At home on Monday evening, I was
engrossed in some heavy reading and writing task when I got a desperate
call from my driver who had closed for the day. His friend, and some
other hapless Nigerians, had just been randomly arrested at Ketu area by
the “Lagos State Task Force” for undisclosed offences. “They have
handcuffed him and taken him to the Ketu police station,” he said
frantically. Immediately, I asked for the chap’s name and phone number. I
then called a valuable police contact. She instantly swung into action.
After hours of trying to trace the boy’s whereabouts, we finally found
out he was somewhere in a police van around Oshodi.
His distraught mum was inconsolable.
However, he was finally released around 9pm. But what really happened?
Toheeb is a student of Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin. Anytime he is on
break, he comes to stay with his mum in Lagos and uses the opportunity
to make some income driving his friend’s commercial tricycle, “Keke
Marwa”. The little income supports his schooling. He was picking
passengers in Ketu when the police swooped on them, arrested, handcuffed
and whisked them away. They were beaten black and blue. I was told the
police had just killed a young man and a mob attacked them. The officers
decided to arrest “suspects” — meaning anybody in sight.
Toheeb and his passengers automatically
became suspects for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. That was
it. No other evidence is needed in our jungle justice system. They
seized their phones, rendering them incommunicado. My contact told me
the Lagos police PRO, CSP Chike Oti (God bless him), personally went
there to secure his release. In tears, Toheeb narrated the whole
incident. “So this is how innocent people suffer in this country? Some
of my passengers are still in detention. They did nothing,” he said,
sobbing and sniffing. The “suspects” were allegedly asked to pay between
N50,000 and N100,000 to regain their freedom. This is Nigeria.
I was putting finishing touches to this
article on Friday when my electrician called me. This was unusual of
him. He would normally send an SMS. I knew there was fire on the
mountain. His brother, a vulcaniser at Ojota Motor Park, Lagos, had a
dispute with a client over payment. The client went to report him at
Ogudu Police Station on Thursday. I don’t know how much the client gave
to the police but they certainly over-delivered. The police immediately
sent Omotayo to Ikoyi Prisons. By Friday, the poor fellow was fighting
for his life. He had not eaten anything. The inmates had battered him to
pulp — the traditional welcome party. Hopefully, we will secure his
release this week.
Early 2017, I got a distress call from a
commercial bus driver, a friend of a member of our staff. The Task
Force van had suddenly crossed him at Maryland in an attempt to force
him to stop for an offence he will never know how he committed it. It
was too late for him to brake completely; he dented the van. Goodness
Gracious! The police officers dragged him out, tore his shirt, battered
his bulky frame, handcuffed him, flung him into their van and took him
and his bus — his means of livelihood — to their Ikeja yard. Despite all
my efforts, including getting a commissioner to intervene, we still had
to part with a large sum to repair the police van. This is oppression.
After the whole incident, Saheed came to
thank me. “I heard many sad tales inside the Task Force yard,” he said.
“One person told me his brother was transferred to Kirikiri Prisons
because they couldn’t raise the money that was demanded.” Talking about
Kirikiri Prisons, my uncle, who went on an evangelical visit many years
ago, told me of a young inmate who said he was picked by the police on
his own street while running an errand for his mum. “Up till now, my
mother does not know that I am inside here, and our house is not far
from this place. The police picked me up and dumped me here, and I am
now classified as awaiting trial,” the poor boy told my uncle. This is
Nigeria.
Only God knows how many lowly Nigerians I
have had to help out of police trouble in my journalism career. In most
cases, I am heartbroken. The offences they are accused of committing
show that they are mostly victims of oppression and impunity by the
security agents simply because these guys are powerless and voiceless.
They are poor. In the scheme of things, they do not matter; they are not
regarded as human beings. They have no liberty. We run a society where
the ordinary people do not expect any form of justice — they do not even
believe they have a right to complain when they are being trampled upon
by those who should protect them.
I could write a massive book on the
horrible things ordinary Nigerians suffer, daily, in the hands of the
police. Every Nigerian has a story to tell. There is nothing called
justice in this country. The heartbreaking stories of police oppression,
cheating and brutality did not start today, or yesterday, or the day
before yesterday. In November 1987, the Dadowu brothers — Saka and Sule —
were shot dead by Ibe Eze, a police constable, at the Anikantamo Square
of Central Lagos, over an alleged traffic offence. Two brothers killed
on the same day! Not for armed robbery, but for traffic offence! Eze was
spared the hangman by the Supreme Court years later. The Dawodu family
never got justice.
This incident apparently inspired Majek
Fashek’s 1989 song, “Police Brutality”, in which he mourned: “Dem dey
suck the blood of the sufferers/Dem dey eat the bread of the
wanderers/Instead of killing the armed robbers/Dem dey kill all the taxi
drivers… Dem dey kill all the sufferers.” The oppressed never get
justice in Nigeria. Lowly Nigerians have become accustomed to police
brutality, so much so they do not even bother to complain any longer.
They simply curse their luck or comfort themselves that it is the “will
of God”. It is only if you are “somebody” or the child or friend of
“somebody” that eyebrows are raised, because there is someone to fight
for you.
After severe and sustained complaints
about the abuses by the Special Anti-Armed Robbery Squad (SARS), the
police have promised to reform the unit — but it is the entire police
force that needs to be reformed, in my opinion. Nigerian police officers
appear to have a special training in harassment, torture and
extra-judicial killing. There seems to be no will or desire to rein them
in. Any inspector-general that is going to reform the police force will
have to start from tampering with the mentality that makes the police
think that their primary duty is to terrorise, intimidate and oppress
the very citizens they are supposed to protect. It is a mental problem.
Other reforms can follow.
Meanwhile, if my article has created the
impression that I do not appreciate the Nigerian police at all, then I
have not expressed myself properly. In the last 15 years, I have done a
lot of study on the police and I know very much that given the
conditions under which they are recruited, trained, kitted and
compensated, the officers are only a reflection of the system that
produces them. They are not genetically bad. They have indeed
demonstrated that they can be as good as any police force in the world
under the right conditions — and my key evidence is that they win medals
anytime they serve outside the country, particularly on UN missions.
Police officers daily lose their lives
defending the rest of us. Most recently, four policemen were killed in
Kaduna as they ran into an ambush trying to arrest kidnappers. When
robbers strike, police officers are their first target. The Offa robbers
wasted the lives of eight policemen. Police officers are human beings
like us. They have families and friends too. They deserve our respect
and sympathy. Ironically, I understand that no other Nigerian security
agency disciplines its erring officers more than the police. But our
reality today is that the bad apples are spoiling the whole bunch. We
need to completely overhaul or rebuild the factory that produces them.
I agree that the system has also not
been fair to the police. That must be said. They are the least resourced
among the security agencies, and they have been systemically undermined
over the years, especially under military regimes. Even now, we keep
creating agencies to duplicate the functions of the police. Yet, police
play arguably the biggest role in maintaining law and order. I cannot
imagine how the society would be if police officers are not on the road.
I, for one, would not feel safe to drive on the road — in spite of the
fact that the police themselves have become a danger to the society they
are deployed to protect. We need them; we need a better, refined
version of them.
I have always argued that democracy is
nothing if it does not work for the people. One of the major links
between the state and the society is policing. Any government that wants
to really touch the lives of ordinary Nigerians must frontally address
police impunity. It is an indictment on government that people’s rights
are brazenly violated and all they can say is “we have handed things
over to God”. That means they’ve lost faith in the state. No citizen of
any country should feel hopeless and helpless. Everybody deserves to be
treated with respect and dignity. Reforming SARS without reforming the
brutal mindset of the police at large is a waste of time.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS
CBN AND MTN
The CBN has fined four banks for issuing
allegedly irregular certificates of capital importation (CCIs) on
behalf of some offshore investors of MTN Nigeria from 2007 to 2015. MTN
itself is expected to refund the $8.1 billion it took out as dividends
on the basis of the CCIs. CBN will refund the naira equivalent to MTN at
the market rates when the transactions were done. In layman’s language,
MTN is accused of using deception to repatriate $8.1 billion dividends.
I expect MTN to put up a strong fight to clear its name. However, while
some think this sanction could scare away foreign investors, a strong
regulatory environment could actually be a positive thing for Nigeria.
Perspectives.
TRUMP’S TONGUE
Why do Nigerians rejoice when their
leaders are disparaged by outsiders? When the Economist of London called
President Goodluck Jonathan the “ineffectual buffoon”, I could not bear
it, but many people celebrated as if they just won a lottery. Now
President Donald Trump, according to the Financial Times, has said he
never wanted to meet someone “as lifeless as Buhari” again and some
people are popping champagne. The point we are missing is that
disrespect for your president is disrespect for you. I also find it hard
to understand the logic of those who rejoiced when the Economist
disparaged Jonathan but are now angry with Trump. I hate double
standards. Hypocrisy.
RULE OF LAW
President Buhari recently said: “The
rule of law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security
and national interest.” That actually was a Supreme Court pronouncement
in 2007 in the case of Dokubo Asari vs Federal Government, but it was
not a blanket verdict. It didn’t say court orders should be disobeyed.
National security has to be pleaded in court and the court must decide.
That is how “rule of law” and “national security” go hand-in-hand in a
democracy. I was happy to see Buhari backtrack on the scary Freudian
slip. I insist that they need a BS detector in Aso Rock. There are too
many avoidable gaffes oozing forth from the Seat of Power. Judgment.
AND FINALLY…
Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, former governor
of Delta state, has defected to APC after almost 20 years in PDP. He is
one unlucky governor: he could not install his successor or the deputy
and could not even get PDP’s senate ticket. After weeks of speculation,
he has finally exchanged the umbrella for the broom and is expected to
run for senate in 2019. The amiable ex-governor said: “I am going into
APC as ‘John the Baptist’ to the numerous Deltans that are coming in,
soon – very soon.” I don’t get the John bit though. Is Chief James
Ibori, Uduaghan’s cousin, on his way to APC too? And was John the
Baptist not the cousin of Jesus Christ that was beheaded by Herod
Antipas? LOL.
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