In Nigeria, post-retirement career progression, especially for notable figures, is often highly predictable. A man leaves office on Friday and, by Monday he is justling around the corridors of power; for a ministerial list, a party ticket or a quiet corner of the state machinery where he can stay indefinitely.
It is actually not a crime as they can bring a wealth of unique experience and skills, but when it has become so common that there seems to be no hope for fulfilment outside government, then it lays a worrying precedent for thousands, if not millions of capable Nigerians in different sectors of the country.
So it is worth stopping to say well done when someone says no to the trend and does it differently.
Frank Mba, retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, joined the force in May 1992 as a cadet and graduated as the best cadet in academics at the Police Academy in Kano. He served 34 years. Along the way he was Force Public Relations Officer, Commissioner of Police in Ogun State, head of the Border Patrol Force at Force Headquarters, and Area Commander in Ajah and FESTAC. He also served on the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia. He finished as DIG in charge of Training and Development.
In March 2026, after the change of leadership at the top of the force, he retired. His farewell was a short statement of gratitude and pride in having served. There was no sulking and no campaign for a soft landing. He thanked the people who gave him the opportunity and left.
Mba is not just a police officer who picked up a legal sideline. He read law at the University of Lagos, was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2002, and earned a Master’s in Law with distinction from the University of Dundee. His lawyer’s training was always there, running alongside the uniform.
Now, by all accounts, he has opened his own legal practice. That is a return to a profession he trained for, not a manoeuvre for relevance. He has chosen to build something with his own name and effort on it, and to let clients and results decide his standing. In the future, he might be called upon to serve the public, but now he has shown that there’s life and purpose outside government.
In all fairness and from a broader picture, plenty of retired public servants go on to quiet, useful, honourable lives, and not every appointment after retirement is a scheme. But the pattern we all recognise is real:
The technocrat who leaves one government job and is somehow always “available” for the next one.
The retired officer or civil servant who recycles into a political appointment and treats the public payroll as a pension plan for life.
The politician who never leaves the stage, sliding from office to office, party to party, regime to regime, because he cannot imagine a life where nobody needs to consult him.
What makes this behaviour worrying is not only the cost to the public purse. It is the message it sends to everyone coming up behind. It teaches younger officers and professionals that service is a stepping stone to permanent access, and that the real prize is staying in the room forever.
A retired DIG who goes back to practise law tells them something else: that you can serve with distinction, step aside when your time is done, and build a second chapter on your own competence. The country is full of capable people who could do the same, if only they try.
Nigeria has a shortage of good examples more than of good people. Our institutions will not be fixed only by laws and reforms. They will also be fixed by norms, by what the respected people in them are seen to do when the spotlight moves on. Every senior official who retires gracefully, without clinging to office or reaching for the next appointment, makes that behaviour a little more normal.
Frank Mba has not asked to be anyone’s role model, and he will probably wave this off. But for those of us who have watched too many exits turn into sequels, a man who served 34 years, said thank you and went back to his chambers deserves a clear salute.
Congratulations, Counsel. May the second chapter be as distinguished as the first.
Emmanuel Akaolisa
akaolisa1987@gmail.com
