Kayode Egbetokun is out, and officers at police headquarters apparently celebrated when the news broke. That detail alone tells you something. When the people who work directly under a man are jubilating at his removal, his tenure was not just controversial at the top. It was felt all the way down. Tunji Disu comes in as acting IG, pending Senate approval, and the cycle of confirmation politics begins again.
The more important question is what exactly changes. Nigerian police leadership changes have rarely translated into meaningful reform for the officer on the street or the civilian at the checkpoint. The institution has structural problems, funding problems and accountability problems that survive every personnel reshuffle. A new face at the top does not automatically fix any of those things.
What Nigerians, especially those in the diaspora who watch these changes from a distance, should track is not the appointment itself but what Disu's first policy moves look like. Does extrajudicial conduct get addressed? Does policing get any real attention? Those are the measures that matter. Everything else is just a name change on a letterhead.