APPOINTMENT OF IGP: I Won't Support Injustice Because It Favours Me At The Expense Of Others - By Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga

I won't support injustice because it favours me at the expense of others. A southerner should have been appointed to replace the former IGP Idris Ibrahim. Instead of another northerner, Abubakar Adamu was appointed to replace him. This is another wrong move that portrays the government as arrogant and insensitive to well-meaning public opinion.

When Osinbajo served as Acting President in August, he appointed a southerner, Mathew Seiyeifa as Acting DG of DSS to replace Lawal Daura. But when Buhari returned to Nigeria after a hospital stays in London, he reversed Osinbajo's appointment. He removed the Niger Delta man Mathew Seiyeifa and appointed another northerner Yusuf Bichi to head the DSS as substantive DG.

Instead of being worried, many northerners were defending the President. They argued that Seiyeifa's retirement was already due and, therefore, there was no point appointing him as substantive DG of DSS. But they saw nothing wrong with bringing Daura and Bichi out of retirement to give them such top appointments.

The vacancies at DSS and the Police Force provided President Buhari with the opportunity to correct his mistakes over the lopsided security appointments. The appointment of another northerner as IGP doesn't help Buhari's public perception.

He once again portrays himself as being stubbornly insensitive to our ethnic diversity. Integrity must be synonymous with justness and fair treatment of others. Democracy may be a game of numbers, but equity is the soul of democracy.

In case you missed the point, take a look at the following lopsided security appointments:

1. Chief of Army Staff, Northerner
2. National Security Adviser, Northerner
3. Minister of Defense, Northerner
4. Chief of Air Staff, Northerner
5. IGP, northerner
6. DSS DG, Northerner
7. Comptroller General Customs Service, Northerner
8. Director General NIA, Northerner
9. Comptroller General of Immigration, Northerner
10. Comptroller General Civil Defence, Northerner
11. Minister of Internal Affairs, Northerner

I will never support injustice because it endangers me. It could make me a future victim at the hands of a southern President. There is a danger in setting a precedent. One of the ingredients of integrity is humility and the ability to accept and correct one's mistakes. Perceived infallibility is not and has never been listed among the virtues of integrity. People can forgive you for making a mistake, but consciously repeating mistakes robs you of public sympathy."