THERE’RE HONEST POLICE OFFICERS IN NIGERIA
THERE ARE HONEST POLICE OFFICERS IN NIGERIA On the night of January 29, 2024, four Nigeria Police officers led by Inspector Gambo Gamaraju were on patrol at a checkpoint on the Yola-Jalingo Road in Taraba State. That is not unusual. As police officers often do, they flagged down a passing car and in it, they found suspicious persons with suspicious cargo. The reports never stated the nature of these persons or their crimes, but that is beside the point. The occupants of the car, being criminals of some sort, decided to do what criminals often do when confronted by lawmen—they offered a bribe, this time to the tune of N8.5 million. Anyone who knows the antecedents of Nigerian police officers at their checkpoints could hazard a guess as to what happened. Except in this instance, the four officers rejected the bribe and arrested the suspects. The suspects and wads of cash were bundled to the police station to face the law. I know what you are thinking, but this is not fiction. The story was reported on the NTA local station in Taraba. Why is it not trending, you ask? Why are Nigerians not queuing up to gift these officers money, generators, and plots? Learn moreWell, as both a journalist and a media scholar, I can tell you that no one knows exactly why certain things—news, videos, images, or memes—trend. It is a function of mood, time, algorithm, and a convergence of various factors, like the right sort of people picking up the story. They just catch a current and blow up. This one hasn’t yet, but I hope it does because for long, the reputation of the Nigeria Police has been dragged through the mud of a cattle market, often because of the actions and inactions of the police officers themselves. Recently, two police constabularies in Oyo State were dismissed for embarrassing the nation when they demanded a bribe from a Dutch traveller. That video, unlike this one, trended. Both the video of their soliciting a bribe and that of their dishonourable discharge from the police. The steady stream of negative narratives about the police has become so dominant that the force needs to counter the narratives. Is there a better counter-narrative than this, of officers rejecting such a massive bribe as this, especially in these challenging times? Inspector Gambo Gamaraju and his colleagues, although having received commendations from the state police commissioner, who has forwarded these recommendations to the IG for his own action, need to be recognised as an example for other police officers. The Nigeria Police must know the power of a positive example. Take the case of the Soviets, for example. During WWII, when the Soviet Army was being devastated by the German Wehrmacht and all hope seemed lost, a random Soviet soldier picked up a rifle and shot a German officer from 800 meters. It was an incredible shot from that distance, especially considering the basic weaponry he was using. Two other officers emerged to check on their comrade and were promptly sniped off. The shots from that distance were remarkable, and the shooter was soon identified as Vasily Zaitsev, who, as a child, was trained to shoot by his grandfather. He was celebrated and properly armed by the Soviets with a rifle with a telescopic sight, and within a month, he had shot 40 German soldiers. The legend of Vasily Zaitsev was born. His story and remarkable feats were published in Soviet newspapers, his posters were plastered all over the country as a symbol of Soviet resistance and courage. Between November 10 and December 17, 1942, Zaitsev killed 225 German soldiers before he was injured and evacuated from the front. Zaitsev may not have won the…
Dons Eze
