The Police Is Not Your Friend

The young man on the right is Ugo Ozuah. This picture was taken on the 15th of this month at his wedding. Five days later, on the 20th of this same month, he was cut down in his prime by the same beasts we pay to secure our lives and property. Reports say he was flagging a cab when the drunk officers shot him in the chest for no apparent reason. He was shot in the chest. One of the danger zones of the human body as it houses the lungs and the heart.

Ugo is not the first Nigerian to be killed by inebriated policemen. Last year, in Delta State, three mourners at a funeral were slaughtered by alcohol-intoxicated uniformed men. Five days before Ugo's death, another drunk police corporal shot and killed a Keke Marwa rider, Dele Oroja in Lagos. Last month in Yobe State, a drunk policeman opened fire on the convoy of the Deputy Governor, luckily, nobody was killed in that attack.

If only a few have been killed, several more have been wounded by these reprobates. I personally tended to a young man in 2008 who had been shot by a trigger happy cop. The officer's story of how the shooting occurred did not match the mechanism of injury. I had never been begged that meekly and contritely by a Nigerian policeman. Fortunately, the young man survived the attack. More recently, an Anglican police Chaplain shot a tricycle rider in Lagos. That Chaplain is a free man today, at least, as at the last time I saw him last week. The impunity is astounding! Worse still, these sadistic and barbaric acts are perpetrated by the custodians of security and social justice. They've never been more insolent and irresponsible.

Like we all know, Ugo's life won't be the last to be lost to the reckless and vile men of the Nigerian police. What makes Ugo's case particularly pathetic, is the fact that he was married for just five days before the agents of doom swooped. I assume he probably cut his honeymoon short to continue the bread-winning struggle young Nigerian men now have to participate in actively. Now, he'll never know his kids...

Typically, I expect the police to cook up some cow dung-like story in a bid to justify Ugo's murder in view of rising public outcry against the dastardly act. I anticipate they'll attempt to rope the late man into some distasteful act of crime. He can't defend himself now anyway, so why not? The I.G has already said the perpetrators were not his boys. Don't be particularly shocked if another version emerges in the coming weeks.

Nigeria amazes me. The value we place on human life is excruciatingly flimsy. When those responsible for protecting the citizens from bullets are the ones aiming at them, you know for sure, that you are in a jungle. Ugo did not deserve to die the way he did. His new bride does not deserve what the Nigerian system has unleashed on her. Ugo's family does not deserve the heartache their beloved nation has dealt them. Nobody deserves to die the way people are killed in Nigeria.

Yes, we will all experience death at some point. Nigeria makes it incredibly easy by catalyzing that process. Nigeria, in fact, fast-tracks that process. There are several things lining up to snuff out the lives of Nigerians. Boko Haram, bad roads, somnolent hospitals, armed robbers, adulterated drugs, adulterated petroleum products, 'unknown' gunmen, collapsing buildings, plane crashes and significantly, trigger happy stoned policemen. All these, of course, in addition to known global human killers like disease, natural disasters and road traffic accidents. A lot of things may be difficult in my country, dying, however, is certainly not one of them.

Our members of Parliament have been debating the removal of the word 'Force' from the name of the Nigerian Police. One MP from Kaduna argues 'intelligently' that a name affects how people behave and may be why the police use force most times. This is how our legislators rationalize issues. Nigeria's decrepit state of existence shouldn't bewilder any rational being. When your legislators believe changing the name of the police is the solution to all its problems, it should not surprise you there's a general systemic failure. The Nigerian police is a reflection of that failure. Dear Legislator, its not a change in nomenclature we need. It is a systemic overhaul that's required.

Now that Ugo is dead, the question is who is next?. I assume Nigerians will take to the house of prayers and inundate God with supplications against the 'ember-months'. Na only us dey get -ember months abi? Ugo's family is mourning today. We don't know the next Nigerian family that will mourn another careless waste of human life.

We insist we are ready for change in Nigeria. We are not. We just assume we are. Revolution is never subtle. It blows like a hurricane and clears anything and everything in its path. There's no gentle hurricane as there is no gentle revolution. We need more than subjecting everyone who will handle a firearm to mental state examination by qualified psychologists and psychiatrists. We need more than reforming the Judiciary to effectively prosecute and convict erring policemen. We need more than chopping down the tree. We need to uproot its stump and then bath the site with potent herbicides. The problem is deep-rooted and we must get down to the basics. Nigeria is ill, perhaps terminally.

Impunity will continue unabated till revolution drives through the cities. Then and only then will they respect us as human beings, whose lives are worth more than poultry.

R.I.P Mr Ugo Ozuah. May your killers rot slowly from inside their anatomy till they meet painful destruction at tetanus infected guillotines.