While I am trying to go against the general world opinion of Nigeria and focus on the positive things about this country that most people like to overlook, there are occasions and events that prompt me to confirm some of the less-than-nice ideas that some may have of this particular African state.
One such idea: An increasingly corrupt police force.
Exhibit A:
This last Thursday, my supervisor, Wole, was kind enough to take me and my co-intern Cynthia to one of the central markets in Lagos - "Computer Village" - to sort out some issues we have been having activating one of our many cell phone SIM cards. On our way there, we were turning a corner- in a rather innocent and non-attention-worthy fashion, I might add - and a uniformed police officer who happened to be standing on the side of the road at that very corner signaled for us to pull over. Like the law-abiding citizen that he is, Wole pulled over and the officer stepped up to my window (the passenger's side of the car).
"Where is your license?" He demanded in a rather half-assed authoritative tone.
Wole opened the glove box and handed him a stack of papers containing not only his drivers license but a renewed "tax sticker" that is normally displayed on the passenger's side window. Despite seeing both of these items, the police officer pressed him further.
"Your sticker is expired" he said, tapping on the glass where the old sticker was still displayed on the front window.
Wole explained that, as the officer could clearly see, the renewal sticker was in the stack of papers in his hands.
"Ah, no" tsk'ed the officer. "I'm going to have to take you down to the station...."
Wole, clearly shocked, demanded to know why.
"Because you have an expired sticker here" said the officer tensely, is voice rising... I should mention, "here" sounded more like "eee-ah"... In fact, said in his accent, the whole sentence sounded something like this:
"Bee-coawz, you 'ave an ex-pye-ah-d stee-ck-aah 'eeah"
Wole tartly replied with: "What for you goin' waste my time?"
(Which, I think, roughly translated into Americans means "Bullshit!")
To which the uniformed police officer said, clearly, "Pay me 1,000 Naira" (the equivalent of about $7).
Wole tsk'd in disgust "I have no money. I'm not goin' pay you"
And the officer stepped away from the car and on we went.
Now, don't get me wrong: I've lived in Africa before. I know bribery is a way of life... but I've never seen it so blatantly and so needlessly in action. In fact, I assumed it was one of those things reserved for occasions when some wrong had been committed - man slaughter, for example- and both the police officer and potential bribe-r could benefit from a little money switching hands. Apparently this is not the case in Nigeria. Something else I had wrongly assumed was that no one would be so foolish as to openly solicit a bribe and that requests for money were veiled and hidden... particularly in the presence of westerners who, one half-intelligent police officer might assume, would have far less to lose in reporting their corrupt behavior than the average Nigerian citizen. In fact, it is my impression that the presence of Westerners increases the likelihood that a Nigerian will be pressed to provide some money to the kind officers in charge of "serving and protecting" the Nigerian populace.
Here's why.... :
Exhibit B:
After being pulled over by Police Officer #1, we attended to our business of fixing our phones (which was another adventure I will have to recount another time), and then proceeded to drive in the direction of the nearest grocery store. On our way there, we encountered a congested intersection (annoyingly common in Lagos) where cars and motorcycle taxis were pressed against each other honking and attempting to inch forward, all jockeying for an improved position in line. Wole simply proceeded to obey what seems to be traffic law in Lagos: do as everyone else is doing. He inched forwards and attempted to encourage an opening in the gridlock by honking his horn and gesturing to the other drivers that he was trying to move through their line, not join it. As no one seemed interested in sacrificing their position in line to let him through, he turned his wheel slightly to instead join their line.
Immediately, there was yelling from the Police Stand at the side of the road. Apparently, we were in for a lesson on Lagos traffic law.
Our car was approached by not one but two uniformed police officers with batons, one of whom was a woman. The woman proceeded to yell at Wole in a high pitched shriek while waving her baton in the air. The man came to the passenger's side of the car and simultaneously tried to ask Wole if he was crazy. Keeping in mind... all of this is taking place in the middle of the intersection in the midst of the honking gridlock. After about 3 minutes of baton waving and shrieking, the lady cop starts getting really upset and claims Wole is not "respecting her." The man cop realizes we're all still in the middle of traffic and clears a path in the traffic so we can pull over to the side of the road. Lady Cop - fearful that the target of her baton-waving fury will escape her shrieking clutches - opens the back, driver's side door, gestures angrily for Cynthia to move over, and plops herself into the backseat behind Wole... still wildly waving her baton and yelling about respect.
Per Man Cop's wishes, we move through the wall of traffic with Lady Cop in the backseat, and stop on the side of the road. Once on the side of the road, Man Cop finds a pause between Lady Cop's angry screams and threats to demand Wole's drivers license which Wole produces from the glove box in addition to the paper with his renewed tax sticker. Still, despite having this documentation, there is another argument about expired stickers.
After roughly 5 minutes of Man Cop questioning Wole about his knowledge of traffic law and Lady Cop simultaneously screaming about respect (with the occasional "WACK" of the back of Wole's seat with her baton as if to emphasize her point), Man Cop suggests that we must now go to the Police Station so that he can issue a ticket for Wole's "outrageous traffic offense." So.... off we go.
Lady Cop seems to have screamed it all out of her system and instead spends the 2-minute ride down the road pouting in the backseat in silence as if she were the one about to receive a ticket for no real reason. Instead of going to a recognizable Police Station, Man Cop, who has since sauntered down the street, gestures for us to again pull over to the side of the road. Here Lady Cop starts up again, this time demanding an apology for Wole's apparent disrespect. Wole turns around in his seat, trying to face her, arguing about how unnecessary her screaming was and trying to submit that he had not, in fact, done anything disrespectful. Apparently, this was not the response Lady Cop was looking for and she began to yell again...at which point, Man Cop suggests that Wole's fine will increase due to his apparent insubordination and that he will most likely have to appear in court. Lady Cop screams that, if we were in "their" country (meaning America), Wole would be "begging for forgiveness."
I'm sure you can predict what happens next.....
Yes, good guess. There's some back and forth about why Wole should have to go to court and then the uniformed police officer - Man Cop - clearly says:
"Give me 10,000 Naira" (Roughly $67)
As before, Wole tells the officer he doesn't have any money. To which Man Cop calmly replies by asking:
"How much money do you have?'
Wole argues that, as he had previously said, he has no money. None. Zero.
This of course re-opens the discussion of how Wole will have to go to court and pay a large fine. To end the discussion, Wole suggests that he will happily go to court to contest the fine because, clearly, he didn't do anything wrong.
This prompts Man Cop to ask Wole to step out of the car where, Wole tells us later, he continues to ask Wole for more money until he is satisfied that Wole has nothing to give. He saunters off, returning to his Police stand and Lady Cop climbs out of the back seat in a huff having never received an apology.
Exhibit C
Two days after the above event, we were driving to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) campus for a Saturday afternoon meeting when we are stopped, yet again, by a traffic jam. This, in an of itself is not an unusual occurrence (it happens once every 5 minutes in Lagos) but, while most traffic jams are accompanied by a symphony of car horns, this one involved a great deal of shouting. When we finally made our way around an un-moving mini-van taxi, we see what the hold up is: A uniformed police officer has pulled a passenger out of the van and is beating him with the butt of his rifle. As I was not there, I cannot say what the man did to warrant such an action but I can say with confidence that he did not deserve to be beaten with the butt of an AK-47. For our own safety, we drove off without stopping to interfere.... I hope the poor man is still alive.
Exhibit D
Saturday night we were invited to a birthday dinner in Victoria Island - the ex-pat section of town. For our safety, we called for a Red Cab - a government regulated cab service - and, after waiting for 3 hours for it to arrive, enjoyed a 45-minute ride to the "nice side" of town. Once on the "Island" the cab driver got a little lost trying to find the restaurant... apparently not many people requesting a ride from the middle of the Lagos Ghetto want to go to a Thai restaurant hidden in a shady V.I. suburb. In his confusion, our driver wasn't watching the road signs and accidentally drove onto a street that was marked "One Way- Do Not Enter." As fate would have it, however, he did so right in front of a pick up truck filled with uniformed, armed Police Officers.
****At this point, I have to politely say that if my parents are reading this blog entry they should skip down to the part titled "Happy Ending."*****
With minimal conversation (the driver saying he's lost; the police officer chastising him for not reading road signs), the front, passenger's side door is opened by one of the officers and Christine is told (men with guns apparently don't ask) to get into the back seat. She quickly joins us in the back and the officer plops down in the front seat, with his AK-47, and directs the driver to turn around... into the middle of traffic.... and pull over onto a darker side street. Once on the side street the officer immediately says:
"Put it in de hand"
(Which translates to: "Give me money now")
The driver promptly hands over a 1,000 Niara note (about $7) without a fuss - I might add that this amount is roughly half the amount of our cab fare. The Police Officer, apparently unsatisfied with the amount of the bribe, asks for more. The driver, who is just starting his shift, claims he has nothing left. The Police Officer tsk's angrily and makes him get out of the car.
I should add that, at this point, I'm not really scared... I'm just really, really angry. In fact, as I said at the time, I was so mad, I could "spit fire." But, of course, one doesn't spit fire at men holding guns so I sat in the back seat, fuming, and watching the events unfolding behind the car.
The police officer who had been sitting in our car directs the driver over to a group of police officers where they all gather around him, with their AK-47s, presumably to collectively ask for more money. Later, the driver informs us with a smile that he only had to pay another 1,000 Naira - almost our entire cab fare.
*******
Happy Ending:
After bribing the crowd of police officers, the driver returns to the car and says, smiling, that "Its okay. Everything's okay. This is the way things are in Lagos..." And then informs us that the police officers have taken pity on him and will therefore be leading us to where the restaurant is... just down the road.
Of course, we paid our poor cab driver double the normal fare.
In closing this entry, I would just like to summarize: In the span of 2 days, we were stopped no less than 3 times by members of the Nigerian Police Force and openly, without shame, harassed for bribes. Not to mention, a member of Nigeria's "finest" was seen in broad daylight, in the midst of a busy intersection, beating a man with his rifle.
It is absolutely unacceptable that the very people designated to serve and protect the people of Lagos are the ones inflicting unnecessary harm.... The Nigerian people need to be protected FROM the Police Force, not by them.
Still, this is nothing new for the majority of people living in Nigeria. In fact, sadly, this is just another matter that Nigerians deal with on a daily basis.... And, while it upsets me greatly that corruption such as this exists so openly and so unhampered, what would I know anyway?... I'm just an American outsider.
One such idea: An increasingly corrupt police force.
Exhibit A:
This last Thursday, my supervisor, Wole, was kind enough to take me and my co-intern Cynthia to one of the central markets in Lagos - "Computer Village" - to sort out some issues we have been having activating one of our many cell phone SIM cards. On our way there, we were turning a corner- in a rather innocent and non-attention-worthy fashion, I might add - and a uniformed police officer who happened to be standing on the side of the road at that very corner signaled for us to pull over. Like the law-abiding citizen that he is, Wole pulled over and the officer stepped up to my window (the passenger's side of the car).
"Where is your license?" He demanded in a rather half-assed authoritative tone.
Wole opened the glove box and handed him a stack of papers containing not only his drivers license but a renewed "tax sticker" that is normally displayed on the passenger's side window. Despite seeing both of these items, the police officer pressed him further.
"Your sticker is expired" he said, tapping on the glass where the old sticker was still displayed on the front window.
Wole explained that, as the officer could clearly see, the renewal sticker was in the stack of papers in his hands.
"Ah, no" tsk'ed the officer. "I'm going to have to take you down to the station...."
Wole, clearly shocked, demanded to know why.
"Because you have an expired sticker here" said the officer tensely, is voice rising... I should mention, "here" sounded more like "eee-ah"... In fact, said in his accent, the whole sentence sounded something like this:
"Bee-coawz, you 'ave an ex-pye-ah-d stee-ck-aah 'eeah"
Wole tartly replied with: "What for you goin' waste my time?"
(Which, I think, roughly translated into Americans means "Bullshit!")
To which the uniformed police officer said, clearly, "Pay me 1,000 Naira" (the equivalent of about $7).
Wole tsk'd in disgust "I have no money. I'm not goin' pay you"
And the officer stepped away from the car and on we went.
Now, don't get me wrong: I've lived in Africa before. I know bribery is a way of life... but I've never seen it so blatantly and so needlessly in action. In fact, I assumed it was one of those things reserved for occasions when some wrong had been committed - man slaughter, for example- and both the police officer and potential bribe-r could benefit from a little money switching hands. Apparently this is not the case in Nigeria. Something else I had wrongly assumed was that no one would be so foolish as to openly solicit a bribe and that requests for money were veiled and hidden... particularly in the presence of westerners who, one half-intelligent police officer might assume, would have far less to lose in reporting their corrupt behavior than the average Nigerian citizen. In fact, it is my impression that the presence of Westerners increases the likelihood that a Nigerian will be pressed to provide some money to the kind officers in charge of "serving and protecting" the Nigerian populace.
Here's why.... :
Exhibit B:
After being pulled over by Police Officer #1, we attended to our business of fixing our phones (which was another adventure I will have to recount another time), and then proceeded to drive in the direction of the nearest grocery store. On our way there, we encountered a congested intersection (annoyingly common in Lagos) where cars and motorcycle taxis were pressed against each other honking and attempting to inch forward, all jockeying for an improved position in line. Wole simply proceeded to obey what seems to be traffic law in Lagos: do as everyone else is doing. He inched forwards and attempted to encourage an opening in the gridlock by honking his horn and gesturing to the other drivers that he was trying to move through their line, not join it. As no one seemed interested in sacrificing their position in line to let him through, he turned his wheel slightly to instead join their line.
Immediately, there was yelling from the Police Stand at the side of the road. Apparently, we were in for a lesson on Lagos traffic law.
Our car was approached by not one but two uniformed police officers with batons, one of whom was a woman. The woman proceeded to yell at Wole in a high pitched shriek while waving her baton in the air. The man came to the passenger's side of the car and simultaneously tried to ask Wole if he was crazy. Keeping in mind... all of this is taking place in the middle of the intersection in the midst of the honking gridlock. After about 3 minutes of baton waving and shrieking, the lady cop starts getting really upset and claims Wole is not "respecting her." The man cop realizes we're all still in the middle of traffic and clears a path in the traffic so we can pull over to the side of the road. Lady Cop - fearful that the target of her baton-waving fury will escape her shrieking clutches - opens the back, driver's side door, gestures angrily for Cynthia to move over, and plops herself into the backseat behind Wole... still wildly waving her baton and yelling about respect.
Per Man Cop's wishes, we move through the wall of traffic with Lady Cop in the backseat, and stop on the side of the road. Once on the side of the road, Man Cop finds a pause between Lady Cop's angry screams and threats to demand Wole's drivers license which Wole produces from the glove box in addition to the paper with his renewed tax sticker. Still, despite having this documentation, there is another argument about expired stickers.
After roughly 5 minutes of Man Cop questioning Wole about his knowledge of traffic law and Lady Cop simultaneously screaming about respect (with the occasional "WACK" of the back of Wole's seat with her baton as if to emphasize her point), Man Cop suggests that we must now go to the Police Station so that he can issue a ticket for Wole's "outrageous traffic offense." So.... off we go.
Lady Cop seems to have screamed it all out of her system and instead spends the 2-minute ride down the road pouting in the backseat in silence as if she were the one about to receive a ticket for no real reason. Instead of going to a recognizable Police Station, Man Cop, who has since sauntered down the street, gestures for us to again pull over to the side of the road. Here Lady Cop starts up again, this time demanding an apology for Wole's apparent disrespect. Wole turns around in his seat, trying to face her, arguing about how unnecessary her screaming was and trying to submit that he had not, in fact, done anything disrespectful. Apparently, this was not the response Lady Cop was looking for and she began to yell again...at which point, Man Cop suggests that Wole's fine will increase due to his apparent insubordination and that he will most likely have to appear in court. Lady Cop screams that, if we were in "their" country (meaning America), Wole would be "begging for forgiveness."
I'm sure you can predict what happens next.....
Yes, good guess. There's some back and forth about why Wole should have to go to court and then the uniformed police officer - Man Cop - clearly says:
"Give me 10,000 Naira" (Roughly $67)
As before, Wole tells the officer he doesn't have any money. To which Man Cop calmly replies by asking:
"How much money do you have?'
Wole argues that, as he had previously said, he has no money. None. Zero.
This of course re-opens the discussion of how Wole will have to go to court and pay a large fine. To end the discussion, Wole suggests that he will happily go to court to contest the fine because, clearly, he didn't do anything wrong.
This prompts Man Cop to ask Wole to step out of the car where, Wole tells us later, he continues to ask Wole for more money until he is satisfied that Wole has nothing to give. He saunters off, returning to his Police stand and Lady Cop climbs out of the back seat in a huff having never received an apology.
Exhibit C
Two days after the above event, we were driving to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) campus for a Saturday afternoon meeting when we are stopped, yet again, by a traffic jam. This, in an of itself is not an unusual occurrence (it happens once every 5 minutes in Lagos) but, while most traffic jams are accompanied by a symphony of car horns, this one involved a great deal of shouting. When we finally made our way around an un-moving mini-van taxi, we see what the hold up is: A uniformed police officer has pulled a passenger out of the van and is beating him with the butt of his rifle. As I was not there, I cannot say what the man did to warrant such an action but I can say with confidence that he did not deserve to be beaten with the butt of an AK-47. For our own safety, we drove off without stopping to interfere.... I hope the poor man is still alive.
Exhibit D
Saturday night we were invited to a birthday dinner in Victoria Island - the ex-pat section of town. For our safety, we called for a Red Cab - a government regulated cab service - and, after waiting for 3 hours for it to arrive, enjoyed a 45-minute ride to the "nice side" of town. Once on the "Island" the cab driver got a little lost trying to find the restaurant... apparently not many people requesting a ride from the middle of the Lagos Ghetto want to go to a Thai restaurant hidden in a shady V.I. suburb. In his confusion, our driver wasn't watching the road signs and accidentally drove onto a street that was marked "One Way- Do Not Enter." As fate would have it, however, he did so right in front of a pick up truck filled with uniformed, armed Police Officers.
****At this point, I have to politely say that if my parents are reading this blog entry they should skip down to the part titled "Happy Ending."*****
With minimal conversation (the driver saying he's lost; the police officer chastising him for not reading road signs), the front, passenger's side door is opened by one of the officers and Christine is told (men with guns apparently don't ask) to get into the back seat. She quickly joins us in the back and the officer plops down in the front seat, with his AK-47, and directs the driver to turn around... into the middle of traffic.... and pull over onto a darker side street. Once on the side street the officer immediately says:
"Put it in de hand"
(Which translates to: "Give me money now")
The driver promptly hands over a 1,000 Niara note (about $7) without a fuss - I might add that this amount is roughly half the amount of our cab fare. The Police Officer, apparently unsatisfied with the amount of the bribe, asks for more. The driver, who is just starting his shift, claims he has nothing left. The Police Officer tsk's angrily and makes him get out of the car.
I should add that, at this point, I'm not really scared... I'm just really, really angry. In fact, as I said at the time, I was so mad, I could "spit fire." But, of course, one doesn't spit fire at men holding guns so I sat in the back seat, fuming, and watching the events unfolding behind the car.
The police officer who had been sitting in our car directs the driver over to a group of police officers where they all gather around him, with their AK-47s, presumably to collectively ask for more money. Later, the driver informs us with a smile that he only had to pay another 1,000 Naira - almost our entire cab fare.
*******
Happy Ending:
After bribing the crowd of police officers, the driver returns to the car and says, smiling, that "Its okay. Everything's okay. This is the way things are in Lagos..." And then informs us that the police officers have taken pity on him and will therefore be leading us to where the restaurant is... just down the road.
Of course, we paid our poor cab driver double the normal fare.
In closing this entry, I would just like to summarize: In the span of 2 days, we were stopped no less than 3 times by members of the Nigerian Police Force and openly, without shame, harassed for bribes. Not to mention, a member of Nigeria's "finest" was seen in broad daylight, in the midst of a busy intersection, beating a man with his rifle.
It is absolutely unacceptable that the very people designated to serve and protect the people of Lagos are the ones inflicting unnecessary harm.... The Nigerian people need to be protected FROM the Police Force, not by them.
Still, this is nothing new for the majority of people living in Nigeria. In fact, sadly, this is just another matter that Nigerians deal with on a daily basis.... And, while it upsets me greatly that corruption such as this exists so openly and so unhampered, what would I know anyway?... I'm just an American outsider.
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