The newly promoted Assistant Inspector-General of police (AIG), Joseph Mbu seemed to have opened the Pandora’s box when last week, he made allusions to his tenure as Rivers State police commissioner. In a handover speech to the new commissioner of police for the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Wilson Inalegwu, he had sought to guide him with his own experiences so as to achieve better results. He spoke of the qualities which Inalegwu should embrace to make a success of his new assignment citing himself as the similitude of a lion who tamed the leopard.
Hear him, “I advise you (CP) to carry the senior offices along in your administration. It is only a lion that can tame a leopard. I tamed the leopard in Port Harcourt; each time he remembers my face, he would remember how I tamed him”.
Mbu’s statement had drawn a loud laughter from the audience as a clear affirmation that the subject of his allusion was clearly understood by those present. It was not in doubt that the allusion referred to Mbu’s controversial relationship with the Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi when he held sway as the police commissioner there.
Expectedly, the Rivers State government has reacted to Mbu’s boasting. In a statement by the governor’s media aide, Amaechi scoffed Mbu’s claim to be a lion. “Indeed it is very sad, pathetic, however ironic that Mbu called himself a lion. Which lion? This character called Mbu Joseph Mbu completely lacks the courage, steel and strength of character of a lion”, the statement contended. It further asked: “how can a man who has no strength of character to be a man and stand up to a woman, a man who willingly submits himself to serve as a puppet of a woman call himself a lion?” For them, Mbu epitomizes everything that is wrong with the Nigerian Police.
Characteristically, the lion is renowned for its strength, power and ferocity. Its closest relatives are other species as the tiger, the jaguar and the leopard. Lions are capable of killing other predators such as leopards, cheetahs and hyenas. The lion is euphemistically referred to as the “king of the jungle”.
The leopard on the other hand, owes its success in the wild in part, to its opportunistic hunting behaviour, ability to run at speeds approximating 58 kilometres per hour, unequalled ability to climb trees even when carrying heavy carcasses. It is an agile and notorious predator with dexterity for stealth.
These characterizations have been brought in focus to aid understanding of the comparison which Mbu sought to draw when he referred to himself as a lion and Amaechi, the leopard. And since the two personages do not operate in the jungle as do the lion and the leopard, these character traits will help highlight the appropriateness or lack of it of the context in which the comparison was made.
For one, neither Mbu nor Amaechi can be classified as a predator. They do not also operate in the wild. They are humans guided by rules of engagement. More so in a democratic setting that holds the rule of law very sacrosanct. So it is not to be expected that the comparison should be viewed from the prism of the atavism of the jungle. It is a metaphorical statement.
However, the metaphor of the lion taming the leopard negates all that is embodied in the rules guiding the conduct of a democratic government. It at once, evokes the impression of arbitrariness, show of raw strength and brute force. Those are the images the comparison throws up. The lion can only tame the leopard by subduing it through brute force. It has nothing to do with fairness, justice or the strict application of the law. If that is what Mbu did while in Port Harcourt, then there is nothing to learn from him. It is a bad example of the pristine attributes of a modern police force Inalegwu should imbibe.
He is entitled to his views no matter how absurd they may appear. He is also very free to deploy metaphors to drive his message home.
But this is one allegory many will find difficult to swallow. For, it not only overrates the powers that should ordinarily be at the disposal of a state police commissioner, but casts him in the mould of a behemoth. If a state police commissioner can wield such powers that will enable him bully an elected chief executive of a state, then our democracy is greatly imperilled. This is more so when it is recognized that a police commissioner is only an integral part of the entire security architecture of a state. How do we then categorize the powers of the military commanding officer and other security outfits that don the states?
If the issue is the deployment of superior force of power, then the military is in a better stead to even tame the lion denoted by the outfit Mbu represents. That is the incongruity in such comparisons. But the issue is not just about force, power or the deployment of it. It is all about the subordination of all the coercive structures of the state to civil institutions and practices. It is this contradiction that reinforces the demand for state police.
If Mbu was properly guided by this relationship, he would not have dabbled into ascribing such awesome powers to himself that have now given him away as one that handled his job in an unprofessional manner. The absurdity of the comparison is further underscored when it is realized that the powers of a police commissioner are highly circumscribed. Above him, are other senior police officers from whom he takes instructions. If he could tame a governor as he would make us to believe, then the president of this country could as well be at the mercy of the Inspector-General of Police. The situation would become more scaring when we thing of the awesome powers, temperament and disposition of the military.
If the issue is all about the deployment of superior power, force and the coercive instruments of state, then we would have relapsed to the arbitrariness and despotism of military rule. Those were the years of the locust when very ambitious and adventurous soldiers took turn to sack democratically elected governments. But those days are gone for good as they have been consigned to the dust bin of history. The fad now is for the military and similar institutions to be subordinated to their statutory duties.
Apparently, Mbu must have been lacking in the right choice of words to appropriately capture whatever challenges he faced in Port Harcourt to guide his successor. He was within his calling when he advised his successor to be firm and avoid soiling his name. He also raised an issue fundamental to the efficient running of the police institution when he advised against posting policemen to special duties at the detriment of their obligations to the public.
Mbu definitely went beyond his mandate when he boasted he so tamed Amaechi that he should be frightened when he remembers his face. Such a statement mocks the police force which he represents and he should be made to retract it.
