Nigeria Does Not Have And Does Not Need A Police Force - Aduba

The term Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is very misleading. NPF is a term used by some men and women in uniform who extort money from the citizenry for the benefit of the uniform wearer’s family. Nobody should doubt that Nigeria does not have and does not need a police force. Here are proofs dating only two years back:

1.   About two years ago a young woman was seen on tape being raped by some young men. The tape suggested that the incident took place on the campus of Abia State University in Ituru in Abia state of Nigeria. Two years later the identity of the victim and those of the perpetrators have not been established. Nobody knows what has become of the case. It has not been conclusively proved that the tape was fake. Nobody even mentions it anymore. It never happened.

2.   Last year another tape surfaced showing two women being sodomized by several young men who were seen sticking stuff into their private parts and the women crying helplessly and promising to do anything to be saved. Those of us who merely watch the tapes were traumatized. The incident took place somewhere in Lagos state. The women’s sin; they stole a few pennies worth of goods. The picture showed clearly the faces of the women and the back of the men who abused them. That was last year and the story has been lost since. What appeared to be public anger has since faded and as in the case of the Ituru woman, it never happened.

3.   Last week a girl’s high school was attacked in the middle of the night and the entire school boarding students were “kidnapped” and taken to parts unknown. It is almost two weeks and the entire high school residents have not been heard from and the anger has died down. In this particular case, some girls escaped to freedom but otherwise the rest have not been located and rescued. Two weeks and we could not find 85, 129, or 234 (we do not even know the true number of) young women. Even with the help of the escaped girls.

4.   The same week a bomb blast went off in an Abuja suburb killing 72 residents in a bus stop and wounding possibly 100 others. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility but nobody is under arrest or being questioned. Mr. Jonathan visited and Mr. Buhari issued a statesmanlike statement. The dead have been identified and possibly buried. The wounded are hopefully receiving treatment at area hospitals. From the look of it things are returning to normal.

5.   Let us say nothing about individuals who are daily kidnapped all over Nigeria, thefts of public and private property, etc.

 

Do I need to say anymore? Nigeria does not have or need a police force. We are doing just fine.

 

Some people would jump up on reading the examples above and blame people in the leadership positions. In doing so they absolve themselves of responsibilities and feel good about themselves. This is why we have what we have.

 

The people failed before the leadership failed.

 

If one were to sit down and think carefully, one would see what had happened: we hired (elected, selected, appointed, take your pick) some people to do a job for us; they bungled the job often and we did nothing and instead of firing them we sit down and bemoan our fate. Are we what!

 

I am a father of three girls. They all went to college and were boarders.  As I think of the 200 girls now somewhere, I am incensed. Are they being fed? What? Are they being abused? What have they been wearing since they did not have a change of clothing? What happens if their period were to start? How are they managing? Where do they sleep? Do they sleep?

 

My anger is less with the kidnappers but more with our society. Why are the parents of these girls just sitting there? Why is there no fist fights in the legislatures of the federal and state assemblies? Why do we not have riots in the country demanding the location and return of our daughters? Why is the IG still in Abuja and not in Bornu? Where are our women groups? Where are our Abuja delegation? Our market women, all parents, other high school students, university students, faculty, religious leaders of all faiths, etc.? Why has the campus not been burnt down? Where is the faculty of the girl’s school? Why are they not rounding up the community and raising hell? Where is state and federal education ministers?

 

Is this a comatose nation or what?

 

From the look of things we would lose the girls and everything would return to normal again and the so called NPF would still be looking for N20 from drivers and soiling our names.

 

I carefully selected the examples I gave to show that it has happened in the East, in the West, and in the North with no marked difference. It has happened to the Christians and Muslims with no marked difference. If the loss of 200 young women does not move us; nothing will.

 

Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

I cry for my beloved country.

 

By

Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba

Boston, Massachusetts

April 23, 2014