed out that Pat Utomi is simply wasting his time. If that is not tribal politics or calculation then what is it?

We can not choose President on tribal calculations and start advocating detribalism that we hardly believe. Yaradua was not more qualified than Donald Duke.

As far as am concerned the only high-class police officer who the cap fits, which I would not even have bothered if he was from the South West (the region that have produced IG in the last 8years) is Ribadu.
If Ribadu becomes IG, fine he got that on performance but telling me all those other guys who will be chosen with old school status quo rules should be chosen without putting geopolitical zone into consideration is funny. As that is simply double standards.

That was cheap.

I am sure every position I took before the elections was correct.

Power shift and/or rotational presidency is something we must practice for the interest of unity in Nigeria today, no apologies for taking such a stand.

However, on this issue we are discussing appointmens not election.

The president has every right to appoint anyone from any part of the country.

Put differently, there is a huge difference between election and appointments by the president.

Afam

Power shift and/or rotational presidency is something we must practice for the interest of unity in Nigeria today, no apologies for taking such a stand.

I dont think also you need to appologise for that stand, because I did finally subscribe to that view regardless of my wish to see a Donald Duke Presidency.

But then that power sharing ideology should be implemented in all facets of life and that is why I say there should be no double standards. In the interest of National Unity.
Otherwise Yaradua can as well appoint all his cabinet members from Katsina if he thinks they are the most competent.

With all due respect Afam I think you are a great poster, but sometimes I think you strive too hard to sound politically correct.

igbo igp, shouldnt be the issue, i personally want to see someone different any tribe, radical to reform the police.

What's this style of labelling people "politically correct" when they hold views that are proper in the real sense?

OBJ appointed a lot of Igbo sons and daughters and I never heard nor read about people accusing him of favouring the Igbos.

I did not even hear any Igbo man or woman complaining that OBJ is favoring the Igbos too much.

Any president reserves the right to appoint people from anywhere afterall it is the president that gets all the blame when things go wrong so what are we talking about here?

i second that afam.maybe some inferiroity complex, but the marginalisation cry has lessend over the past one year.

i concur afam.maybe some inferiroity complex, but the marginalisation cry has lessend over the past one year.

Afam no matter what OBJ does people will still hate him. that just tell you what kind of people we have in Nigeria you can not please everyone