When President Goodluck Jonathan sarcastically referred to some of his critics as ‘little men’; many condemned the diatribe; more so as you can not walk in the rain and complain of getting soaked. But what can one make of ‘little public officials’ who flagrantly abuse their public power; and because of temporal privileges, act with impunity in the name of the institution, they represent. In the past week, deputy House of Representative spokesman, Victor Ogene, and the notorious Commissioner of Police, Rivers state, Mbu Joseph Mbu, took the gold medal in this respect. There were other culprits.
For the umpteenth time, Joseph Mbu was again in the news for the wrong reason. The police under his command was accused of shooting rubber bullets at Senator Magnus Abe and other unarmed members of the so called Save Rivers Movement, a group championing the political interests of Governor Rotimi Amaechi, of Rivers state. Ostensibly, the group was formed as a counterpoise to another nebulous association of political jobbers, called, the Grassroots Development Initiative, beholden to Barrister Nyesom Wike, the Minister of state for Education, who is boastful that he has enormous powers in the politics of the state.
Personally, I have sympathy for the professional challenges facing Mr. Mbu, as the state Police Commissioner; considering that it is extremely difficult to serve two politically wayward masters at the same time. Nay, in the high octane political drama, playing out in Rivers state, Governor Rotimi Amaechi is involved in a life threatening political battle with President Jonathan; and Mr. Mbu is no more than a pawn in the chess game. Interestingly, under our jejune federal constitution, President Jonathan through the Inspector General of Police, instead of Public Law and Order , is the de jure and de facto boss of the Commissioner of Police; but in the eyes of ordinary Nigerians, Governor Amaechi, is erroneously considered the boss of the Commissioner. So the poor fellow is drawn between the un-protective laws of the country, that will not aide him, in a battle with the authorities, and the whims and caprices of desperate politicians and their dangerous compatriots.
But this challenge will not justify his increasing decent into anarchical language; even when he is intermittently drawn into a farcical show-down by those opposed to his boss. In pursuit of professional advancement, Commissioner Mbu must appreciate that there is life beyound the prospects of achieving an ultimate career goal. Mr. Mbu’s lowest moment last week, was his choice of words over the alleged shooting incidence involving Senator Magnis Abe. He did not speak as a mature law officer. Instead, he boasted as if he is the law of the state. Such arrogance shows that the commissioner may have lost his cool, in the tug-of-war, with the political interests mobilized against him, in Rivers state.
Unfortunately for him, in the end-game now on, in Rivers state, should anything happen to any of the dramatis personae in any confrontation with the police, Mr. Mbu will be held accountable, at least in the court of public opinion. It is therefore expedient that Mr. Mbu be immediately redeployed, by the Inspector General of Police. As has been stated by the Court and many commentators on the right to peaceful assembly, the police have no right to issue any permit or disperse a peaceful assembly, for lack of permit, under a truly constitutional democracy. But that is one side of the story. The other side is that, under the Police Act, the Police have subsisting extra-ordinary powers that impugn the rights of free citizens in any modern democracy. These impurities are contained in the police power of arrest and power to prevent the commission of crime (read riotous assembly), which definitions are nebulous.
But Victor Ogene’s tantrum against the Minister of Finance and the coordinating Minister of the Economy is even more gratuitous. According to Mr. Ogene, the Honourable Minister was grandstanding by making public, instead of treating as a secret, her answers to the so called and much advertised 50 questions on the Economy, raised by the House Committee on Finance, for the Minister to answer. Yet, Mr. Ogene purports that the committee was acting in the interest of the Representatives of Nigeria. So except for purposes of mischief, it is difficult to appreciate how the Minister can be censored on this point, when the committee was celebrating publicly, their capacity to raise 50 ‘take home questions or assignment’ for the Minister at their previous encounter.
Even more intriguing is Mr. Ogene’s claim that ‘nobody is deceived by high sounding economic terms’ in the answers. That unnecessary diatribe gave him and those he represented away, as economic illiterates, who are intimidated by economic jargons contained in the Minister’s answers. The resort to clear treats and intimidation about the powers of the parliament over an appointed public official, further confirms that Mr. Ogene is merely pursing the misguided interest, of some of his colleagues. If truly Mr. Ogene and those pushing him are working for our common interests; then his choice of words must be circumspect.
Regrettably, part of the challenge for our young democracy is that many of the political actors are unable to distinguish between democratic ethos and militarized languages. So when you hear Mr. Mbu or Mr. Ogene talking as if they hold the ultimate ace, based on their misguided interpretation of their constitutional responsibilities, you will understand that they are products of decades of militarised environment. Unfortunately, our courts have not yet completely weaned themselves from the effects of the years of a militarized polity; otherwise they would in clear exercise of their prerogative powers, shoot down these pretenders, each time they want to ride roughshod over our laws and the wellbeing of our democracy.
•This article, first published on January 21, is repeated because Mbu, now redeployed to Abuja, has been in the news for the wrong reasons.
