Is Mbu still in police uniform?

Amnesty International has always drawn our attention to our poor human rights record. Each time the report is released, we respond with vituperative denials. But every day we are confronted with stark reminders that some of those charged with law and order in the land are themselves disorderly and arbitrary.Amnesty has noted that our justice […]

Amnesty International has always drawn our attention to our poor human rights record. Each time the report is released, we respond with vituperative denials. But every day we are confronted with stark reminders that some of those charged with law and order in the land are themselves disorderly and arbitrary.
Amnesty has noted that our justice system was defective: “Widespread cor-ruption and disregard for due process and the rule of law continued to blight Nigeria’s criminal justice system. Many people were arbitrarily arrested and detained for months without charge. Police continued to ask people to pay money for their release from detention. Many detainees were kept on remand in prison for lengthy periods and in harsh conditions.”
Last week, Assistant Ins-pector-General of Police Joseph Mbu who had earlier achieved notoriety as Commissioner of Police in Port-Harcourt, openly advertised his penchant for bad behaviour at his new post in Abuja. He ordered the arrest of Amaechi Anakwe of the African Independent Television (AIT) for having the temerity to describe him as ‘controversial’ in a TV programme. Those who have chalked up fifty Christmases and Sallahs, or more, would readily remember that Anakwe’s arrest was a throw-back to the days of military rule when a journalist was arrested and his head forcibly shaved for daring to write something considered by the military governor to be uncomplimentary on His Excellency’s birthday!
Last Friday, Chief Magis-trate Ogboi discharged the journalist after the prosecution counsel, Chijoke Okezie, explained that Mbu had ordered that the charge be withdrawn and Anakwe brought to his office for further clarification on the issue. Under what law was Anakwe arrested? The defence counsel, John Kalu, had earlier informed the court that he had yet to get a copy of the First Information Report to enable him to know the offence his client was charged with.
Can you believe that? In Nigeria of 2014, a man can be picked up and detained against his will for the ‘crime’ of doing his job as a reporter? As the world watches in horror, we are again descending into an era of the rule of man as against the rule of law. It usually starts with the arrest and humiliation of journalists and human rights activists, then it transmogrifies to the reign of untraceable killer squads and sundry faceless enforcers in the name of teaching dissenters a lesson.
How did we arrive at this sorry pass again? Imoni Mac-Amarere, Executive Director, News and Current Affairs at AIT, proffered an answer: “I think it has to do with the culture and level of impunity that Mbu has been allowed to exhibit right from his days as police commissioner in Rivers State to today”. An anonymous humorist on a Nigerian internet forum put it all down to allergy – Mbu, he said, was allergic to the name, Amaechi; once he hears ‘Amaechi’, he shoots first and then thinks later.  Most commentators, however, put Mbu’s behaviour down to the fact that he was promoted after his controversial tenure in Port-Harcourt. He wants to believe that he is the enforcement arm of those in power and is therefore untouchable. But he makes a mistake. Abuja is not Port-Harcourt; nor is a journalist a politician. You cannot exhibit the jungle behaviour of Port-Harcourt under the nose of the president and foreign missions in Abuja and think that nobody would notice.
Mbu’s misbehaviour is the stuff of which Amnesty’s report is made. In fact, Amnesty does not need to invent anything in compiling a report about Nigeria. All the organisation has to do is follow the activities of our policemen.
When the acting Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, assumed office, I thought there was no need to set an agenda for him as I had done with at least four of his predecessors. One starts sounding like a broken record when making suggestions about how our country could be better run. But now, I see that the IG’s tenure may not record any worthwhile achievement if there are more bullies like Mbu surrounding him.
With a police AIG like Mbu, who needs a bouncer?
The most urgent task confronting the IG therefore is the re-invention of the Nigeria Police, starting with the top. In this task, the Police Service Commission which, technically, is the employer of all policemen on behalf of the federal government, needs to brace up to discharge its duty dispassionately. This is not about PDP and APC. This is not about partisan considerations. This is not about infrastructure of the police station or even of the stomach. This is about reclaiming the people’s trust in their police.
Mbu is not the first lackey in uniform to abuse the public trust bestowed on him. We saw plenty of such during the Abacha days. But where are the lickspittles now?
We are now under a democratic dispensation. It may be convenient for all kinds of bootlickers to hide under political personages to terrorise the public but we all know that they are short distance runners. If President Jonathan were to have the same disposition with Joseph Mbu, the jails will be full by now, and the president may not be sleeping with both eyes shut. But Jonathan realises that criticism comes with the territory. It is quite possible that Mbu wants the world to believe that he is a Jonathan protégé – a dangerous signal in every material particular.
A senior journalist in AIT could not help but wonder aloud, “I cannot understand why an individual like Mbu is allowed to remain in the police to continue to tarnish the image of the force and its officers”.
I am tempted to say I can understand; this is Nigeria. But that would be an insult on my country. Proper behaviour is not alien to Nigeria in spite of the Mbus and their ilk. The Police Service Commission can start getting things right by using Joseph Mbu as a contact point with all bullies and abusers of human rights in uniform by showing him the door to civilian-hood. That man is a danger to the uniform he is wearing!