THERE was a strong attraction to reduce the hate of Ndigbo spewed in a recent viral video by a man who was said to be an Inspector in the Nigerian Police Force [NPF] to a drug-induced gross misconduct. To do that would be naive and simplistic. The alleged Police Inspector appeared to be travelling in a commercial vehicle. What triggered his vituperations was not established. But in Nigeria, it’s not unusual for commuters to engage themselves on any, and every issue, under the sun.
And Nigerians are not known to be mild – mannered when they engage themselves in public. Perhaps, engagement is the wrong word to use concerning Nigerians whenever such matters arose. The right word will be argument. Engagement will entail parties who desire to inform each other in a civil, mild, and respectful manner, and who are willing to listen, be informed, and to learn. In our country, we argue to intimidate, to dominate, to shame, to silence, to humiliate, and to win. It would not matter that we may be wrong.
In a sense that could explain the slogan “no gree for anybody” which trended on social media, and in street conversations, not too long ago. Ordinarily, “no gree for anybody” which in conventional English language could be likened to the exhortation to “stand your ground”, should not pass as an offensive and vexatious slogan. But in our “no gree for anybody”, we do not mean stand up for your principles. Implicit in the slogan in our country is that we should be inflexible in our positions, reasonings and arguments notwithstanding whether we are in the right or in the wrong.
So the suspected Inspector of Police in that commercial vehicle may have been triggered by what may have been said by a co-passenger or even the driver. For an “officer of the law”, he might have been travelling FOC [free of charge], and probably without any warrant or permission to leave his station or duty post. He could be on an illegal, lone wolf escort mission. For all that mattered, the so-called Police Inspector could have been providing official cover for a rogue driver to deliver arms and ammunition to kidnappers, bandits, herdsmen, armed robbers, insurgents, and terrorists. He could himself fit any of these descriptions.
There are usually no topics under the sun that could not be argued over and vigorously disputed by commuters in a typical commercial vehicle. And we argue at the top of our voices because we are a loud people. For us the person who shouted the most won. The usual topics ranged from bashing our rogue-rulers to dissecting the English Premier League and other European football leagues, Nigerian football especially the dire fortunes of the Super Eagles and other national football teams, our broken highways, government policies including the cost of living crisis, politics, elections, and whatever else caught people’s fancies. It’s not unusual for such arguments to degenerate to name-calling and hurling ethnic slurs. There’s no limit to what could be said to silence the opponent and to “win” the argument. Just as Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said not too long ago, all is fair and permissible in politics and in war. He must have had at the back of his mind that politics and elections in our country are nothing short of war – shooting war – given the evidence before us in virtually all electoral contests including the August governorship election in Osun State.
The unknown Inspector of Police, unknown because the authorities of the Lagos State Police Command have chosen to deliberately and mischievously keep his name and station under wraps, might have been triggered by any of the subjects that were listed above. But indeed, he might not have been started or provoked by any of the aforementioned issues. The buffoon who passes as an officer of the NPF could have been started by something deep in his subconscious, things he had internalised over the years in his miserable life thus far. He sounded like a person who is tormented. His ranting could also be the outward manifestation of his unrelenting consumption and inhalation of psychotropic substances. Without prejudice to respectable and diligent men and officers of the NPF, it is no secret that many of our Police personnel use and abuse drugs.
Some of them are petty thieves, fearsome monsters, and dare-devil armed robbers. The difference between some police operatives and regular armed robbers is that the police robbers are armed by the state with tax payers money. Bitterness, frustration and delusionment are rife amongst the rank and file of the Force. That does not come as a surprise. The majority of our Police operatives are not well catered to and cared for. Stories were once rife of how their leadership suborned the Force’s allocations in federal budgets and deposited the same in their personal bank accounts to cream off the accruing interests therefrom. That could still be happening today or a variant of it. Otherwise, how could it be that after successive Inspectors-General of Police abolished all manner of VIP [very important persons] escort services, the practice still persists? Even known crooks and advance fee fraudsters [419ners] buy the protection of armed policemen. And they flaunt it.
The police institution itself is in dire straits. It’s an undisciplined Force. Disrespect and insubordination are rife in its ranks. It’s not unusual to read and hear stories of Police operatives procuring their own primary and/or supplementary kits with personal funds. Part of the reasons why Police personnel extort road users at gunpoint is so that they can raise money to fuel their operational vehicles, buy stationery, and furnish their offices. Police barracks where many of them live with their families are better imagined than experienced. This is not an attempt to make excuses for the beastly behaviours of some police personnel who interact with ordinary folks, but it would be important to not discount their living hell experience in framing their attitudes and their, most times, unprovoked aggressions in relating with the everyday Nigerian. The rank and file of the police suffer neglect from their leaders and abuse from our political rulers, and then they vent their frustrations on hapless members of the society in what has become a case of misplaced aggression.
In the context of our country and the prevailing sentiments, the Inspector of Police who deprecated the well over 50 million citizens of the Igbo nation in Nigeria has really not committed any crime. No, he did not. If he did, it would only be the crime of saying too loudly what many other Nigerians talk about in whispers and hushed tones. But in recent years many other Nigerians who are not of the Igbo extraction have been coming out of the closet to spew their despise for, and hatred of, Ndigbo. A few months ago, a different Police officer told a traveller who was said to be a returnee from Europe that he should thank his stars that he, the returnee, was not Igbo otherwise he would have dealt with him. That dealing with the returnee could have included public execution…on that highway. It’s not unusual for the police to engage in extra judicial killings.
The self-confessed highway checkpoint prospective police executioner was reported to have been arrested by the police for interrogation and prosecution. Who has heard anything about that incident again? What were the findings of the probe of the highway police executioner? Of course, the Police authorities never feel any sense of accountability to the public. And without public accountability how would other criminal elements and rogue officers be deterred? That’s why the public posturing by the Lagos State Police Command about the arrest and disciplinary proceedings against the Igbo-bashing and Peter Obi-hating Inspector of Police will be just that – public posturing. By the way, Peter Obi is the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress [NDC] in the January 2027 election. He could be a target of assassins. Indeed, he had expressed fears for his life.
The ploy in handling Igbo-baiting by other Nigerians has been obvious and perfected – remove the hate-filled police operative or individual from the prying eyes of the public, let the matter blow over, and return them to the beats possibly with a promotion. Examples abound.
Hating Ndigbo runs from the top of the Nigerian political and institutional pyramid down to the levels of street urchins and motor park roughnecks or “agberos”. The affliction of Nigeria who was also a president in this fourth republic, the late Muhammadu Buhari, was on record to have voiced his disdain for the Igbo. He was not being affectionate in his one and only media chat when he derisively asked in December 2015 what it was that the Igbo wanted from Nigeria. In other words, to him the Igbo were insatiable. Also it could not have been out of love for the Igbo nation when he said that he would teach the younger generation of Ndigbo, some of whom were agitating for self determination, the lessons that he taught their fathers during the 1967-1970 Biafra-Nigeria civil war. Ostensibly, part of the lessons must have been committing war crimes and genocide on Ndigbo. The Butcher of Asaba, the late Muritala Rufai Mohammed committed genocide against the Igbo in October 1967. He got away with it.
As a senator, today’s wife of the president also deprecated Ndigbo over personal choices and political affiliations. She was reported to have chastised a physically challenged Igbo youngster during an election in 2019, saying that the Igbo were in the habit of not belonging to a political party preferred by herself and her husband. Because of that she practically threatened the eviction of Ndigbo from Lagos and the expropriation of their wealth and property. The Oba of Lagos had at a time also vowed to drown the Igbo in the Lagos lagoon if they failed to back and vote his choice for the state governor. There were no consequences. In 2023 MC Oluomo turned himself into a terrorist against the same Ndigbo in Lagos. He charged them not to come near any polling booths in Lagos unless they were prepared to vote for the All Progressives Congress [APC], the political party of his benefactor, Tinubu. Even Yoruba voters who did not sufficiently look Yoruba were beaten, maimed, and bloodied for daring to step out to cast their ballots.
The police said then that it had set up a probe panel to investigate Oluomo. Three years and counting, the police investigative team is still at it, four months to another round of potentially contentious elections.
Election intimidation and violence have taken a life of their own. Every member of the ruling APC including council chairmen and state government commissioners now routinely threaten voters with dire consequences if they failed to vote for the APC in 2027. The trending abusive Inspector of Police merely borrowed a leaf from the goons of the APC, including a presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, who, three years ago, warned the Igbo to steer clear of Lagos state politics and elections. Onanuga even doubled down when he was reminded that he had made a hate speech which could incite violence. The ‘freelance’ Inspector who has reportedly been taken into custody for questioning only committed the crime of saying the quiet part aloud. So the police authorities should let him be. The Igbo are not fooled.
The death of October 1
The absence of celebrations to mark the anniversary of Nigeria’s independence from Britain on October 1,1960, has become a norm. The symbolism should not be lost on us. There’s probably no other country in the world where their independence anniversaries have been subsumed under other nondescript celebrations. Nigeria has successfully achieved that dubious distinction. In two days Nigeria would turn 66. It would come and go quietly. There could be a token to mark it because May 29 and June 12, have stolen the thunder from October 1. Nigeria’s president who should lead from the front in the celebrations is AWOL, YES AWOL [away without official leave]. He has arbitrarily extended his so-called “working vacation” twice, one week after it should have ended. Well, happy independence anniversary holiday on Thursday. Savour it. There’s no guarantee that that work-free day would not be scrapped sooner than later.
