By ’Tunji Ajibade
tunjioa@yahoo.com
Dame Cressida Dick, the first female London Met Chief, is stepping aside. Words are coming from the two most important political leaders in this city about her. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said she “served her country with great dedication and distinction over many decades”, thanking her for “protecting the public and making our streets safer”. One needs to take note of the fact that while some saw only the point on which Dick didn’t have a perfect score, Johnson saw where she did have perfect scores.
Still in London, the Mayor Sadiq Khan of the opposition party has his issues with Dick, and he’s been the one who compelled the police chief to leave the job she loves so much. Nonetheless, he is magnanimous enough to state the following about a woman who has done her best for citizens and nation: “I would like to thank Dame Cressida Dick for her 40 years of dedicated public service, with the vast majority spent at the Met where she was the first woman to become Commissioner. In particular, I commend her for the recent work in helping us to bring down violent crime in London – although of course there is more to do.
“I want to put on the record again that there are thousands of incredibly brave and decent police officers at the Met who go above and beyond every day to help keep us safe, and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.”
I suppose what Johnson has done when it emerged that Dick is leaving her job is something appreciative and responsible leaders do. He knows for certain that every public officer is standing somewhere between the rock and a hard place. Public officers score here, they don’t there. No one ever gets it perfect, which is not the view one finds among those who think they personally have perfect scores on all points. Among this category of people is the leadership of the opposition party, as well as some disloyal Tory party members. The last won’t recall how their party leader handled well the unforeseen crisis that hit the UK between 2020 and this time. Instead, at the first sound of some working events held by hardworking public officers to unwind and bond in order to serve the nation better, they are singing a strange tune. Meanwhile, if the opposition, which side these Tory members now take, had been the scorers of perfect points they pretentiously present themselves to be in the face of the garden party allegations, the Tories wouldn’t have won the last two general elections.
It’s worth noting that the work of a public officer such as the traditional policing which the Met Chief has to carry out in a city like London is hard enough. The job is made even more difficult by having to police the police. The ever efficient and highly principled Health Secretary Sajid Javid took the same view and one shouldn’t be surprised. While thanking Dick for her public service, Javid called her role “one of the most difficult jobs in the country”. That’s exactly what it is.
Now, this is not to justify any act that is inimical to the image of the police which has been accused of “racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny”. These are all accusations one would condemn in totality. The point remains though that in a police service that is confronted with the same well known challenges that most public institutions in the UK have, there’s ever so much under those circumstances that the Met Chief could achieve. There’s a need for internal reforms, bad behaviour in the service should be looked into even in the face of carrying out the traditional policing that the Met is meant for. Even at that, one shouldn’t miss the fact that if Dick isn’t crucified for not reviewing to the satisfaction of the opposition what some of her officers are accused of, she would still have been for not keeping London streets safe enough. That’s how narrow the job of being a law enforcer is; it is no better than the football coach whose job is on the line right from the moment they are appointed.
One would want to appreciate Dick who has brought pride to all women for all she has done in forty years to earn the post from which she’s now being forced to resign. She’s not the first female police officer in the UK. But she’s the first to arrive at the top of one of the most respected police formations across the world. In her forty years of service she was in the team of police that has earned accolades for the Met across the world. If any opposition member who now criticises her and asks for her head doesn’t see that point, one shouldn’t think they would ever see any point. Dick is a national figure, a symbol of what is possible for women across the UK, across the world. She has paid her price in service to citizens and to nation and it is so sad that she has to depart like this on the premise that her score is not perfect in one area.
One would take note of how politics has been rolled into the situation that is making Dick to leave. Most of the opposition MPs don’t even have a kind word for Dick. That’s most unfair, but it shows how much they are determined to see perfect scores from every public officer as though they too have such scores both in their personal and public life. There are the tabloids as well, many of which wouldn’t even include the kind words that Khan has for Dick in their news reports. These tabloids are simply fixated on presenting the criticisms of Dick by the opposition. It’s not anything surprising about a media that has become so unfair that their “breaking news” is the presentation of birthday cake to a PM as well as the singing of a happy birthday song in the course of the covid-19 lockdown.
There’s one important point coming out of the Dick saga. It’s the fact that public officers are meant to score big on all issues; it’s the expectation of an insincere opposition that is driving the frenzy among citizens who have heard the PM’s apologies regarding the working events in the course of the covid-19 lockdown. If perfect scores in public office were possible, even the opposition wouldn’t have lost to Johnson and his party in the last general elections.
As Dick’s contribution to the Met is ignored by the opposition and they wouldn’t say anything positive regarding her achievements, so they wouldn’t say anything positive about a PM and his team of public officers who scored fine handling the pandemic, giving citizens and nation a trouble-less landing. One must wish Dick well in her subsequent endeavours. But it is worth stating that as the good job done by the PM and his dedicated team from early 2020 to this time has proved to be a thankless one, so is her meritorious service to citizens and nation has proven to be. It’s the lot of every public officer.
