“The life of man (in a state of nature) is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” – Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes the great philosopher, seems to be referring to Nigeria when he listed the basic attributes of the ‘’state of nature’’. Of course, the description above epitomizes the characteristics of the Nigerian society where life of a commoner is valueless and of no importance to government and its law enforcement agencies.
Contrary to happenings in the developed world where security of lives and properties cum welfare of citizens are of core priority to the government, the Nigerian security agencies especially the Nigerian Police Force saddled with the constitutional responsibilities of protecting the lives and properties of citizens have exhibited high level of immorality, low professional ethics and gross indiscipline. In fact, they have been extremely gullible to such extent that they constitute more security threat to citizens than imagined.
The Nigerian Police have unlawfully taken more lives of innocent citizens than secured. Nigerians are therefore of the impression that an average Police officer symbolizes criminality due to their (Nigerians) bitter experiences in the hands of these unruly officers. Indeed life in Nigeria is ‘’solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’’.
The incessant corruption and abuse of privilege by the Nigerian police has assumed an alarming rate. The manner with which police officers abuse, maltreat and humiliate innocent members of the public has assumed a new dimension in recent times that no sane nation will accommodate such brutal and primitive activities capable of throwing the nation into anarchy.
Surprisingly, every Inspector General of Police (IGP) says road-block is illegal, yet everyday police mount road blocks, extorting money from people. One of the flash- points is the 1st Avenue in Festac Town. Police claims “stop and search” is allowed. However, no IGP has been able to explain the difference between “a road- block” and “stop and search”. Is this not Yahoo Yahoo?
MMS Plus newspaper observed what could be tagged “Armageddonic War” between some Nigerian police officers and some innocent no-nonsense young men around 1st Avenue in Festac town, Lagos. In order to ascertain the veracity of the incident otherwise the cause of the hullabaloo, MMS plus correspondent quickly took a close observation only to realize that the police officers had demanded for the usual (settlement/bribe) from the young men mistaken for yahoo guys or perhaps their customers. Unfortunately, the young eloquent men refused to heed to the police officer’s demand of inducement but rather implored the police officers to perform their duties probably to conduct a search/check and others.
Oga police who got heartbroken by this act of non-compliance to their demands by the guys quickly dragged them out and started manhandling them. Within a short while, a huge crowd had gathered. Having discovered that they are exposed, they tactically called their boss (maybe patrol leader) who rushed down from the office and whisked the officers away. Of course they realized that the young men in question weren’t born without a silver spoon as against their earlier thought coupled with the fact that people were taking video shots of the scenario.
The eyewitness around the incident scene who claimed anonymity complained of the continuous brutality and exploitative activities of the police within the Festac axis. “They come here every day to demand bribe from passersby. Whoever refused would be severely dealt with. This people are evil, they only disguise as if they are doing security check here. They aren’t doing our country any good. Their oga knows about it. In fact, there was a day they slapped one man and later prostrated and started begging him not to deal with them after realizing that he is not a common citizen. The police are not my friend as far as I am concerned” the eyewitness remarked.
It is highly germane at this juncture for government to take police excessiveness with less levity as it’s capable of throwing the nation into extinction if Nigerians resort to self defense. Definitely, the end will be disastrous to our communal coexistence as one indivisible and indissoluble nation.
Erring police officers should be publicly dealt with to serve as deterrence to others. There may never be any rational output in the anti- corruption struggle if sanity is not restored to the law enforcement agencies. Charity they say begins at home.
