POLICE: BEATING US BLACK AND BLUE
It is both dismal and ironic that the institutions set up to serve and protect citizens in Nigeria in fact victimise them, leaving them at the mercy of gun butts and bullets, the heels of shoes and batons. In 1820, the Nigerian Police Force was founded, making it the oldest para-military organisation in the country. Yet in its almost two centuries of existence, it has learnt nothing new, it has instead grown worse and evolved to be the bane of the Nigerian society, the barbarian Rottweiler employed by every Tom, Dick and Harry who can afford some change.
The Nigeria Police has grown to be a resident evil growing on the skin of the country like mold. Over and again, they have attempted cosmetic reforms like changing the colour of their uniforms, but of course none of these things have even nearly worked because the rot in the police is endemic and runs through the chain of authority, up and down the rungs of its rank and file and pervades even the higher echelons of its leadership.
As though we were not riddled enough with the inhumane conduct of these gun-totting, trigger-happy fellows, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad was established in 1992 to operate primarily in Lagos. Fast-forward some 15 years later, and it began to spread to other parts of the country, and play the role of armed robber, kidnapper and assaulter, all in one. The Nigeria Police of today, to attempt a little euphemism, is a big disgrace to the people it has been called to serve. The motto of the force is ‘Police is your friend’ and their popular slogan is ‘To serve and protect with integrity’, both of which speak volumes to the irony of what they currently represent. First of all, the Nigeria Police is the friend of no one and to no one. They stand by and watch crime happen, demand money to do their job, and instead of doing their jobs, go ahead to assault, brutalise, beat and kill well-meaning citizens. The recent case of a corps member shot dead by a policeman in Abuja just reminds us of how no one is safe around the police. The internet is agog with personal stories of people who have been brutalised, dragged on the floor, headbutted, beaten and killed by policemen, rounded up and taken to cells just to extort some money from the unsuspecting victims in the form of bail. Police have now become a go-to in civil matters that have nothing to do with them.
People are locked up for unimaginable things like ‘walking in the night’ or just bundled into a van at the police’s whims and caprices. In any society, this is unacceptable, how much more in a 21st century society in Africa’s biggest black nation. Word on the street is unmistakable- the Nigeria Police has no regard among the common man; whatever respect and dignity it perhaps had before is gone, lost to the undignifying and rash behaviour they have continued to exhibit over time.
It is even more troubling that each time things like these happen, there is that usual diplomatic, modified, press statement from its leadership, promise of investigation, perhaps suspension, and then, it all fizzles out. Nothing is heard or done, until the next incident happens, and the all-too familiar statement is pulled out of a shelf in the police headquarters, dusted, modified and republished, a laughable game of musical chairs played at the expense of the ordinary man in the Nigerian society.
Only few days ago, the story –and video- of police brutality of a young lawyer went viral. The police, as usual, were called out, like the rabid untamed Chihuahua, to do the bidding of someone who could afford to ‘mobilise’ them. They swung swiftly into action to assault a fellow Nigeria; not a criminal (who in any case does not even deserve to be assaulted that way), not a terrorist, just a young lawyer trying to make ends meet. Yet, these so-called ‘servers and protectors with integrity’ breached every possible human right that could be thought of. This is not the first of such incidents, and it is even more frightening that the assault is now readily carried out against gentlemen of the bar. If lawyers in the society cannot even be assured against these hoodlums called the police, where then lies the fate of the ordinary man in society who does not know the law or his rights?
The Good Book chides somewhere in Proverbs that whoever breaks a hedge gives room for a snake to bite him. In the same vein too, certain lawyers have broken the hedge of the profession, by continuing to use the police to carry out unconstitutional acts for their clients or in prosecuting civil actions. This is highly condemnable, and must be addressed by the Nigerian Bar Association. Frankly, I do not think the NBA is doing enough. If lawyers are to be bastions of society, defending against oppression dressed in black and blue, amongst others, then the seeming docility of the NBA in the face of this rising brutality is worrying.
While the NBA is seeking how to reduce the number of students admitted to the law school on the basis of their grades, and holding longdrawn meetings on religious piety and dress codes for call to bar, the society is degenerating, people’s rights are being tossed and trampled, and the power of redress is leaving the courts and landing in the hands of the police, even at the instance of lawyers. What then do we stand for as an association? I daresay, a brave bar is one that has enough guts to challenge human rights abuses and see it to the end, not this one we see.
To the Nigeria Police Force, this brutality must stop. This barbaric hooliganism draped in black and blue must be put to an end. This is a clarion call up and down the rungs of authority in the police to act to end this menace, institute reforms and prevent impending anarchy.