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Tag: Mbu Joseph Mbu

Why I’m controversial, by Mbu

Former Rivers Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu said yesterday that many people described him as a controversial police officer, because of his inability to tolerate anydisrespect to the Force.

He said his pedigree could attest that he is an agent of peace because he cannot encourage evil.

This, Mbu said, has made some persons in Rivers State describe him as a bad officer.

He spoke yesterday at the inauguration of a four-bedroom apartment at Rumuepirikon Police Station, Rumueme, Port Harcourt, a project he described as parting gift.

The ex-Rivers commissioner also added that his one year stint in Rivers State has brought reformation and change to the state.

He said: “When I was posted here, there was a lot of indiscipline among officers but I showed them the other side of me.

“There were few rifles and ammunitions but today everything has changed.

“We even have enough teargas for those who want to cause trouble in the state.

“I am not a bad man as people think. I am a good man. Those who said I’m wicked have hidden agendas, which I did not allow them carry out.

“I am not bothered if somebody says I am bad, because I have over 90 per cent of people saying I’m good.”

Thanking the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Rumuepirikom, Martha Idiong, the first woman DPO of the station for her outstanding performance, Mbu said all the women he promoted as DPO are doing well.

“When I was posted to this state, I met only two women as DPOs but I added five and all of them are doing well.

“They have showed me that women are equal to the task; the most important thing is that I am happy because they didn’t disappoint me.”

February 12, 2014
As Ogunsakin takes over Rivers Police Command

Though the clamour for his removal as Commissioner of Police in Rivers State was very high and had even assumed an international dimension, not a few were taken by surprise when the Police Service Commission last Thursday acted out of character by redeploying Mbu Joseph Mbu to the Federal Capital Territory Police Command, thus ending one of the darkest moments in the history of the Nigeria Police.

The service record of CP Mbu as head of the police in Rivers State was less than enviable. It is no use recalling some of them again as virtually all adult literate Nigerians that have kept themselves abreast of situations in the country in the last couple of years would have heard and formed their opinion about this police officer.

Specially head hunted from Oyo State Police command by Mrs Patience Jonathan and recruited into her forces in her battle against Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Mbu became so bad and terrible in his performance in Rivers that no state governor was willing to tolerate him or ready to receive him when he was to be removed from his post in Port Harcourt last year following strings of questionable actions, orders and utterances.

It was rumoured that he was to be posted to Imo State Police Command but the governor there would have none of that. He was also rumoured to be heading to the Port Police Command as CP, just to give him a soft landing, but his god mother intervened and he remained in Port Harcourt to cause more atrocities.

But I think his masters started getting fed up with him and his god mother with that shooting at the Port Harcourt rally of the Save Rivers Movement, when rubber bullets were shot into the crowd by his men hitting and injuring a serving senator of the Federal republic in the process. The national and international condemnation of the Federal Government that followed put the presidency in bad light and probably convinced The Villa that CP Mbu was becoming a liability, even if he is their ‘good boy’.

When Mbu followed this up by folding his arms while thugs and criminals disrupted another SRM rally at Bori in Ogoni land, while the rival Grassroots Democratic Initiative, a pro Jonathan group being sponsored by the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike was having a field day and enjoying police protection, not a few were convinced that Mbu was carrying his Masters’ assignment too far and his days were numbered. The Inspector General of Police who was rumoured not to be pleased with Mbu because he did not take orders from him any longer had to act publicly by ordering the CP to provide police cover for another SRM rally planned for Bori which Governor Amaechi had publicly vowed to lead, daring Mbu and his police to come and shoot him.

With the tide suddenly turning against him, Mbu made a last ditch effort to warm his way back into the heart of the IGP when in a most indecorous manner, he took out a full page advert in newspapers praising his bosses at Police Headquarters. Most people believed that was the last throw of the dice by the CP that probably made up the mind of his ‘ogas’ at the top to remove him, but then they still had to contend with his god mother at the top. I am sure the decision by the opposition to block the passage of the 2014 budget, especially the allocation to the Police in the appropriation bill must have been the last straw that broke Mbu’s back in Abuja; he had to leave Port Harcourt and urgently too. The rest as they say is history.

It was not my intention to revisit the Mbu matter again on this page having written several times on it in the past, but I can’t resist letting some people out there who have been abusing and even cursing this columnist and my colleagues who have had cause to disagree with CP Mbu’s style that we have nothing personal against this police officer or the Nigeria Police in general other than our desire to have a strong institution (police) that would enforce the law even handedly without fear or favour. And this is the challenge before the new Rivers State police boss Tunde Ogunsakin.

Mbu may have meant well initially when he started but he missed it the moment he allowed himself to be sucked in to the politics of Rivers State. Now he is a toxic officer that nobody wants to touch. What a pity?

With CP Ogunsakin in the saddle, he would do well to learn from the mistakes of his controversial predecessor and avoid the proverbial banana peel. Rivers State is complex in the sense that forces trying to control its resources and future are very powerful and determined. Nyesom Wike, pretending to be fighting the cause of President Jonathan is merely using the name of the president and exploiting the man’s desperation to return to office for a second term, to further his own interest in the governorship of the state next year.

Madam Patience Jonathan, the First Lady is also interested in producing the next governor of Rivers State, preferably from among her Okrika kinsmen, as security against life after her husband’s presidency.

Expectedly, Governor Rotimi Amaechi should be interested in producing his successor.

These three groups will play a major role in the politics of the state between now and elections next year and they would use all the tricks in their armoury to gain the upper hand. Throw in President Jonathan and his eyeing of the two million plus votes from Rivers in the next presidential election into the equation and you have a tough situation on your hand in Rivers State between now and the general elections in 2015.

This is the situation CP Ogunsakin is inheriting in Rivers State today and his task is not made easier by the fact that he is taking over a command already polarized by a partisan officer who had just been redeployed. All he needs to do is to be professional as possible in the discharge of his duties and he will need all his professional trainings and experience garnered over the years as an officer to achieve this. It is a good thing that he had served as a Divisional Police Officer (I think) in Rivers State before, so it will not be a totally new terrain to him.

February 11, 2014
Police redeploy Mbu, 12 others

The Police Service Commission (PSC) has announced the redeployment of the controversial Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu.

He has been replaced with the Commissioner of Police in charge of Special Fraud Investigation Unit, Lagos, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin.

The opposition and other stakeholders in Rivers have been unrelenting in the call for Mbu’s removal from Rivers, owing to his alleged partisan role in the festering political crisis in the state.

Under Mbu’s watch, opponents of the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, had a field day disrupting public events organised by the state government.

Senator Magnus Abe was, a few weeks ago, shot at one of the state organised public events in Port Harcourt, the state’s capital, allegedly by the police.

He was flown to London for treatment and returned to the country only a few days ago.

Mbu has now been redeployed to the Federal Capital Territory as Commissioner of Police.

The PSC said the redeployment was in line with the recommendation of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.

Also affected by the redeployment, as released by the PSC on Thursday are – Ambrose Aisabo who is now the Commissioner in charge of Kwara State; Felix Uyanya is new Commissioner for Ekiti State and Abdulmajid Ali moves to Imo State as Commissioner.

Similarly, Benjamin Onwuka is new Commissioner of Police in charge of Kebbi State; Ibrahim Maishanu moves to Osun State as Commissioner of Police; Adamu Ibrahim has been moved to Abia.

Adenrele Shinaba moves to Katsina State Command as Commissioner; Umaru Shehu has been moved from Nasarawa to Kaduna as Commissioner of Police and A. J. Abakasanga is now in charge of Adamawa State Command.

Kalafite Adeyemi and Ibrahim Idris have been moved from the Force Headquarters, Abuja to Taraba and Nasarawa States respectively as Commissioners of Police.

Chairman of the PSC, Sir Mike Okiro, admonished the newly redeployed officers to put in their best in their new commands to ensure secure environment for the businesses and lives of the citizenry.

February 6, 2014
Police ban political rallies in Rivers

The Rivers State Police Command yesterday announced a ban on all forms of political gatherings and rallies by all political groups, including the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI).

The Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, in a statement in Port Harcourt said the ban was because of the increasing political tension in the state.

Gunmen at Bori Khana Local Government last month foiled the rally by the members of “Save Rivers Movement (SRM), a socio-cultural group supporting Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

Earlier, the police had disrupted a similar gathering by the group at Obio/Akpor Local Government. Senator Magnus Abe was reportedly shot in the groin by the police at the event. He is still being treated in a London hospital.

The police denied them security cover, despite their application. The police said they were not aware of the gathering and could not send officials for the meeting.

The police provided sufficient security cover for the same kind of gathering by GDI, a political group founded by the Minister of Education Nyesom Wike, same day and time in Degema Local Government.

They (police) have always provided security for all GDI’s rallies in the state.

Amaechi led the group back to the same venue for the rally. He called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muhammad Abubakar, who directed that police cover be given to them. The gathering was successful.

Amaechi lambasted Mbu for alleged display of disregard and disrespect for the office of the governor. He told the crowd of supporters at the occasion that the police presence at the event was on the directive of the IG.

The statement by Mbu through the spokesman Ahmad K Mohammad said: “The Rivers State Police Command wishes to inform the public that as a result of increasing political tension in the state, the commissioner of police, has banned all political rallies in the state.

“Accordingly, all public activities involving rallies of Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), Save Rivers Movement (SRM), Rivers Leadership Advancement Foundation (RIVLEAF) and whatever other names, are hereby banned.

“Rivers State Police Command will not, I repeat, will not provide security for any group in whatever guise. Party membership drive is allowed strictly as stipulated in Electoral Act 2010 as amended and INEC regulations.”

The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, said the state welcomes the ban but that there is the need for the police to clarify between what constitute political rallies and meetings of associations or persons.

Semenitari said: “We must remember that the police cannot hide under the guise of the ban of political rallies to stop individuals and groups from having regular meetings.

“I do not think that the constitution allows the Police under any guise to deny any Nigerian the rights to freedom of association and expression.”

February 4, 2014
…Police embrace unconstitutionalitya

Just when it seemed enough juridical arguments had been mustered to defeat the undemocratic insistence of the federal government and the Nigeria Police for rally organisers to obtain permit, top officers of the police have brushed both the law and the constitution aside to insist on the old, provocative and unwise ways of policing democracy and maintaining law and order. The continuing folly of the police in Rivers State is of course the new trigger for the controversy on permits, especially with the way that state’s commissioner of police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, strives to please Abuja to the detriment of the law and constitution. It is now apparent that the police cannot be persuaded by reason or by statutes to obey the law. They would rather disobey the law flagrantly or pretend to be above the law.

Early last week, the Assistant Inspector General of the Police, Zone 3, Hashimu Argungu, summoned (a relic from the military era) political leaders in Edo State to warn them on a number of matters among which was the necessity to secure a permit for rallies. He cited Public Order Act 2004 and the Electoral Act 2004. The AIG pretends not to know what the courts have decided on the permit matter, nor apparently does he care. In addition, it does not seem to matter to him the annoying incongruity of the police issuing permits for rallies, which in effect makes them the governing authority in the states, an anomaly now blended in all its horrifying aberration in the recalcitrant and vexatious Mr Mbu.

February 2, 2014
Rivers’ shooting and Public Order Act

SIR: The reason given by the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu for smashing a peaceful assembly at the College of Art and Science, Rumuola, Rivers State last week smacks of impunity and recklessness. The said Public Order Act relied upon by Mbu and his men to stop the crowd from assembling and expressing their views at the venue has long been confined to the trash of the history, to put it mildly.

To be sure, the so-called controversial Public Order Act, which previously required governor’s consent to hold a public assembly, has long been declared null and void by no less court than the nation’s Court of Appeal since 2005. In declaring the provisions of the obnoxious Act inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution (as amended), in INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE V. ALL NIGERIA PEOPLES PARTY & Ors (2007) AHRCR 179 the following words of the lead Justice, Justice Olufunmilola Adekeye (as she then was) are worthy of note; “the Police Order Act relating to the issuance of police permit cannot be used as a camaouflage to stiffle the citizens’ fundamental rights in the course of maintaining law and order. Police permit has outlived its usefulness. Statutes requiring such pemit for peaceful demonstrations, processions and rallies are things of the past”.

The genesis of this pronouncement commenced in 2003 after the sham election when the police cruelly disrupted the All Nigeria Peoples Party rally at Kano with poisonous tear-gas that led to the death of Senator Chuba Okadigbo. It was on the basis of this that the party together with eight other political parties approached the court. Both the trial and appellate courts declared that public protest and rally are part of the freedom of expression and association guaranteed by Sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as well as Articles 9 and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement Act) Laws of Federation of Nigeria 1990. It is, therefore, worrisome that the Rivers CP could so rely on a law that has been nullified nine years ago by our court to stop the citizens from exercising their inalienable rights. Anyway, it is not as if the politically partisan CP was unaware of this legal position; it is abundantly evident that he was (is) merely acting out a script from his Abuja paymasters.

It needs to be stated here that Nigeria has long joined civilised societies and as a result cannot continue to be held down by such relics of colonialism as Public Order Act and police permit. The right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are indeed the bone of any democratic government. It is therefore imperative that Mbu and his cohorts come to this realisation and stop harassing innocent citizens in the state. The most appropriate action under the circumstance is to appeal against the judgement if Mbu and his masters were dissatisfied with it. The Nigeria Police Force and other security agents cannot continue to hide under the non-existing law to encroach on the peoples constitutionally enshrined rights. Enough of this impunity!

• Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

Lagos.

January 21, 2014
Jonathan: How not to play the deaf

Rivers State is boiling and President Goodluck Jonathan is pretending nothing is happening.

At the risk of sounding like an old gramophone, all well-meaning Nigerians and the opposition parties have been crying out, shouting and pleading with the president to call his rampaging Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mbu Joseph Mbu to order before he plunges the state into anarchy and imperils this democracy. But all their pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears.

The story of CP Mbu and his ‘atrocities’ in Rivers State under the guise of maintaining law and order is known to all, but what is baffling is why the President and Commander-In-Chief has chosen to be silent on this matter.

When, the other day, Mbu used his policemen to block the main entrance to the Government house, Port Harcourt, the official residence of the governor of Rivers State thereby preventing Governor Rotimi Amaechi and his guests from going in until they had to use the back entrance, the Federal Government found nothing wrong with that, even when that meant denigrating and/or humiliating the office of the governor. Not a word from Abuja cautioning Mbu.

When he sent his ’mad dogs’ to scatter thousands of newly recruited teachers by the state government who were told to gather at a stadium to sign for and collect their letters of employment, under the excuse that they were to gather there to protest against President Jonathan; not even a finger was raised against Mbu by Abuja. He got a pat on the back instead.

And when he vowed never to obey a court order over police illegal occupation of Obio/Akpor local government council secretariat, our president who promised to uphold the law of the land did not find anything wrong with this.

The list of Mbu’s atrocities in Rivers State is very long and getting longer, but what is baffling is why nobody among his superiors seems ready to call him to order. When he was tear-gassing and violently dispersing any gathering supposedly in support of or at the instance of Governor Amaechi, what many thought was that he would limit it to just that. But the shock was to come penultimate Sunday when his men used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse a gathering of Save Rivers Movement in Port Harcourt under the excuse that the gathering did not have his approval. A serving Senator of the Federal Republic was hit in the chest by the bullet. He is presently recuperating in a London hospital. The presidency not only kept quiet over the matter, people close to the president said he dismissed the incident with a wave of the hand.

Surprisingly, while the police dispersed supporters of the Senator, Magnus Abe, who wanted to protest the shooting, the same police welcomed another group that gathered in solidarity with its commissioner, Mbu, to its office.

Buoyed by the silence of the presidency and a supportive police CP, a group of pro- Jonathan thugs unleashed violence on another gathering of the Save Rivers Movement again last Sunday, this time in Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoni and the seat of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State. Senator Abe is Ogoni, and he is a known supporter of Governor Amaechi. Some people were feared dead while properties worth millions of Naira were destroyed; gun shots boomed sporadically while the mayhem lasted. The police did not lift a finger to stop them, and the presidency is again keeping quiet.

The attitude of the president in feigning deafness to all the noise coming out of Rivers State is unfortunate. He swore to protect lives and properties in all parts of the country but he is failing to do this in Rivers State just because of his political differences with the governor. But the president needs to be reminded that whatever happens in Rivers or any other state in the country for that matter would have effect on the rest of the country.

He should also be reminded that the road to which Mbu is leading Nigeria in Rivers State with his (president’s) support was one of the reasons the second republic collapsed. In fact, the police contributed in no small measure to the demise of that republic and what Mbu is doing now is a near replay of what happened then.

One could recall that a certain Umaru Omolowo, the then Commissioner of Police in old Oyo State was giving protection to thugs of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) to fight a cause mayhem in Oyo State and create problem for the ruling Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) government in the state then. The NPN controlled the Federal Government then and President Shehu Shagari, just like President Jonathan now, was seeking re-election and had penciled Oyo State down as a must-win state. The national Chairman of the NPN then, Adisa Akinloye, now late was from Oyo State, so also was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Richard Akinjide. They told Shagari not to worry that Oyo was for him, and the president in turn used the police effectively to back them even when they were unpopular on the ground in the state. Election came, they rigged and won, but we all know what happened few months later.

Now Jonathan, like Shagari is desperate to win re-election and he has identified Rivers as a must-win if his hope of returning to the presidential villa next year is to be realized. Why is Rivers so important? Simple. With two million solid votes in his pocket, Jonathan believes or is being deceived to believe that with Rivers solidly behind him he can neutralise whatever votes his opponent, expectedly from the north, could garner from that zone (north) in 2015; then he can struggle to pick few votes here and there, especially from Christians in the North/Middle Belt, and may be the south west apart from the South east and South-south.

But with Governor Amaechi no longer in his corner, the two million votes are under threat, so everything must be done to prevent this, even if it means killing the people of Rivers, so be it.

This is what is playing out in Rivers State today and the president has found a willing tool in Nyesom Wike, his Coordinating Minister of Education who wants to be governor in 2015; his wife, Patience Jonathan, who wants to produce the governor in 2015 and CP Mbu who wants to make as much money as possible from the crisis. Governor Amaechi expectedly, would also want to protect his legacy by wanting to produce his successor. So where does that leave the people of Rivers State and in the long run Nigeria’s democracy?

While the people of the state should be able to and left alone to decide what is good for them, the President and Commander-in-Chief should not allow his selfish interest to override his sense of responsibility to Nigerians as a people and the Nigerian nation. He should listen to the voice of wisdom and stop his supporters in Rivers, including Mbu from plunging this nation into avoidable political crisis which end nobody can foretell. Enough of playing the deaf.

January 21, 2014
Presidency under attack over shooting of senator

Youths protest

Senate calls for probe

Tinubu, David-West, CNPP, MOSOP, others condemn police action

There was outrage across the country yesterday over Sunday’s shooting of Senator Magnus Abe in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by policemen.

The popular thinking was that Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu would not have ordered his men to visit violence on innocent citizens without the backing of the Presidency.

Mbu said he ordered his men to smash a rally by the Save Rivers Movement (SRM) – a non-governmental body with affiliation to Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Tear gas canisters and rubber bullets were fired. Amaechi’s Chief of Staff Tony Okocha was hit in the leg. Abe was hit in the chest. He is believed to be receiving treatment in France, contrary to reports yesterday that he had been moved to Britain.

The Senate called for a probe.

Abe’s Ogoni kinsmen seized the East-West road in protest.

APC leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Prof. Tam David-West, a Rivers indigene, and the conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) condemned the police action.

There was no word from the police headquarters in Abuja.

The leadership of the Senate condemned in “strong terms” Abe’s shooting by the police.

In a statement by its spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Senate “deplored the escalating political violence in Rivers State”. It urged Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar to probe the incident and ensure that it does not recur.

The statement warned politicians to avoid overheating the polity and derailing the nation’s democracy.

“The Senate particularly condemns the Sunday violence which resulted to injuries on a serving senator, Magnus Abe,” Abaribe stated.

Abaribe said the “Senate is disturbed that what should have been a peaceful gathering turned violent, resulting in injuries”.

He added: “On this score, the Senate associates itself with the admonition of President Goodluck Jonathan on his pronouncement to mark the Armed Forces Remembrance Day, wherein he warned that no Nigerian blood is worth spilling in the name of politics.

“Consequently, the Senate urges the Inspector General of Police to investigate the latest incident and ensure that it never reoccurs.

“In the same vein, the Senate advises politicians and their supporters to exercise greater restraint and avoid acts that will not only overheat the system but may harm the country’s democracy.”

Prof. David-West, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, expressed serious worry over the worsening political climate in Rivers State.

The university don, who condemned the shooting, likened the political situation in the state to that of the Western Region in the First Republic which, he said, contributed to the outbreak of the civil war.

David-West described Abe as a complete gentleman who does not deserve the treatment he got from the police.

The former minister described the attack as “the lowest depth of indecency”.

He said: “To attack somebody like that because of politics is the lowest depth of indecency. I am very ashamed as a Rivers man that all these are happening in my state. It is a great disservice to President Jonathan. Police are acting with impunity because they know they enjoy protection from the Presidency and the Inspector General of Police.

“President Jonathan should remember what happened in the Western Region, which ultimately contributed to the civil war. Anybody who sits in Abuja and is happy should have a rethink. It is not good for the state. It is not good for the country. I am very worried. With what is happening, I see a very dark cloud stretching from the Niger Delta waters to the sands of the Sahara desert. The dark cloud could consume all of us if they do not stop.

“If it does not stop, 2015 will be in jeopardy. We have never had politics this bad in Nigeria. There is politics of bitterness, ethnic problems and so.

“Senator Abe is a very gentle man. He belongs to an ethnic group. By doing this, police and their backers are stoking the fire of trouble. They should stop,” he said.

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) promised to hold President Goodluck Jonathan responsible for the crisis in Rivers – if he does not intervene.

The umbrella body of opposition parties was angry over the shooting of Abe and others: “in the presence of CP Mbu at a peaceful rally organised by the All Progressives Congress affiliate, Save Rivers Movement in Rivers State.”

Jonathan, CNPP said, should as a matter of urgency order the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar to transfer Mbu out of Rivers.

A statement in Abuja by the National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, said: “Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) calls on President Goodluck Jonathan to as a matter of urgent national importance to save our democracy by nipping in the bud the gathering storm in Rivers State. The first step is to post out of Rivers State Commissioner of Police Joseph Mbu, before it is too late.

“For us, this is against police professional ethics and best practices, which means that CP Mbu had taken side, and, unfortunately, descended partially into the political arena; thereby breaching the law and enforcing a non-existing Police Permit Order.

“CNPP wishes to remind the Nigeria Police Force that the Police Permit Order had been repealed by the Appeal Court, as an obnoxious colonial order, following a suit filed by the CNPP.

“Accordingly, groups, associations and political parties are under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guaranteed freedom of association and assemblage; hence the duty of the police is to protect all and not to side any group.

“We challenge President Jonathan to direct the Inspector General of the Police to post CP Joseph Mbu out of Rivers State; failing which we shall hold Mr President responsible for the do-or-die politics unfolding in Rivers State.”

January 14, 2014
Jonathan executing coup against democracy, says Tinubu

Former Governor of Lagos State Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday described Sunday’s police disruption of the rally organised by the Save Rivers Movement as a coup against democracy.

In a strongly-worded statement last night, the All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, said the “brutal disruption” of the rally by Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu on the directive of the Goodluck Jonathan administration adds “another dimension to the dangerous course this government has charted.”

Tinubu said: “The People of Rivers State and of the Save Rivers Movement did nothing wrong. What the police did was criminal. The violent and direct attack on Senator Magnus Abe is a frontal assault against democracy. The Jonathan government, which is supposed to protect the public order, now constitutes threats against the very thing they have pledged to uphold. The police have been unleashed on the people.”

The former governor also wondered why the police felt compelled to shoot and beat “unarmed fellow citizens” whose only offence was the difference of their political affiliation to the Federal Government. He said the events in Rivers showed a disdain for the law and its rule.

He condemned the Police for the role it played in the event saying it had become a tool of political oppression. “The police no longer arrest, they are primed to shoot first and ask questions later. We are supposed to live in a constitutional democracy, but we are burdened with a Police Force that has now become an agent provocateur and a tool of political oppression. They are the partisan, strong-arm division of the Jonathan Presidency.”

Giving the Jonathan administration more flaks, Tinubu said the Federal Government wanted to break down democratic institutions in the country. He said the presidency cannot take away the “alienable rights” of Nigerians to associate with any political party of their choice.

“Sadly, a Presidency that was a major beneficiary of constitutional democracy conspires in Abuja to desecrate our political rights and mortgages our democracy. This government doles out money from the public treasury, not the private pockets of the Abuja despots to service hired mercenaries and political thugs. It is a deep tragedy that the public’s money is being used to employ people and weapons to shoot at the public. This is the depth of political immorality.”

He accuses Jonathan of lording it over Nigerians: “The Jonathan Presidency is willing to sacrifice the lives of countless Nigerians so that it can continue to lord it over Nigerians. If they could shoot a current Senator in broad daylight on a Sunday, imagine the mayhem they will set upon the average citizen seeking to advance his political rights. Their purpose is not to govern Nigeria but to break down the rule of law and our democratic institutions so that they may own Nigeria.

“The illegal conduct of the Police in Rivers should be called what it is; it is uniformed gangsters, a coup against democracy. The rights and the protection guaranteed to the Nigerian people should never be a function of the party they are affiliated with. Under the current Jonathan government, we move towards fascism.”

Tinubu called on the National Assembly to stop the impunity before it is too late. “The National Assembly must rise to its statutory responsibility in defence of the people’s rights and to exercise legislative oversight of an executive branch through the police and a Presidency that has lost all sense of democratic balance and fair play. If the Assembly does not rise at this junction, things will only worsen and at some point, they will be forced to confront the violent misbehaviour of a government intent on perpetuating itself.”

He called on Nigerians to set themselves in “vocal and sure opposition” to the authoritarian evolution of the Jonathan administration, while urging the international community to prevail on the Jonathan administration not to push the people to the wall.

January 14, 2014
Jonathan’s Okrika homily

IN President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration in Okrika, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, that he is not bothered by criticisms, has come a basic contradiction.

The president said he was not bothered by opposition criticisms. Yet, he insisted that he had his eyes on legacy. How sure is legacy if you don’t use criticisms to correct your mistakes? Or is all criticism in bad faith?

Yet, overall, the president’s declaration would appear, in the context in which it was made, not manifestly bad. If it sounded offensive, to the extent that almost every newspaper that reported it led with a declaration that tended to portray the president as contemptuous of criticism, it was because an innate yearning to do good seemed to clash with a Freudian slip to not “give a damn”.

Could the president be so lexically challenged that he would mean the best of things yet sound the worst of things? That really is the worry; and the president and his handlers should be the first to bother, if really they are working towards a post-Jonathan era legacy.

What the president said, at the funeral of his mother-in-law, about public office being like death, and that every public officer is doomed or saved by his action – or inaction – in office should have been near-holy writ for the Nigerian political class. Death is the freezing final. With death, there can’t be a second chance. So, it is with office. After office, there is simply no second chance.

But with the level of impunity in the land, and the penchant to abuse public office for personal gains or use public office to settle personal scores, the president was simply on point.

Yet, ironically, given the location of Jonathan’s declaration – Okrika in Rivers State – the president did nothing but trenchant self-indictment. The way his presidency has grossly abused the use of the police, against real or perceived political opponents in Rivers, is totally condemnable.

The Rivers State Police Command, under Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu, is a classic example of how not to be a police officer. Under his charge, the Rivers police have become a partisan tool: a rod to crack the skull of the opposition (even if opposition activity is entrenched in the Constitution); and a scheming machine, maintained by public money, to aid and abet criminal intolerance by the powers-that-be. Most ruinous: CP Mbu even figures himself a rival power, against an elected governor, all under the unfazed guidance of the Jonathan Presidency!

Besides, how the police have been deployed to harass the G-7 governors, members of a splinter group of the federal ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), does not exactly mould the Jonathan Presidency in the image of a government that particularly cares about its post-office legacy on rule of law, the very pillar of democracy.

In his Okrika homily therefore, President Jonathan has evinced the tragic contrast of a president who knows the right thing to do but, due to political expediency that will sooner than later come back to haunt him, is too undisciplined to do it.

For the sake of Nigerian democracy, it is not too late to correct this tragic flaw. But if the president must, it is to the bitter pill of opposition criticism that he must resort. He must swallow that bitter pill; and demonstrate to everyone he can improve on whatever he is not doing right.

That is the straight and narrow path to legacy. Any other way is the wide and merry way to destruction. The president must choose right. But eventually, the choice is his – and so would be the consequences of that choice.

November 12, 2013