The former Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu (2019 – 2021) was by proxy at Abeokuta on Tuesday, October 27, 2020 at the Stakeholders’ Meeting on the level of insecurity and #EndSARS protests organized by the Ogun State Government to address salient security issues facing the country.

An excerpt from his speech is thus reproduced: “The way forward is community Policing so that we can collaborate and cooperate with ourselves (one another). No man is an island. We want you to understand that we are coming with a new strategy. It is a new dawn. It’s a new beginning for the Nigeria Police. We are going to work together with other sister security agencies. The Nigeria Police Force are the lead agency when it comes to internal security.” The most important part of the excerpt is the part in bold italics which underscores the need for an overhauled policing system; one technically different from, superior to and more sophisticated than Louis Edet’s, because the lives and properties of many Nigerians have been greatly jeopardized with the current police version, welfare, structure, quality and number. This current needy Police beams proudly with so much shameful satisfaction with itself despite incapacity to maintain law and order in Lagos State alone, not to talk of the whole of Nigeria, hence the spate of raging appetite for a new surge of crimes among the citizens thereby reorganizing a once twenty-four-hour state like Lagos State to a twelve-hour state to stay safe. Unfortunately, Nigerians did not see the herald of any positive new dawn of strategy as promised by the former Police boss till his tenure ended and even up till now that Usman Alkakli Baba is the current Police boss. 

The Deaths

Perhaps, the most heart breaking incidence of insecurity in Nigeria in recent time is the gruesome murder of a young, pregnant Lawyer, Bolanle Raheem, a professional colleague and a graduate of my Alma Mata. The following factors make her death worrisome

1. Her life was taken young and unjustly
2. She had been through the rigors of being highly educated under extremely demanding circumstances and in a very dangerous environment that tests one’s resolve to stay alive
3. She was pregnant with twins according to her mother
4. She was shot in the presence of her husband/family in circumstances that no one could rescue the fetus growing in her womb
5. She was shot on a Christmas Day
6. She was coming from church after a Christmas Day service
7. She was her mother’s only child
8. Her parent is still alive.
9. She did not commit any crime.   

The question running through my mind is: what is left of Nigeria’s security architecture if someone paid to protect innocent citizens faced the same citizens with inexplicable appetite and urge to kill them and actually killed them? Promises here and there have been made by the Police and Government Officials, but over forty-one days today, everywhere has been quiet as usual. The sad event happened on the island, one of the most secure part of Lagos State. 

Another bizarre event took place in Lagos on the 26^th day of February 2022, when a young fashion designer called Bamishe Ayanwola, a 22- years- old lady went missing after boarding a BRT bus; a government bus driven by Andrew Ominnikoron, also in the Ajah axis of the state. The corpse of the 22 –years- old was later found on Carter Bridge. The Government has arraigned the said accused on a four count charge, nevertheless, the whole world awaits justice. Arraignment does not equal justice.

About six months ago, In the Eastern Part of Nigeria, precisely in Anambra, the social media platforms were filled with the video of Dr. Chike Akuyili-the husband of the late Chief Mrs. Dora Akuyili, the one-time NAFDAC boss who sacrificed her all to clean up the Nigerian medical and pharmaceutical spaces of the rot of peddlers of fake drugs- as he battled for his life on the road having been shot by unidentified assailants on the lower part of his face, with his jaw held to his chin by a tiny flesh while blood oozed from his head helplessly. Unfortunately, Nigerians present looked on. What an inhumane scene.   

Also forming part of the spate of unbelievable criminal activities of the PMB administration is the gruesome murder of Timothy Adegoke who went to write an examination at Obafemi Awolowo University Distant Learning Centre, Moro Campus. He lodged at Hilton Hotel and Resort and was declared missing on the 7^th of November 2021. In the end it crime tilts towards alleged ritual killing that allegedly involves the owner of the hotel and the founder of Oduduwa University, Mr. Rahmon Adedoyin. Timothy’s body was never found until some suspects including workers at the hotel were arrested. Up till now, the young man’s killer(s) are still at large. 

The Containers of Blood

How could another container fall at Dopemu, Lagos barely 24 hours after an unlashed container fell at Ojuelegba Lagos, killing eight persons including children and this government still doesn’t feel it’s imperative that trucking ought to be separated from trekking hours. This same kind of terrible event happened at Sagamu Ogun State on the 27^th of June 2015, when an unlashed 20-feet container fell on a commercial bus conveying 14 passengers to Lagos through Remo-Sagamu, killing not less than thirteen of them. Unfortunately, there is no definite policy condemning such carelessness or preventing a recurrence, but there are vindictive policies targeted at individuals perceived to be ideologically different from that of the President with the latter policy enjoying maximum speed and effective implementation from the Government. The insensitivity of the Nigerian Government towards the protection of lives and properties of the citizens and towards curbing these containers of blood is reprehensible.

The argument of this article is not to say other administrations before PMB’s are crimes-free, but rather that:

1. Crimes and insecurity have greatly increased under PMB, because he appears to condone them
2. These crimes are preventable crimes if the government had taken firm and honorable stance as the tenure of OBJ’s
3. The crimes are not largely accounted for, investigated or the perpetrators punished or the victims get justice so deserved
4.  The crimes are unbelievable crimes
5. And the youths are mostly targeted

It is humbly submitted that by now, there should have been laws/Acts to regulate containers and haulage separately from importation and exportation. There ought to have being a body arresting non-compliant drivers with stiff penalties prescribed. After all Lagos has LASMA, which has been raking in money for the Government of Lagos State by arresting traffic offenders, why couldn’t there be another body saddled with the responsibility of enforcing strict compliance with container latching policy? Couldn’t government introduce a Standard Latching Model, which will generate more funds for government and protect other road users?  The reason may not be farfetched if we all get the understanding that haulage business is a business of the few rich Nigerians who are either in government, sponsor the government or carry out business on behalf of government. Like I wrote in a previous article, “oligarchs don’t probe fellow oligarchs”. It is unfortunate that this new dawn is a birth of deaths.    

This is not a critique of the Nigeria Police Force, but a wake-up call to retrofit it to deliver the simple assignment given to it by the Nigerian Constitution.