By Rotimi Fasan
THE Boko Haram attack on the Nigerian Police headquarters, Louis Edet House in Abuja, came with an urgency that demanded that the matter be addressed here immediately.

Inevitably, it threw news of the arrest and trial of former House of Reps speaker, Dimeji Bankole, off the front pages. A week before, this column had directed attention on the Bankole issue, generating much debate on the Vanguard Talking Point blog among readers.

The Bankole arrest was clearly a polarising affair with many of the responses criticising the former speaker and other members of his constituency in the political class. It was clear from the tone of the comments posted that many of the readers were young Nigerians who felt thoroughly let down by Bankole.

They took the whole thing in very personal terms, as if Bankole was an embarrassing member of their family. But through it all a sense of generational shame was very evident. Bankole was seen as a shame, a disgrace to young Nigerians who had high hopes in him when he became not just a member but Speaker of the House of Representatives.

These responses actually got me thinking, took me back to my own sense of hope that Bankole would beat a path different from others before him when he became Speaker. The point is that since 1999, with the exception of Aminu Masari, the leadership of the House of Representatives had somehow been the exclusive preserve of youthful members of the political class.

From Ghali Umar Na’abba to Salisu Buhari, Nigerian youths have had firm control of the lower legislative house. But it’s another thing what use they’ve made of that control. The case of Salisu Buhari was a rude shock and there is no doubt that I had this at the back of my mind when Bankole came on the saddle.

I expected him to remove the blight of Buhari’s shame on younger Nigerians who had clamoured for generational transfer of power. Had the current scandal involving him not broken out, he would, in my estimation, have gone down as just yet another member of the political class, one of no particularly remarkable achievement.

He just passed through the corridors of power without any distinguishing mark of achievement, not even a strong desire to be different. But the corruption scandal changed all that. Nigerian youths in spite of all need not despair: Bankole never went into the House promising to be their ambassador.

Even though there is a sense in which his rise signalled a generational intent. He went in his capacity as the son of his father. Whether he has done well by his father, to say nothing of his family, is a matter beyond the concern of Nigerians. His father as well as the Bankole family must be the judge of that.

He was content to be a pampered member or scion of the Nigerian establishment who found himself in power and decided to follow the tide, trailing the path of irresponsible leadership blazed by others.  Not much would be missed by his absence from the House of Reps as not much is being missed of the relative inactivity of other young Nigerians still in the House of Reps as in other positions of responsibility across the country.

Leaving Bankole I turn to the Nigeria Police that has been recanting since its headquarters came under the harsh ministration of the Boko Haram treatment. In its latest attempt at retelling or revising the attack on its central office and by implication on the Nigerian state, the Police has been spinning long yarns like the proverbial eunuch who the Yoruba say is full of different tales.

In the immediate aftermath of that bloody attack the Police through it spokesperson, Olusola Amore, had attributed it to a suicide bomber who had trailed the IG, Hafiz Ringim’s convoy into the headquarters as Ringim reported for work. The suicide bomber was spotted, flagged down and directed into the parking lot by an apparently vigilant police officer. The officer joined the intruder in the car and both were within seconds blown up.

That was the initial story. In its latest yarn, perhaps upon second thought as to what nonsense the entire episode made of security arrangement within the Force Headquarters, the Police is singing a different song, to wit, that the attack was not the work of a suicide bomber and that Mr. Ringim had, in fact, been in his office for about 20 minutes before the explosive ( we may need to confirm if it was actually a bomb or something different from that earlier announced by Mr. Amore and his team of tale weavers) went off.

Apart from the need to avoid any unnecessary lionisation of the Boko Haram bandits, it might indeed be true that whatever caused the destruction at the Police Headquarters was the handiwork not of a suicide bomber. But then who did it? Certainly not a ghost! The Police must be less excited and even less excitable in going to town with information it’s not sure of; that is, giving it a benefit of the doubt that it’s not up to some foolish game with this seemingly sexed up account of events.

It has to be more deliberate and professional in its responses, not responding to the herd instinct of tale bearers. But whatever spin it chooses to put on the attack on its central office, what it cannot wish away is that the attack is a rude blow on its integrity, a mountainous question mark on its ability to combat crime.

If the security of its headquarters could be so easily breached and its most senior officer come within an inch of death, it’s time for it to brace up and be alive to its responsibilities. Harassment of road users as its officers are prone to do is not the most effective way to go about policing the land, to say nothing of fighting crime.

The country is getting more and more lawless by the day and our so-called leaders are helpless because their very conduct has helped entrenched the culture of impunity that has led to our present lawless state. Now is the time to turn the tide and the Police would do well to look within its own fold, fish out the enemies within before it can truly commence the process fostering a sense of security in the citizenry.