The indefinite general strike planned by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Civil Society Coalition to begin on Tuesday 16 November was eventually suspended to the relief of many Nigerians. A day before the strike was to begin, the Federal government announced a reduction of petrol price to N49 a litre. What is not clear to me is for how long the price is going to remain at N49.
This is not a market-induced reduction as in the telecommunication sector, but rather a distortion of sort. Unless the reform and deregulation are going to be reversed, it makes more sense for Nigerians to cross the Rubicon of deregulation once and for all time and await the gains in real price reduction that will endure, than to continue with price fixing. The only way this reduction will make sense is for it not to be seen as the solution to the vexing issues in deregulation. Government should use the opportunity offered by the suspension of the strike to put in place those infrastructures that would have attenuated the pains of deregulation, such that when prices come down, they would have really come down to stay!
But supposing the strike was not called off, what would Mr. Tafa Balogun and the police have done? I ask this question in reaction to the fire and brimstone spewed by the IGP on Monday, 15 November. The headline of Thisday, 15 November quoted the IGP as threatening that: "Police Won’t Spare Troublemakers". According to the paper, "The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun ……urged the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to halt the planned strike and embrace dialogue because the police would not spare any persons or groups that threaten public peace". The statement issued by the IGP on Sunday, continued: "Needless to remind all and sundry that the Nigeria Police has a duty to maintain law and order in the society. We will perform the duty at all times. Any person or group of persons who threaten public peace will not be spared. Such persons will be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the law".
The first question that came to my mind was whether Mr. Tafa Balogun really believed that such threat could have stopped the strike if the Federal Government had not taken steps to avert it? The truth is that it is probably the IGP that takes the police seriously as law enforcers, especially after the embarrassment of Anambra.
Who needs to be reminded that the Nigeria Police Force "has a duty to maintain law and order in the society"? Perhaps it is the police that needs that reminder! Is Anambra not part of the society? If the police perform that duty "all the time", why was Anambra an exception? So the police do not spare any person or group of persons that threaten public peace? Since when? Or do we have different definitions of public peace? Does Tafa’s police actually have the powers to arrest people who threaten public peace or was he just bluffing? If the police can arrest those who only "threaten" public peace, what about those who actually caused a break down of law and order? I am still laughing!
The nation is still scandalised by the barbarism that was displayed in Anambra State on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11, November by people who are not only known to the police, but were allegedly provided cover by police during their dastardly acts. Some of them have gone public in the newspapers, not to dissociate themselves from the nefarious acts but to rationalise them! Some are even boastful of what further mayhem they may unleash on the state on the return of the state governor. They have stated the exact places they are going to wait for the Governor and deal with him.
Yet not one person has been arrested. Not even the usual want-a-criminal-I-give-you-a-criminal deception of the public has been employed this time. The impunity is total. Even if Ngige is a goat, but as the Governor of the state, is this goat not entitled to some dignity? Not even because of the office he occupies? How is it that the godfathers of the renegades holing up in Abuja do not know that it is not only Ngige that is diminished.
The whole nation is!
The implication of the IGP’s threat is that, certainly, some people are above the law. The question is what is it that places some citizens above the law? What is it that puts Anambra State outside the loop of the law? Who designated the state a jungle where barbarians must roam free? At what time is it convenient for the police to discover its duty to maintain law and order? Can anybody really take the police serious considering its catalogue of helplessness in the face of criminal breach of the law? Two things today ridicule the Nigeria Police in the eyes of the public, and the two things are self-inflicted.
One is police duplicity in the face of high profile crimes. In such matters the police statements are seldom worth an old song. The other is the habitual criminal extortion conducted by the police everyday on the roads in broad daylight! Such conduct, for which many innocent road-users have been shot dead, is a national disgrace.
Yet nothing has changed since Tafa Balogun became the boss. Really, is there anybody in authority who frowns at the conduct of our police? The last time anybody of importance spoke on that was when the Minister of Police rationalised to the public why the police take bribe on the road. They are not adequately taken care of, he said! It was as if the minister was asking for our acceptance of the odium! Or did he want us to surrender our wallets to police without grumbling?
I was amazed that it was only after the razing of the entire public buildings in Anambra State capital, Awka, and at Onitsha, that the President saw the need to "partially" restore police security to Dr. Chris Ngige. Now there was no further court order directing such. But the President and the IGP were all the while playing the ostrich with the matter of security for a governor derisively called "Chief Security Officer" of the state.
They were pretending to be obeying a court order! At what time did the court order lapse to warrant partial restoration of police security to Ngige? Where in this restoration of Ngige’s police security is the order of the Awka High Court ordering the restoration of his security, which order the Attorney General advised the IGP to ignore? Is this not a clear case of some agents of the Federal Government deciding when there should be rule of law and when not? Is it any surprise then that the same emperors who have become the law, felt at liberty to confer the same status on those who masterminded the anarchy in Anambra?
It is really sad when it is realised that at the root of the desperation of the renegades in Anambra is the sharing of the money that belongs to the people of the state; that it is about how to feed fat on the sweat of the people; that it is all about strutting about as Ochiriozuo with money stolen from the people; that the fight is not about how to continue to pay the teachers, civil servants and pensioners in the state; that it is not about providing water for the poor people; that it is not about drugs in the health centres.
The posturing is about stealing from the people. It therefore becomes a national embarrassment that the Nigeria Police and those who direct them can look the other way in not too veiled support for the desperadoes. It is Anambrassment!
