Bribery in the Nigerian Police Force – Matters arising!

In recent times, there have been a couple of videos posted on YouTube showing members of the Nigerian Police Force requesting bribes from motorists. Sequel to that, I’ve seen news report which indicates that one or more of the officers involved have been dismissed from the Force. I feel bad when I watch those videos and read those reports. I’m not just ashamed about how bad those reports look, I’m more worried that bribery and corruption in the Nigerian Police goes much deeper that those accounts. There is a culture of bribery in the Nigerian Police just as it is in other law enforcement and governmental agencies in Nigeria. Sacking a single police officer simply because a picture or video showing him demanding and /or collecting bribes is posted on the internet is not going to solve or even address the problem. It’s like applying Band-Aid on a deep-seated infected wound.

Recently, I traveled across several states in Nigeria. In the process I passed about 40 t0 50 checkpoints. These are checkpoints manned mainly by police officers, but some were manned by men of the Nigerian army and other law enforcement bodies. In almost all of the check-points, drivers paid bribes before they could be allowed through the checkpoints. Many drivers now know that they are expected to pay a bribe and they do so even without been prompted by the security officers. Bribes range from 10 naira to 5o naira. In some checkpoints, when the drivers run out of small naira notes, they give higher denominations and request for change. In one checkpoint, the officer had to walk some distance to check where he had stashed money, and then he collected change to give to the driver. He did it casually, carefreely and without any mixed feelings. In one other check-point, the officer refused to collect the same amount as other checkpoints, he demanded for more. He said, ‘Give me … or park your car.’ The driver had no choice but to oblige. In one other checkpoint, the officer was openly boasting about it: he was not like others who don’t collect money.

Bribery is not just in the purview of rank and file members of the police force. It goes higher up. In one of the YouTube videos, the officer could be seen calling another officer on phone to tell him how the deal/bribery demand went. One officer said in the videos that he’s not working alone and that other superior officers were in on it. We’ve heard reports of kick-backs going all the way to high-ranking police-officers. When you go through check-points in Nigeria and you see how policemen collect bribes, you get disturbed. It’s so brazen, bold, open, shameless, and reckless. No regard is given to consequences, as though the word ‘consequences’ is not in their dictionary. Why is that? What could make a junior officer do something so wrong in the open without regard for what may come out of it? The answer is simple, his/her superior officers are in on it. The senior officers who are in a position to punish the junior officers collecting bribes along the road routes are in the know and they collect their share of the lot. You can’t tell me that senior police officers don’t know what’s going on. You can’t tell me that they need YouTube videos to know what’s happening. If an ordinary citizen can simply travel across checkpoints and notice the level of corruption, surely senior officers with immense resources can do more.

Bribery in Nigerian roads is worse at night. There are more police checkpoints at night possibly due to the threat of night thieves and armed robbers. These checkpoints surely help to reduce crimes in Nigerian roads and our roads are safer in the presence of security officers. I surely feel safer to travel at night when I see checkpoints. At night, though, there is the cover of darkness, drivers are more conscious of been delayed at checkpoints, checkpoints are more and police officers are more brazen in collecting bribes. The question now is: are night-drivers trading trouble with night robbers for trouble with security officers? Is it a case of choosing the lesser evil? Should we the travelers be content that these checkpoints are providing needed security and thus close our eyes to the bribes these security officers collect? Not just at night, security officers do man and cover rough terrains, remote and dangerous roads and do a lot to ‘protect and serve.’ And in these places, they demand for bribes. Should we be okay with them collecting money unlawfully from motorists since they are providing needed security in difficult and dangerous terrains? Should they do their jobs without demanding money for it? Should they not be content with their paychecks and other care they get from the government?

It’s a known fact that historically and at the moment, police officers are poorly paid. Allowances, grants, and pensions paid to working and retired officers are nothing to write home about. They are poorly trained; they are poorly equipped; and they are poorly motivated. Nigeria does not have a good insurance policy. Police officers are reluctant to put themselves in harm’s way because they are afraid of what would happen to them and their family if they get shot, wounded or dead. Who will take care of their loved ones? How will they cope? They reason that they need money and resources other than what they can get legitimately. They see politicians and public office holders looting public funds entrusted to them. They work in a place where there is decades-old culture of bribery and corruption. They take orders from superiors who are also involved in large-scale bribery and corruption. Even some Nigerians have defended the actions of policemen because they are poorly paid and not well taken care of. Should we excuse the actions of policemen on the basis of poor wages? Should we turn a blind eye when they collect bribes, since after all, they deserve more than their pay-check? In my travels, I’ve been in a vehicle where the driver delayed in giving the bribe and almost every passenger in the vehicle blamed the driver for delaying. ‘Oga driver, give them the money na? Why you dey delay us? You know the usual thing, why you dey waste our time?’ Yes, ordinary Nigerians don’t mind if the driver pays a bribe as long as it does not delay their journey. It’s just like ordinary Nigerians won’t mind if a public officeholder steals money as long as he or she is a family member and that they too will benefit from the lot. You see, it’s not that simple. There is hypocrisy and corruption in high and low places and it’s condoned by those who stand to benefit or those at the receiving end.

There is a culture of corruption in Nigeria. That is the truth and it has been that way for a long time. There is corruption everywhere you look. In public offices, public institutions, schools, exam bodies, public and private companies, anywhere and everywhere you turn stinks of corruption. People collect bribes, shortchange others, cheat, steal, loot, hide and do other things that are unlawful. The only rule that is obeyed in this matter is: don’t get caught. If you are caught, you would be made an example of. So, people try to do these without being caught or choose not to do so if there is a chance that they will be caught. It’s true that when someone is caught collecting a bribe or stealing, he should be disciplined and punished and that would serve as a deterrent to others. That is correct. Putting safeguards and ensuring that people are held accountable when they go wrong can go a long way towards making our public and private systems free of corruption. That said let’s say you are the head of a private company. You have a security department. That department has a head, deputy or assistant heads and several men working as guards to protect the company. Then you heard a report that some guards have been collecting bribes in order to allow outsiders get undue access to the company. Let’s say one of the guards was caught on a camera. What would you do? Would you simply fire the guard caught on the tape? Rather, won’t you look into the issue and see what more is at stake here? Think about it, a security guard at a firm or any firm will not just wake up and start collecting bribes. He works under other people. There are probably other people working in that position before him/her. He came there and met a certain culture: how things works, what people do to make extra-money. So, if he was caught doing wrong, it’s probably because he’s new and not adept at doing the wrong or simply because he was out of good fortune. Well, my point is, as the head of a company, you don’t just fire one person when things wrong. You try to find out what things went wrong, who and who is involved, what and what needs to be done to fix it and ways to ensure that such wrong does not repeat itself.

Once again, there is a culture of corruption in Nigeria. We turn a blind eye when it doesn’t affect us negatively and when we seek to benefit from such corruption. Yet, we act all shocked and surprised when some video turn up on the internet showing an officer involved in corruption. We don’t mind when a relative or friend steals public funds to benefit us, but we scream on top of voice when we watch videos of persons caught in an act of corruption. It’s stark hypocrisy! In this country, there need to be a public discourse on corruption. Corruption is rampant in Nigeria; it’s not just a matter of a police officer collecting bribe. What are we going to do about it? What should be done about it? Many prominent Nigerians have been caught in acts of corruption and yet, they got away with little or no punishment. Do we really expect junior police officers to behave when their seniors and notable Nigerians get away with corruption? It’s a good thing when Nigerians get videos of cheating police officers and post them on the internet. It highlights the issue of corruption and put it on the front burner of public discourse. That aside, nothing will be achieved by the mere sacking of the officers involved. There should be an investigation. All those involved should be looked into. There should be a public discourse on the issues of bribery and corruption. Let us stop pretending that there is no problem and merely scratch the surface when some things stir up.

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