My dear Inspector-General of police,
In August 2023, few months after you came into office, you hosted some of us for dinner in Lagos, as part of your interactive sessions with cross sections of the society, unveiling your plans.
I sat next to you. You spoke well with passion about your plans and l believed you and gave you my support.
Then, CP Tunji Disu was your PSO before he was posted as the CP Rivers and later FCT. CP Disu, as your PSO was a great asset. I don’t know who your current PSO is. He needs to be told that the IGP needs help. And fast.
Events of the past one year, on the shrinking civil space, particularly the abuses of the Cybercrimes law, is a source of great concern.
The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act of 2015 (as amended) has 59 sections, dealing with various gamut of cybersecurity.
The Nigeria police even has a Cybersecurity Centre at Abuja. One is therefore at a loss why the fixation over only one section – section 24 dealing with cyberstalking, cyber bullying, where every mundane criticism has attracted jackboot attention.
In a world where the AI technology has become a major challenge in the tech world, and in a society contending with serious crimes like kidnapping, I’m surprised that the focus of the police is on who criticizes or abuses the government on social media, instead of dealing with more serious cybercrime issues.
Dear IGP, what do you want to be remembered for by the time you leave office in two years? Is it the number people you arrested for “cyberstalking” or that you made Nigeria safer under your watch? Are you not worried that there seems to be more policemen guarding rich civilians than even your serving and retired very senior officers? So, why this fixation with “cyberstalking” that your office has so much trivialized?
Unfortunately, your spokesperson, the Force PPRO is not helping in this regard. Rather, he makes more enemies for his principal, instead of winning him more friends.
All the excesses and human rights abuses under Abacha were mainly perpetrated by his CSO, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha but they were credited to the Abacha regime. Same way all the abuses and excesses by your office would be credited to Tinubu government, even if the president did not give such directives.
Your actions are going to have negative impact on the human rights records of this government, something that did not happen under a retired general, his predecessor.
You therefore need to rein in your spokesperson. The perception out there is that he is a bully who threatens the public on regular basis. Such perception must change as perception can be stronger than reality.
In the mid-80s when SP Alozie Ogugbuaja was the Lagos PPRO, he made some of us fall in love with the police. If you hated the police or had issues with the police, once you encountered Alozie, you would feel like joining the police.
He was the quintessential police image maker. He even maintained a weekly column in Sunday Times. That was top notch police public Relations at its best. There were no mobile phones then but if your criticised the police, he would drive down to your office and by the time you were through engaging him, you would be the one to take him out for beer.
Unfortunately, under your watch, your image makers are busy daily scavenging for critical comments on the social media, comments that they shouldn’t even dignify with response or attention.
Criticism, no matter how scathing, is part of democratic tenets. Tagging every scathing criticism as cyberstalking is antithetical to democratic principles. This has been well adumbrated by the Court of Appeal in the case of Arthur Nwankwo v. The State, where the court held:
“It is my view that the law of Sedition which has derogated from the freedom of speech guaranteed under this Constitution is inconsistent with the 1979 Constitution moreso when this cannot lead to a public disorder as envisaged under Section 41(a) of the 1979 Constitution.
We are no longer the illiterates or the mob society our colonial masters had in mind when the law was promulgated. The safeguard provided under Section 50(2) is inadequate more so where the truth of what is published is no defence.
To retain Section 51 of the Criminal Code in its present form, that is even if not inconsistent with the freedom of expression guaranteed by our Constitution, will be a deadly weapon and to be used at will by a corrupt government or tyrant … Let us not diminish from the freedom gained from our colonial masters by resorting to laws enacted by them to suit their purpose.
The decision of the founding fathers of this present Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech must include freedom to criticize should be praised and any attempt to derogate from it except as provided by the Constitution must be resisted.
Those in public office should not be intolerant of criticism. Where a writer exceeds the bounds, there should be a resort to the law of libel where the plaintiff must be of necessity put his character and reputation in issue. Criticism is indispensable in a free society”. -Per Olatawura, JCA(As he then was)
My dear IGP, l want you to succeed. However, l want you to have an introspective look at your tenure so far, the successes and failures and make necessary adjustments.
I don’t want you to end up with the bad image of Shehu Shagari’s IGP, Sunday Adewusi. Some of us who were around during his tenure cannot make any flattering comments about him, with the way l celebrate some former IGPs like M.D. Abubakar and Solomon Arase.
I pray God’s wisdom for you to navigate this stormy waters.
– Richard Akinnola, a lawyer and media advocate lives in Lagos.
