Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka has said the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu is a “tough cop” and has no business in peaceful states. He advised President Jonathan to send him to Borno to tackle the Boko Haram menace.
Soyinka spoke at a lecture held in honour of Mandela at the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) in Osogbo.
He said, “people who are so tough, so unbeatable and untouchable should be sent to Maiduguri to go and confront the greatest menace the country is facing now” (the Boko Haram).
“Since Mbu is such a tough cop that is so powerful and mighty that he can steamroll over the democratic process of this nation and to show how tough he is, I recommend to Jonathan that he should be sent to Maiduguri to go and show his powers there with Boko Haram”, he said.
He added that if Nelson Mandela had been President of Nigeria, “any policeman or law enforcement officer who fires even a rubber bullet at innocent people – I am not even talking about a senator or politician or opposition – innocent people harmlessly holding a meeting and any officer be it soldier, policeman, vigilante who intrudes in such a meeting with violence using state’s power or the people’s armoury to injure or traumatise the citizens, such an individual would be in jail now, however highly placed”.
HE said he was ashamed to be a citizen of a country where the police could shoot a man for exercising his fundamental human rights whih had been upheld by the Supreme Court.
He admonished President Jonathan to stop looking elsewhere for the smoke in the plane while “the fire is right on his own roof” at Aso Villa, referring to Patience Jonathan’s alleged role in the crises.