Dear Mr. Mogaji Olaniyan…

I rarely title my column addressed to a person, letter-style. When I do, it’s usually a high-level VIP, like for instance, the president or a minister, or even a governor. Also it is usually when there is a massive issue that affects the lives of millions of people. So I am sure you are wondering why I am addressing Mr. Mogaji Olaniyan. Well, he is the National Chairman of the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), which does not quite tick the boxes above, but he made a comment that I feel affects every single Nigerian, most especially the average citizen. The chairman, in the news, called for an urgent need to address what he called widespread hatred towards the officers of the Nigeria Police. Yes, he did. Allow it to sink in and let us move to the next paragraph.

Chairman Olaniyan, in the same news report, described the narrative as “alarming”, pointing out that hatred remains part of the factors affecting the country’s security. Of course, he added the main part of his brief, that the PCRC is fostering a permanent relationship between members of the community and the police in order to “end the ugly narrative”. Parts of the main news report I read emphasised that this deep-seated resentment must be addressed to cultivate a healthy relationship between the people and the police, to enhance security across the nation. That is understandable rhetoric, given that he said this at the 40th celebration ceremony of the committee he chairs, which was held in Abeokuta. Now, if like me you are a Nigerian, you would definitely be doing one of the following two things: fuming in anger, or laughing your head off. To make it clear, we all know a good deal of what truly causes friction (I tend to avoid using ‘hate’, on account of its harshness as a word) between Nigerians and the police.

But Chairman Olaniyan did not stop there. He also called on Nigerians to love the police. But unfortunately, love cannot be demanded for, like how dirty naira notes are demanded for (and unfortunately given under duress, because who will argue with a person with a gun?) at God-knows-how-many checkpoints nationwide. But no, Oga Chairman seems to be having selective amnesia, especially since he added that the hatred for police has its origin right from childhood. He said: “This hatred starts from our home. For instance if parents want to scold their children they will say ‘I will call the police for you’. This is why our children grow up with hatred for the police and that is why we are trying to stop this narrative.” Excuse me, Oga Chairman, but Nigerian parents also threaten naughty children with doctors, but somehow no doctor or committee on health has come out to whine about “hatred for doctors”. I was laughing, but now I am getting rather upset.

How can a person – or even a nation’s average citizens – love a person, or a group of people which they mostly fear? How can love exist when one set of people victimise and oppress the other? Has Oga Chairman seen how the police flout rules and go against traffic? How the police are regularly fingered in crimes which they are supposed to prevent and/or fight? How they collect ‘bribes’ at checkpoints (I literally witnessed two incidents) How they look for every single reason to extract money from motorists with techniques ranging from threats to outright begging? How a good deal of them pay close to zero attention to how they look or the state which their uniforms are in? The list of reasons why Nigerians “have hatred for the police” is long, and the faults of the personnel are legion. Any Nigerian who says otherwise is being either mischievous, or dishonest.

Now, that is not to say the entire police force is shady. Actually, many policemen – and women – are honest, dedicated, and upright. There are many fantastic examples of uprightness and professionalism. I have heard and read about them, and in fact I have even encountered a good number of them personally. However, even a pedestrian by now knows about the urgent need for good and proper reforms in the police, and how the Police Service Commission – and indeed the leadership of the force itself – needs to do even more in that regard. A great place to start is to sanitise real checkpoints and eliminate ‘illegal’ ones. After that, or even as that is going on, do a comprehensive repositioning in order to clean up the public image of the Nigeria Police. Unfortunately, I do not have the space to regurgitate what has been said that needs to be done!

But honestly, to blame parents for using the police as bogeymen when kids are being kids, and go as far as saying that is why Nigerians hate the police, is just plain and simple ridiculousness.  Public officials should really pause to think before they speak, because as it is right now, I waste hard-earned money on expensive petrol. I don’t need to waste my time reading history and contemporary events and facts being rewritten. To wrap this up, I wish Chairman Olaniyan all the best in his endeavours, as we all hope and pray for a truly sterling police force that is truly deserving of love, admiration, and gratitude for its service. After all, one cannot force another to love, right?