FG can’t appoint IGP based on ethnicity – Presidency

The Presidency on Monday said the appointment of the next Inspector-General of Police will not be based on ethnic considerations. Current IGP Mohammed Adamu is expected to leave office today, Monday, as he attains the retirement age and speculations have emerged on who his successor will be.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said it is impracticable for top security appointment to be made based on factors such as ethnicity or regions. “If you are going to appoint the service chiefs from every ethnic group in this country, you are going to have more than 250 Inspector-General of Police, 250 Chief of Army Staff, 250 Chief of Naval Staff,” he said. “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?”

The spokesman added that the appointment will be based on who can best help to protect lives and property across the country. “The President will rather have an Inspector-General of Police who will make you and I safer, protect life and property than one who is more pronounced by his tribal marks,” he said.