In one of her interviews, the famous poet, activist, and civil rights campaigner Maya Angelou once stated the importance of anger. The emotion Anger has had a bad rep since forever, probably because it is said to be at the root of many disruptive activities. At that moment, an angry person is perceived as a bad person who should be avoided because they are perceived as unyielding, not bending societal rules of conduct, and literally consuming anything on their path.
In this particular interview, Maya Angelou saw anger in a different light. She believed that anger was not a bad emotion to express. She believed it to be honest and purifying. It consumed everything impure in its path, fearlessly fought against injustice, and advocated for sincere accountability. This thought pattern makes perfect sense and can be extrapolated to fit the Nigerian situation.
See, I have always advocated for Nigerians and their right to be angry with their leaders. You cannot battle with the very basics for survival that Nigerians have been denied for so long and want to be stoic about life. No! you should be angry, in fact, when you step into the streets, everything from the clogged gutters to the terrible roads, and the fact that you need to provide nearly everything you need for your survival with little to no impact from the government despite increasing taxes should get on your nerves.
You are not the worst human on earth, and you have not committed any crime for you to be born a Nigerian. The country with the worst set of leaders you can find anywhere, you deserve to be angry. However, as it stands, it seems the administrators of the Nigerian state have perfected the best gimmicks to distract us all. At the same time, they pass obnoxious, irrelevant bills that further impoverish the physical state and, by extension, the psyche of the average citizen.
I gave examples of some of these strategic distractions in my last post. So, while these distractions were going on, our lawmakers have been busy passing a law allowing the Federal Road Safety Corps to carry arms. Yeah, you read right; the agency responsible for our road safety doubles as the first respondent in road traffic accidents and related emergency situations and is about to start carrying weapons. This makes you wonder, at a time like this, why officers of the FRSC should carry arms? What is really happening? To what extent will people be excessively militarized?
When will all of these end?
Welcome to Nigeria, where nothing is ever as it seems. Nearly every government institution around here has its operatives carrying arms. From the Police force to its many armed squads, the Department of State Service (DSS), the EFCC, the Civil Defense Corps, just any you may think of already carry arms, and now the country's lawmakers see this period as the best time to permit the federal road safety corps to carry arms. Force needs to be applied to force people to get vehicle permits or, better still, wear seat belts. The Motorcyclist needs to be threatened by the presence of an arm-slinging Road Safety Officer to wear his helmet.
When do all of these end? And why do agents of the Nigerian state always think that more arms are needed to enforce compliance? They probably Whip the people into shape as the situation requires. In 2020, the youths of the country protested in numbers against the untoward practices of an arm of the police force, a purported 'Special Anti-Robbery Squad' that managed to turn itself into an arm of oppression against the people. That protest was abruptly ended by a live-streamed massacre, and just less than 5 years after that gory incident, the Nigerian state is gearing up to arm another of its agencies.
So I ask again, when do all of these end? This is not the time to sit on your arms and do nothing. If the federal road safety corps are allowed to carry arms, you will have to take anything you get after now. How many needless deaths can we take in the country? Why is there this obsession with arms, control, submission, etc, with the Nigerian state? Why can't the rights of the citizens be respected? Why can't people wake up to face the day without thinking about how to escape the claws of government agents?
What are the implications of this bill?
So yeah, I know I have been shouting 'Road Safety,' 'Guns,' 'Weapons,' and all other things since, but the crux of the matter is that we are fully in trouble. In their normal actions, the gist is that our lawmakers are discussing a bill allowing the Federal Road Safety Corps to carry arms. Want to know the worst thing? This bill has already passed the second reading, and if you are a Nigerian who actually pays attention, this is not a good thing.
This means that all that remains is for the bill to pass a third reading, after which it is sent to the executive branch for presidential assent and a subsequent signing into law. In factual terms, the bill aims to create a special armed squad for the Federal Road Safety Corps, making you wonder why the agency needs guns to educate road users, prevent and minimize road crashes, and regulate traffic.
In addition to the bill's specifics, it also assigns the full perks of office to any officer of the rank of Deputy Corp marshal. This is not in itself a bad thing because every hard worker deserves their payday. However, the concerning thing is how speedily this bill is being passed, away from the media's spotlight. However, it is not as if those ones have any way of especially influencing their decisions. Our media houses are, at best, news announcers, with no participation in the polity in any form, but that is for another day.
Then, mind you, the speaker of the house, Tajudeen Abass, tagged the bill as straightforward, and it was not debated in any way by the house. Just a straight-up second reading passes. Now, we are all waiting for a third reading and a possible presidential assent. If you do not lend your voice to this anomaly, it will be added to the daily list of problems that Nigerians have to battle.
'When will the Avoidable Deaths Stop?'
Photo by Tope. A Asokere on Unsplash
I say 'Deaths' here because if this bill is passed, and the Road Safety is allowed to carry arms, deaths will happen. The Nigerian security apparatus is largely unregulated, and many of its operatives are untrained, acting with no care worldwide. They sling their AK-47s, holster their pistols, and fasten their knives, walking mindlessly amongst the people like the weapons fashioned against them.
A few days ago, a young man was chased into a ditch by some of these operatives, and that man is now dead. Well, where are the consequences of actions like this? They do not exist in Nigeria. All we get are press briefings at the most and Twitter announcements that do nothing to bring the perpetrators to book. I watched as a policeman boldly tear-gassed a defenseless young man, claiming he insulted him in Hausa.
Until I left the scene, the young man was struggling to open his eyes. Aside from the many beatings, knocks, and slaps he had to endure that day from the policeman who felt he had to deliver a 'Lesson' to him. The many instances of trigger-happy policemen and security operatives as a whole readily come to mind. Does the House of Representatives want to add to this by arming the federal road safety?
Imagine this scenario: you drive out of your house and go to work, only to meet a team of road safety officers. They are supposed to check your car papers and educate you on how to prevent accidents. Still, they are brandishing their rifles, and you just know that with any wrong move, you will be labeled as 'Uncooperative' while lying there lifeless, unable to defend yourself.
The solution is not to arm the road safety corps; the 8th assembly also had this same bill, but it was not passed. There have been so many instances of these same Road safety marshals being unruly, threatening to burst tires, and even going as far as extorting motorists. To what extent will they go if they are now made to carry arms? The distrust for the government and its agencies is already as high as 94%, even beating a country like Iraq, at over 80%; of what use is it to arm road safety officials?
I find it difficult to understand how politicians think in this part of the world. Nothing is done with the citizens in mind but to entrench themselves and find any means to extend their stay in office. They do this by playing the worst version of politics possible. The many ass-lickers we have always had supporters amongst the Nigerian populace make this worse, but this is not like before; call your representatives!! The Federal Road Safety Corps must not be allowed to carry arms.
So what is the way out?
Photo by Dam Dam on Unsplash
I don't have any advice other than to leave if you have the means to do so. Leave, do not give in to nostalgia, just leave! However, here are a few suggestions for those of us still around. Lend your voice!! This is not an Instagram campaign; this one will touch all of us. It is NIGERIA; nothing is as ever as it seems, so shout it now, tweet it, and continue talking about it; the Federal Road Safety Corps should never be allowed to carry guns.
In their defense, the agency maintained that with the worsening insecurity in the country, the agency needs to be able to carry arms to better discharge its duties. But in my head, I hear 'Accidental Discharge,' 'Trigger-Happy,' frenzies, etc. This is not about patriotism; this move will not end well for Nigeria's development. You can defend why other government arms involved in policing should carry arms, but why should the FRSC do the same?
With the country's current issues, it is a gross misplacement of priority for the House of Representatives to debate a bill as irrelevant as that of creating an armed unit for the FRSC. This should not be allowed to stand. Policing a population of over 200 million people is challenging enough, but creating new armed units is not the way out.
Are they even trained? What have we benefited over the years from the supposed trained ones? Who regulates the activities of these trained units? Why does the FRSC feel it needs guns to discharge its duties? There are so many discussion points, but just speedily pass a bill of that significance? NO.
I mentioned the challenge in effectively policing a country of over 200 million people a few lines back, but let me put it into perspective for you. I love the idea of using data in arguments like this. It is because it is the best way to clear up things and properly reposition them so you understand the actual implications of the issue in focus. As it stands, Nigeria has a little over 370,000 police officers, with a police-to-citizen percentage of 1:600, far lower than the United Nations-approved 1:400.
This means that in Nigeria, we have ONE police officer for 600 citizens. Of the active 371,000 officers on the Nigerian State's payroll, over 150,000 are attached to VIPs, which make up just a scanty 1.09% of the entire population. This is coupled with the crass underfunding, ill-equipped, and under-compensated state of the Nigerian police force. The Nigerian security infrastructure needs urgent attention.
However, instead of addressing this obvious deficit as a way of gaining some urgently needed wins against the insecurity currently plaguing the country, our lawmakers are deliberating on a bill seeking to directly arm the Road Safety Corps, a body solely concerned with enforcing proper road use, and also double as first responders in emergency situations, because emergency response services are virtually non-existent in the country.
So now that you understand the situation, join my campaign. Make noise on your socials, call the lawmakers representing your states, and get on the wave. I am listening to 'Piece of My Heart - Wizkid and Brent Faiyaz filtering out of my speakers in the comfort of my home. I do not want to have to leave my home and think that Road Safety has been added to the list of the 'Weapons Fashioned Against Me' that I need to avoid in my country.
Photo by Kamal Sadiq Adam on Unsplash
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