IGP, the ‘Transmission Speech’ & torrent of Criticisms

By Chisom Asogwa

Ever since the viral video of Ibrahim Idris the IGP faltering over words during a speech surfaced online, there’s been diverse reactions, counter stories and assumptions.

I applaud those making excuses for the IGPs poor speech presentation with certain assertions. It’s good to know some Nigerians are capable of expressing opinions without hurling abuse.

There’s a theory by the presidency that the video was doctored to make the IGP look bad. There’s another theory too that the IGP may have a medical condition known as dyslexia. We’ll start with the latter.

The British Dyslexia Association definition describes dyslexia as “a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling” and is characterized by “difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed”.

The condition however has no effect on a persons intelligence. If you take the time to watch the video closely, you would notice that the IGP did not commit any grammatical blunder or mispronounced words, he only kept repeating a set of words.

Some notably famous people such as Mohammed Ali and Steven Spielberg have lived this condition.

While I’m not a fan of people making fun of the IGP on social media, I think it’s absolutely rude, I also refuse to accept the excuses made on his behalf. He has been IGP since 2016, presented several speeches and not once did he exhibit any sign that he is dyslexic.

There should be a justifiable pattern before the conclusion that the IGP is dyslexic can be drawn. The assumption in itself is questionable.

On the former, that the video was doctored, if indeed the video was tampered with, why did he all of a sudden start making sense when someone stood close to him, whispered and pointed out the words?? Or that part wasn’t edited too?

I’d like to create a scenerio, if the IGP was conducting an interview to employ young people into the police force and one of the interview requests is to read a speech out loud and the interviewee reads the script exactly as the IGP read it, do you think he/she will be employed??

Let’s all call a spade a spade. There’s nothing wrong with calling out mediocrity in public office.