Not a few Nigerians are worried at the way governance is drifting in our country under the guise of politics. Even more are annoyed that President Goodluck Jonathan seems unperturbed by this descent and may in fact be enjoying it. And unfortunately at the centre of this fall is the Nigeria Police.
Penultimate Sunday seven state governors from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were meeting at the Kano State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja when midway or thereabout into their deliberations, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Asokoro Police Station, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Nnanna Amah barged in and ordered them to stop and disperse immediately claiming he had orders from above not to allow the meeting.
Understandably the governors, members of a breakaway faction of the party called new PDP were shocked. This was how Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, the host, described the event: “We were discussing in my sitting room when the DPO came in and asked us to disband. We were discussing how to approach Mr. President and come up with a stand when invited, but this meeting was disrupted by a DPO. We didn’t offend anybody, but like criminals, a DPO was sent to disrupt our meeting.” Kwankwaso went on to say that not even when Nigeria was under military rule did anything like this happen.
The DPO did not disclose who it was ‘above’ that gave him that order, but in the Nigerian situation it is safe to assume that the order came from the Presidency via the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar.
The rabidly pro Jonathan camp will vehemently deny this and even call anybody that suggests this was the situation names. But whatever they chose to say would not remove the fact that the Nigeria Police under IGP Abubakar has been used more as agents of oppression and suppression of any view(s) and action(s) that are not in tandem with the second term project of Dr Jonathan.
How do you explain the situation in Rivers State where the Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu enforces the law the way it suits his political paymasters? He is in open confrontation with the State governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, one of the G-7 governors and opposes virtually everything the government is doing or wants to do that involves the people gathering. He has banned every political rally or gathering of the sort, disrupting such where the governor and state government are involved yet allowing the Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) of Amaechi’s main opponent and Coordinating Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike to meet freely and canvass for support. But anything gathering for Amaechi must be prevented or disrupted even if violently. This has been going on a long time and both the president and the Inspector-General are conspiring to remain silent fuelling belief that they are solidly behind CP Mbu.
Just last week the IGP announced a ban on rallies and gatherings around and at airports nationwide. The announcement came on the back on the police preventing Amaechi’s supporters from going to Port Harcourt international Airport at Omagwa to welcome visiting leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) who were in Rivers State to woo the governor and his supporters into APC. Meanwhile the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan who goes about with almost a battalion of policemen each time she visited home (Port Harcourt) and her supporters have free access to the airport.
The Abuja police action against the G-7 was not the first time. The police had, not too long ago, similarly gone to the Sokoto Governor’s Lodge in Abuja to stop a gathering of the governors, but were not so lucky, as the governors fixed that venue as a decoy and actually met at a secret location. Known members, supporters and sympathisers of the new PDP are being similarly harassed routinely by the police in Abuja and the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory. The FCT authorities have threatened to demolish properties being used by the new PDP either as party secretariat or for meetings. In Bayelsa, Gombe and a couple of other states, nPDP leaders and supporters are being hounded by the police.
All these are happening under the president’s watch and the Commander-In-Chief and his Inspector-General of Police are seeing nothing wrong here and saying nothing. PDP elders and the Bamanga Tukur faction are enjoying it. As long as the shoe is on the other foot no problem; but there is a problem here. Our democracy is under threat. Freedom of association, freedom to dissent, freedom of choice et al are being trampled upon by Jonathan’s police just to drive fear into the opposition and make Nigerians submissive to the president’s 2015 ambition.
Nigeria is gradually being turned into a police state where opponents of government are either haunted into submission or punished for cooked up offence(s) using the apparatus and agents of state. This is the way of fascists. Although this looks like stretching the argument too far, the signs are there that President Goodluck Jonathan could lead us down that road if he is not called to order. And the only body that can do that is the National Assembly. But can this Assembly do it? Yes, if the will is there.
But I have my doubt if this will ever happen. This National Assembly is sharply divided. While the House of Representatives might be willing to call the president and his IGP to order, the Senate often acts with too much restraint at times bordering on total submission to the will of the president. Not a few Nigerians believe that this Senate, when the chips are down, will always side with President Jonathan even at the risk of this democracy.
But for how long can and should the senate continue to shield the president and tolerate his excesses? At what point would the Senators act and stop this culture of impunity that is the hallmark of Jonathan’s presidency. Make no mistake about it, the president is a gentleman, as all have acknowledged, but he is grossly incompetent. Doing the routine things alone would not make Jonathan a great leader neither also would he’s being nice. Taking major political decisions in the interest of the state, even if such hurt personally would put him up there as one of our finest; and he can start by calling the IGP and his boys to order, or rather allow the police to work without political interference. He should also rein in the excesses of his supporters especially his Ijaw kinsmen; and not forgetting Madam, the First Lady.
A good place to start would be in Rivers State where a combination of his wife’s interest, the inordinate ambition of the Coordinating Minister of Education Nyesom Wike, his own second term interest and the uncompromising stance of state governor, Rotimi Amaechi are threatening the peace and security not only of the state but also the wellbeing of Nigeria’s democracy. In between put in a partisan police commissioner and you get the picture of what is going on in Rivers State.
Some of these the president acknowledged in his speech at the centenary celebration of Port Harcourt last week, but he should not just stop at the talking, he should walk his talk and do the needful and douse the tension, not just in Rivers state but also nationwide. He should be mindful of how he uses the police lest we fall into fascism. State governors are not ordinary Nigerians to be harassed by the police just because they disagree with the president. Enough of this, Mr President.
