IG Onovo, Can this be true?

God! Can this be true? That the Igbo hating President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would nominate Ogbonna Onovo, a Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) in charge of Administration, to replace the retiring Inspector-General, Mike Okiro.

Okiro is the 13th IGP, and if Onovo, an Igboman from Enugu state, is appointed to replace him, he (Onovo) becomes the 14th. (Picture shows President Yar'Adua and DIG Ogbonna Onovo)

A newspaper report has just reported that the expected appointment of Onovo followed Yar’Adua’s knack for due process, especially, in the appointment of senior qualified officers with track records of performance.

The newspaper, in particular, Vanguard, reported that the presidency is comfortable with DIG Onovo’s simple, non controversial and business-like attitude which was noticed from close quarters when he worked with the office of the National Security Adviser as Deputy Inspector General in Charge, Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID).

According to the paper, another factor that worked in favor of Onovo is his mature manner and equanimity...

Yar’Adua is said to have been further impressed with the excellent cooperation and loyalty 56 years old Onovo showed to Okiro despite losing out to him…

In fact, it is doubtful if this report does not amount to day dreaming. Will the forces that have debarred President Yar’Adua from appointing Ndigbo into sensitive positions in Nigeria all these years allow him to now appoint Onovo Inspector-General of Police?

The assertion that Yar’Adua is a man of due process should go to hell and burn to ashes. If Yar’Adua observes due process, it is only if Ndigbo are not involved.

Good a thing, the paper goes ahead to report about severe pressure being mounted on the president to ditch Onovo and go for what some describe as the new breed in the police force, such as the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge ‘Operations’, John Ahmadu or the Deputy Inspector General in charge of Works, Udom Ekpe Udom.

Whatever decision Yar’Adua and his Katsina mafia take at last over who becomes the Okiro’s successor, they should know that no Igboman has been appointed Inspector-General of Police in Nigeria since 1964 the force reverted from the colonial masters to Nigerians.

Records show that out of Nigeria’s 13 Inspectors-General of Police, the North had had 6 IGPs and the South 7. And among the three geopolitical zones in the South, Southeast (Igboland) had none, South-West had 4 while the South-south had 3. Then, among the four main ethnic groups of Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba and the Minorities, Ndigbo had had none- Onovo, the only Igboman that ought to have been appointed into the position in 2007, got wickedly schemed out.

So, would God (Allah) touch the sickly heart of President Yar’Adua to shun all blackmails and dissuasions and appoint Onovo Inspector-General of Nigeria Police this time around? Does Yar’Adua have the will power to insist on Onovo’s merited appointment?

Let ‘A Daniel’, for once, ‘Come to Judgment’ in this country called Nigeria.