This is one frightening road we’ve travelled many times in Nigeria. Each experience is a jolt, a shot of tears, grief, shattering of self esteem and hurt feelings. Sadly, the ghost refuses to go away, returning like the mythical ogbanje to haunt our peace. It’s about those who would not obey the laws. They are a special breed, a species of super humans created to lord it over ordinary human beings. They see themselves as ordained into privilege, into a special social order with infinite rights and no responsibility. For these citizens above the law, position is power; power is might and might is right. In their outlandish world, the only condition for peace to reign is their perpetual right to preferential treatment. It does not matter if the rule in question is one that borders on everyone’s safety, such as obeying traffic lights. No, the system must shift, the land must stand still for these super breed of Nigerians to pass. Citizens at their lawful tasks must bow or be bruised for not indulging these delusions.
In just a space of three weeks, we have had the misfortune of encountering three demonstrations of this rascality. On the sixth of March, 2025, a contingent of airforce soldiers invaded the premises of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company to terrorise the staff. The Punch, whose correspondent, Dare Olawin alongside a TVC photographer and another reporter were caught up in the brutalisation, presents some insights into the anarchy. “The airforce operatives led by a woman and some men in mufti seized the office of Ikeja Electric for over one and a half hours, beating the workers and other people sighted on the premises. The roads leading to the office were blocked, giving the military men a field day to molest those within the premises of Ikeja Electric.” And what was the grievous crime of these electricity workers? Spokesman of IKEDC, Kingsley Okotie, said the company disconnected the airforce base after it’s energy indebtedness hit N4b. “It’s on record that in the last 10 years, their bill has accumulated to over N4b. I repeat, N4b. And arrangements for payment in terms of even servicing their electricity bill have been abortive.” Two weeks after, Airforce authorities have not disputed this account. On the contrary, Air Officer, Logistics Command, AVM Adeniran Ademuwagun reportedly promised that the incident will be investigated and those responsible made accountable.
But even before AVM Ademuwagun’s declaration that “what happened was quite unfortunate and certainly will not happen again,” (ThisDay, March 7, 2025), would become stale news, thunderstorm broke again. Soldiers from 15th Field Engineers Regiment were reported to have descended on staff of Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Badagry Injection Substation. Sunday Oduntan of the Association of Nigeria Electricity Distributors told Vanguard (March 16, 2025) that the ‘soldiers took the Distribution System Operator and a Proton Security Officer to their barracks where they were beaten before being released at around 4am.’ And what was the crime of these Nigerians? “Their claim was poor electricity supply to their barracks in the last one week, despite the fact that their Commanding Officer, Lt Col S. Lawan, was duly informed of the ongoing Transmission Company of Nigeria upgrade in Agbara.”
The third scenario is taken from a story in an online media, The Whistler, of March 10, 2025. It centres on the stance of a hospitality business at Aba, De Latinos, that consistent with company policy, prospective customers are disallowed from entering the facility with prepared consumables. The proprietor, Mr Emmanuel Okenini presented this account. “It all started when a police officer in mufti attempted to enter De Latinos premises with suya meat. The company, which has a strict policy against bringing in outside food and drinks, denied him entry. Frustrated by the refusal, the officer allegedly called for reinforcement. Soon after, a group of armed police officers stormed the premises. In the chaos that followed, one of the bouncers was severely beaten and forcibly taken away in a police vehicle, bleeding heavily.” It was not over yet. Okenini said there was another attempt to bully the staff on the same issue later the same day. “Around 10pm another police officer, a female police officer, arrived at the premises with her family, also carrying suya meat. When she was denied entry, another wave of police officers arrived, this time in three to four pick up trucks, surrounding the entire De Latinos premises.” The story ended with the line that the Divisional Police Officer promised an investigation on receiving report of the incidents.
As earlier hinted, what immediately strikes on hearing of these kind of assaults is the sense of deja vu. It all seems so familiar. We have walked this jungle path before, so why are we led here, again? It has happened so many times before that the narrative hardly surprises or riles anymore. Some would ask, is that news? Is that still news? The regularity of their occurrence, the impunity associated with past displays of power drunkenness, makes it difficult not to be cynical about the Nigerian system. And under extreme attitude of indifference or resignation, reaction could unfortunately become blaming victimhood. In this case, scrutiny is focused on the response of the victim to violations of their right rather than the originating abuse of power. With this reverse psychology, burden of responsibility shifts from the deployer of violence to recipient of aggression. Inevitably, with the inverse approach, the offender’s action is excused on the victim’s failure of not taking steps to avert the attack. Aside official inaction, this defeatist attitude contributes to the persistence of such atrocities. Public officers and powerful individuals acting in private capacities continue to perpetrate illegalities knowing that there would be no push back. In societies with disposition to citizen rights and responsibilities, even less serious infractions are vigorously protested. Our lack of protest culture means that we end up condoning public excesses. Victims are discouraged from crying out. And the offenders keep getting emboldened.
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There do not seem to be rejoinders by the concerned parties to the three incidents outlined above. Given that the clashes occurred in full public glare, attracting significant media attention, any review of the accounts by the authorities would expectedly be posted in the media. In the absence of any such reassessment, it should be taken that the published version of events are substantially correct. It’s noteworthy that military and police authorities respectively pledged to probe the allegations of misconduct against their officers. The only worry here is whether the result of investigations will be made public. A discernible trend of such past interventions has been the seal of silence on the findings and possible sanctions. In line with the dictum that justice should not only be done but seen to have been done, disclosure of necessary action taken is important to bring closure to pending cases. In other words, transparency is critical in the resolution processes. And this is to be complemented by public engagement.
One wonders what actually went on in the minds of those referenced soldiers and policemen. Did they actually think that the decision to employ violence was justified? Even in war, are there no longer rules of engagement? Are unarmed civilians to be treated like combatants? What if lives were lost in the brutal invasion of the electricity companies? Did the possibility occur to the rampaging soldiers that there could be spouses, daughters and sons of military officers at the scene of those assaults? And what if they accidentally became part of those killed or maimed? I believe it is pointless asking if the soldiers thought it was just to be using electricity without paying for the service. Or whether the policemen who wanted to barge into a private restaurant while flouting extant rules considered it within their right! The inadmissibility of the very grounds of confrontation are self – evident. Our concern then should be with the setting, the frame of mind that sustains this cyclic lawlessness. Were these soldiers bothered at any point about the consequences of their destructive outing? Not likely. Consciousness of institutional repercussions of cowboy behaviour would definitely have had restraining effect. Indeed, a tradition of zero tolerance for abuse of power would have drastically reduced the trend of attacks against civilians.
The military and the police especially ought to distinguish between positive and negative espirit de corps. Shielding operatives who threaten public peace because they are part of us at best postpones the evil day. A pattern of irresponsible conduct by officers invariably tarnishes the image of the organisations they represent. Rascality undermines professionalism. An atmosphere of permissiveness, sooner than later, leads to decline in competence and work performance. Moreover, the collapse of professional discipline is fraught with danger as it exposes everyone, repeat, everyone, to the blind fury of a burst dam. Beyond discarding the sentiment of espirit de corps, steps should be taken to reorientate members of the armed forces as well as all paramilitary organisations on the demands of modern democratic society. Are these constituencies exposed to the fundamentals of democratic order both in their training and post training operations? Such concepts as the rule of law; supremacy of the constitution; separation of powers; fundamental human rights; burden of proof; an accused’s presumption of innocence until proven guilty etc ought to be emphasized in the programmes of these institutions. To these continuous education schemes should be added working visits to legislative, judicial and selected administrative centres. Internalised sense of limitation under the law sets the climate for citizenship consciousness, and ultimately, subordination to civil authority.
