By Jude Atupulazi
Last weekend, I embarked on a trip to Enugu after many years I last did. It was a case of ”wetin my eye see, my mouth no fit talk am”, an expression here that means encountering a shocking experience. It was a journey which further confirmed to me how corruption had eaten deep into Nigeria’s bone marrows; corruption being carried out by people who ought to be enforcing the fight against it. I am talking about the extortionist activities of the men in uniform covering the Army, the Police and the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC.
I witnessed this while going and coming back and the drivers confirmed same to me. It was a journey in which I realized that the only people who do not take part in the infamy are officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) and men of the Nigerian Navy.
Now to the Army. Between Enugu and Awka, there are six military checkpoints (four in Enugu State and two in Awka). While those in Enugu extort money from drivers, the ones in Awka do not. For the ones in Enugu, they collect money from those who carry loads in their vehicles. If they agree to be searched, they are not obligated to pay but if they do not wish to be disturbed they pay and are allowed to go, even if they are carrying human parts. They usually pay N100.
For the police, whether the drivers carry loads or not, they must pay N100; while for the FRSC, drivers pay N200 to them. These ones (FRSC) have just increased theirs from the previous N100, as I learnt from our driver.
I was shocked to learn that even the FRSC people had joined in the extortion and I witnessed it live on my return journey. This FRSC officer flagged our driver down and the driver brought out his hand, lowered it beside his bus and stealthily gave him the money. He told me that if he did not do it stealthily they would not take it but would ask him to park and come down where they would take it.
One common denominator in all this is that all the officers concerned have money in their pockets from which they give change to the drivers. They have all known the amount and once they are given money exceeding that amount they give change. I saw policemen with bulging pockets who slung their guns carelessly across their shoulders.
The soldiers are often more discreet as they sometimes employ agberos (touts) to collect the money for them. It is the police that do theirs openly.
Consequences
I have often wondered why policemen and soldiers usually fall prey to criminals know as unknown gunmen. In almost all the attacks, the soldiers and policemen are wiped out, without their assailants being hit in return. But you only have to see these officers at work on the roads to know why they have become so vulnerable.
The police and soldiers are deeply engrossed in collecting money from commercial drivers that they are never vigilant. They don’t even hold their guns at the ready as the guns are slung over their shoulders. Thus, when those gunmen strike, the officers become what we call sitting ducks.
They become exposed and defenceless as they are mown down before they can unsling their guns. Some of them even dash into the bush in fright. I’m sure the gunmen know this and this is why they usually catch these officers unawares. In fact, you could hand these officers a grenade and they will take it believing it is money. That is how bad it has become. They display zero vigilance!
I am sure the hierarchies of these security agencies are not unaware of what happens; hence, the impunity with which the officers carry out their sordid business. But it is time this was stopped as it makes a mockery of the country. Any wonder that our Army cannot fight ordinary insurgents and bandits? This is indeed a national shame.
All the time, successive leaderships of the police tell us how it is illegal for police officers to demand money from road users but all the time we see them do so. It is much the same way as they always tell us how bail is free until one has the bad luck of being detained.
While many Nigerians have come to accept this anomaly as normal, it still sends horrible signals across as susceptible elements are copying their bad example. For how indeed can anyone expect crime to disappear in the country when those supposed to fight crime are the criminals themselves? Isn’t it laughable that every day, people are arrested for stealing money while our leaders are stealing the nation blind in their air-conditioned offices? At same time, security officials are stuffing their pockets on the roads from money extorted from commercial drivers and other road users.
Away from the roads, some elements in the police have become so corrupt that they are ever ready to suppress justice just because their palms have been soiled with money. In such circumstances they usually make the accuser the accused and this discourages people from going to them to pass information.
This isn’t saying that the entire police force is rotten. No! But the minority that do this have been able to thoroughly obliterate the good work of the good few. Report a matter like a stolen car to the police and you are made to pay for ”tracking” and other ”services”. One often ends up spending more than the stolen item on the police, thus, forcing them to abandon or leave out the police option.
You are therefore wont to wonder if they are not paid for the services they are supposed to render when certain matters are reported to them. I recall some time in 2013 when I had gone to a police station to report about a corpse on the road and they asked me to bring money to fuel their car to that place which was even not far. This showed me that they were unconcerned about what I reported. Does this tell you anything as to why many people still feel reluctant to cooperate with the police?
As for the soldiers, they see themselves as super men once they put on that uniform and the bloody civilians are pounced on at the slightest excuse. Despite several punitive actions by the military hierarchy against such soldiers over the years, such practice has continued. It is not as if it is only the soldiers that are guilty of this though. The police, the navy and air force are also culprits. All these contribute to the distrust by the civilian population of the men in uniform as we say here.
But it is not ideal for any country’s security agents to be so perceived and this should really worry the top commands of these security agencies. It is so disgusting, the way these officers unabashedly extort money from road users. By the way they conduct themselves, you will think it is the norm in Nigeria.
Really, there is nowhere else that corruption stares you directly in the face than on the roads of this country. Imagine what little children who witness these things will grow up thinking about our security and traffic agents. By the time they grow up they will already have believed that it is the acceptable way of doing things. I’m worried and ashamed but I wouldn’t know if the authorities concerned are too.
But most worrisome, as I have said earlier, is that the laissez faire attitude of the authorities to these ignoble actions of their rank and file will do incalculable harm to our society. I don’t think there will ever be a country where corruption stares one in the face as in this country. I kept shaking my head on the trip to Enugu and back at the blatant display of corrupt tendencies by those who should be fighting it.
While the Federal Government warns against mutilation of the Naira notes and arresting people who disrespect it by spraying it at people during events, the country’s security agents abuse the same Naira by recklessly folding it and stuffing in their pockets from which they give change to commercial drivers on the road after extorting money from them. Do you see why this country is always taking one step forward and three steps backward? Surely, only God knows when this country will have redemption.
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