The youths in Nigeria are targets of extortion by the army and the police. The checkpoints mounted along various roads have become stops to intimidate young people into surrendering their money. The army and the police will look into transport vehicles at the road blocks and point to decent looking young boys and ask them to come out. They will ask them to disembark from the vehicle with their backpacks. They will point them to walk to a corner in the case of the police, and the army will walk them into their vehicle.
Recently, on my trip through Orlu Local Government Area, Imo State, the vehicle I was traveling in stopped at the army checkpoint. The driver demanded that all passengers follow the routine of coming out of the vehicle at the beginning of the checkpoint and walk beyond the cordoned area. Most passengers take the inconvenience of this activity in stride as they see it as a chance to stretch their legs. Hawkers surround the area to appeal to the tired and hungry passengers to patronize their merchandise.
We all converged at the other end of the checkpoint waiting for the driver to come through. The bus pulled over and most passengers started to go in to take their seat. Only for the driver to come out and walk toward the back of the vehicle. It was evident that he was not going there to ease himself. Some passengers were getting impatient. A lady then said, “Were you not aware that the army asked the young passenger to come out of the bus?”
Everybody waited for about thirty minutes until the passenger returned. He said that the army took him into their vehicle and asked him to give them his phone. When he asked them why they were detaining him, the army told him that he looked like a “Yawu boy”. That he looked so well dressed. He mildly responded to them that it is now a crime for a young person to dress well. They told him that if he did not want to spend the whole day with them, he should give them #5,000.00 (five thousand naira). He complied because he was afraid that they would harm him.
Nigerian roads are now tollbooths for the army and the police. They openly collect bribes without shame. The level of decadence in law enforcement on the roads is killing the spirit of society. With due respect to the risks associated with their work, the behavior of the enforcement officers trivializes their authority. They must restore dignity to law enforcement so that the citizens will value them and not look at them as robbers attacking the youths at gunpoint.
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