Punch Okiro, PSC and our flippant Senate JUNE 24, 2013 BY PUNCH EDITORIAL BOARD PRESENTED with another opportunity to raise the standard of public service, the Senate, as usual, opted for mediocrity. By rubber-stamping the nomination of Mike Okiro as Chairman of the Police Service Commission, the upper legislative chamber reminded Nigerians that they are paying so much for unbelievably poor services by their parliamentarians. As they have been doing since the return to civil rule in 1999, senators abdicated the onerous responsibility reposed in them by the 1999 Constitution to scrupulously screen nominees to some public offices and ensure that the best persons run key institutions. They barely bothered to grill Okiro, a former Inspector-General of Police, and the five other PSC nominees, though, by voice vote, they rejected the seventh, Otive Igbuzor. It is bad enough that the Senate has continued to render poor services to the electorate in its statutory role of screening nominees. It is worse when senators pay no heed when weighty issues of credibility are raised over such nominees as happened in Okiro’s case. While submitting its report, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Paulinus Nwagwu, said approving Okiro’s nomination and that of another member, Yakubu Mohammed, a former Deputy Inspector-General of Police, was “necessary to enable them bring their past experiences to bear” on the much-criticised police force. He did not say if Okiro was asked to explain allegations bordering on unethical dealings made against him and his response. For a high profile police officer called to run such a strategic agency, failure to stage his confirmation hearing in public is a great disservice to the nation. Okiro’s nomination by President Goodluck Jonathan had been greeted with protests. Allegations ranging from running businesses while still in active service, to corruption and presiding over a police force that brazenly engaged in extra-judicial killings were levelled against him. Even while he was the IG, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation had accused a company linked to him of taking a loan of N166 million from the defunct Lead Bank and thereafter refusing to pay. According to the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria, a coalition of civil society groups, the controversy over the N1.6 billion allegedly paid to a consultant out of the money generated from the N2, 000 each paid by applicants for recruitment to the force under Okiro’s watch has not been resolved. This is unequivocally awful. A Lagos-based lawyer, Femi Falana, believes that the former IG’s membership (and active participation in the activities) of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party disqualified him from membership of the PSC. Citing Section 156 of the 1999 Constitution, that says a member of certain bodies, including the PSC, “shall not be required to belong to a political party,” Falana raised the issue of possible bias by Okiro in his new role as PSC chairman. Jonathan lays himself open to accusations of having a hidden agenda by nominating a man who sought the PDP senatorial ticket for the FCT; one who has been chairman of the PDP convention security committee and who was, until recently, security adviser to the PDP national chairman. This is the same President that in the past removed party men from their perch at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Independent National Electoral Commission ostensibly to avoid conflict of partisan interests. Faced with such weighty issues, the Senate ought to have been more rigorous, both in the national interest and even in the interest of Okiro, who would have had an opportunity to clear his name. It is time anyway for the government to take a second look at the perpetual appointment of retired police bosses to run the PSC, which is the body empowered by the constitution to appoint, dismiss and discipline police officers up to the DIG rank. Most police chiefs have had an unimpressive run for the past four decades, presiding over a notoriously corrupt force and have mismanaged allocated funds. Many have proved incompetent and have been known to deny subordinates their legitimate pay, allowances and pensions while sitting over dilapidated police stations and barracks. There is little in their track records to reassure the officers and men of this demoralised force of better management or raise hope in the citizenry of better policing. In any case, there is no single provision in the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which compels the President to appoint only a retired senior police officer as chairman of the strategic body. Indeed, Section 2.-(1) of the Police Service Commission (Establishment) Act, 2001 states, “The management of the Commission shall vest in the following members, whose appointment shall be in line with the Federal Character provision of the Constitution- (a) a Chairman who shall be the Chief Executive of the Commission; (b) a retired Justice of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal; (c) a retired Police Officer not below the rank of Commissioner of Police.” Since Section 14 subsection 2 (b) of the Constitution declares that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government,” the head of the PSC and other members should, in addition to proven integrity, be persons untainted by any whiff of scandal. Regrettably, the appointment portrays Jonathan government’s anti-graft crusade as a sideshow of political stunts. The Senate has, once again, proved itself spineless. While Okiro and other confirmed PSC members may well have sound qualities and may eventually be proved innocent of all allegations, there were enough grounds for the Senate to have put their nominations on hold and thoroughly examine the allegations against them. For 14 years, it has allowed successive Presidents to send it nominees for consideration as ministers without spelling out their specific portfolios. Tamely, senators approve, often after asking irrelevant questions. They only demonstrate some spark when they have a grudge against a particular nominee. A former minister, Nasir el-Rufai, once accused senators of demanding a bribe to smoothen his confirmation, a practice said to be notoriously widespread in the upper chamber. As expected, Jonathan has quickly inaugurated the commission and deepened suspicion of his motives in appointing Okiro. But now that the Senate has once again betrayed the public, it and the House of Representatives should redeem themselves by exercising close and thorough oversight of the PSC and the Nigeria Police.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 07:59:37 +0000
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