Nigerians are skeptical about President Bola Tinubu’s order to withdraw police officers from VIP protection, with many believing it will fall flat due to entrenched corruption, economic realities and lack of training capacity. The president’s directive aims to reassign over 100,000 officers currently guarding VIPs to frontline duty, fighting kidnappers, bandits, and Islamist groups.
However, experts argue that economic incentives drive underpaid police to work for Nigeria’s political and bureaucratic class, making it unlikely they’ll comply with the order.
“They appreciate being posted as guards to a private residence or to follow madam to the market,” said Chidi Odinkalu, professor at Tufts University.
For Laolu Akande, a former presidential aide, the move is good, but it may not be executable as swiftly as the president wants it.
“I imagine the directive is in progress, because practically it will take a while for it to be completely implemented,” he said on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily. “Even when you withdraw the officers, are they ready to be deployed? Do they have the motivation, equipment and all other things?”
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Akande is also worried that training may be a major barrier to implementing the withdrawal as it should be done.
But Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector-general of police, differs on this, saying he will not be pressured into keeping the officers longer than they should.
“No governor or minister can pressure me, because it was the president who gave the order to withdraw VIP policemen across the country. We have already withdrawn 11,000 policemen attached to VIPs,” Egbetokun said.
Others like Abdul Ahmed Ningi, the Senate’s deputy majority leader, who said his only police orderly has been withdrawn, want a level-playing ground.
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“I have no problem with that, but I want them to also withdraw the president’s, vice president’s, ministers’ and others’ police escorts, everyone,” he said.
Ningi maintained that celebrities, sons and daughters of wealthy individuals and even foreign nationals still have ‘the compliment’ of police escorts.
Recently, in double entendre of some sort, Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate and statesman, took a swipe at President Tinubu’s son, Seyi, saying his security entourage is enough to protect a small country, like Benin Republic, and Nigeria should not have worried about sending other troops to the neighbouring country which had a coup d’etat scare last week.
Read also: Tinubu orders withdrawal of police from VIP security duties
President Tinubu’s move is in response to pressure from the US President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy US troops if attacks targeting Christians didn’t stop.
Tinubu’s plan to appoint 30,000 additional police officers is also facing skepticism due to lack of training capacity. The president has declared a state of national emergency, ordered school closures, and appointed a former general as defense minister to tackle the security crisis.
The withdrawal of police officers from VIPs is part of efforts to refocus policing on public safety, but its success remains uncertain.
But the Nigerian economy’s double-digit inflation is making minemeat of police officers’ wages, pushing them to wealthier citizens and politicians who are capable of raising their incomes while providing good lives for their families.
