Driving along Ikorodu Road the other day on my way to drop off my daughter at school, a lout, probably high on some drug had cause to accost me. I am not sure what he was thinking, perhaps it was that two females driving along in a car were easy target for him, and proved too attractive to resist. He at first walked past then came back at trot, his hand thrusting into the window while he demanded for two thousand naira letting me know vehemently that I was crazy if I would not give it to him.

Now traffic was held up long enough for him and I to play out our drama. My first thought was two thousand naira! I could do with that myself. I totally failed to see this person as a threat because I was simply too angry. Propelled by this anger I told him even more fervently that he was the one that was crazy if he thought I came by two thousand naira that easily. He made to open the door and I swear I was ready to get down to rack the imbecile and maybe even shake him down for any money or valuables he might have had. Not advisable I know but I was that angry and frustrated. It was early in the year and my husband and I have had to drop virtually all we earned in the last quarter of last year as school fees for one term for our three children. Don’t think I am complaining o. It is all right that we pay taxes and still cannot access quality education for our children in government schools. The quality of the one for which we pay exorbitantly is not even that assured since Ministry of Education still does not understand that inspection is not about intimidation and bribe taking.

The fellow was perplexed at my reaction. Clearly, nobody had yet reacted to him in the way that I did. The more common reaction was that people would struggle to wind up car windows quickly while they try to drive into the car in front them. Otherwise, they would offer up all the money they had on their persons pleading all the time that they should not be hurt. These muggings go on in the full glare of the public, sometimes even in the presence of police and we never come to each other’s assistance, never. On that morning the only help offered was from the man in the car next to mine who said , madam nor dey do like dat o, den go just wound you. E beta make you just give dem wetin den want. I said thank you to him and smiled very nicely. His advice was not welcome but I was not about to waste my breath telling him so. The point is I would have been wounded anyway because I had no money save for the scrunched up fifty naira in the coin holder and a telephone (handset as we more commonly call it) for me became something to be admired from afar when I misplaced mine over the holidays. So yes, the man would have wounded me because he would not have believed that the only thing of value I had at that moment was the daughter seated next to me and of course the smoky car with jammed windows that we were driving in.

The man would have wounded me while my fellow Nigerians looked elsewhere or tried to get away. Still why should I blame them? Who knows how many more members of this person’s gang were lurking nearby, waiting for the opportunity to pounce on lily livered Lagos public. All along Ikorodu Road and even on Eko   Bridge you have this crop of individuals whose social status is often dignified with the appellation area boy. Our esteemed journalists latterly took to describing them as street urchins, a complete misnomer if you ask me. Anyway, they are there waiting for your car to break down or merely slow down and then they want you to pay them ground rent for their father’s land. I recently had to ask one if his father was Yakubu Gowon when he threatened to break my brother’s head while on the Eko   Bridge if he would not stop pushing my broken down car and pay him rent for his father’s land. I refused to be intimidated when he feinted a punch to my face and responded with a feint of my own, a move that elicited a yell from him for support from his three other colleagues. His reaction emboldened me but drew censure from on lookers who with the typical loose lipped Yoruba ugh! They reminded me that I was a woman and would not be able to handle the trouble I was fomenting o. I became the fomentor of the trouble not the hoodlums that would not let me push my car in peace. Still they had a point, going by the recently reported fiasco involving a woman Camry driver and an Okada rider. From Newspaper accounts, the Okada rider in his uncommon haste and usual consideration for other road users, broke off a wing mirror on the Camry and then rode away. The woman gave chase and eventually cornered the beleaguered Okada rider on Third   Mainland   Bridge all the while calling for reinforcement on her cell phone. The altercation that ensued eventually led to both of them falling off the bridge and drowning in the lagoon below.

So, the people had a point when they tried to warn me off the hoodlums and urged me instead to submit to their demands. Again, I would have submitted but I truly had nothing to give, no money no valuables. A stance I was forced to reconsider when they seized a poor woman passing by and threatened to throw her in the path of fast moving traffic. That stomped me. I did not want the blood of an innocent woman on my conscience. More importantly, I wanted no part in the ‘police case’ that would follow. I am sure that you know all about police cases in Nigeria , you never get out of it. These cases never get to court and you never get a life, you just keep to-ing and fro-ing from whatever police station domiciles the case. You stand around in the smelly confines of the station house waiting for the OIC that seldom shows up before sun down even when he gives you an appointment for the crack of dawn.  When he eventually arrives in his majesty, you are forced to be not just polite but to be simpering enough to show your faith and reliance on his ability to deliver you from this ‘problem’ you got yourself into with the help of those rascals. Yes the police refer to them benevolently as rascals and tell members of the public that the problem is ours if we do not avoid tangling with them at all cost.

True the police is your friend, only you have to be a hoodlum or a petty criminal. Why else have these people proliferated to such extents that they inhabit our roads, operating openly and freely while citizens going about their legitimate businesses cringe in fear?  It is a daily occurrence for ruffians to hold truck drivers hostage until payment of a ransom that ranges from a few hundred naira for those who are savvy and can wheedle their harassers to vehicle accessories or goods that cost several thousands. People cross express roads and submit themselves to the danger of being knocked down and killed in a bid to avoid the marauding lords of overhead pedestrian crossings. The list is endless and the petty criminals are becoming more daring in their acts. They swoop on rush hour traffic and tell us before they strike what we stand to lose, therefore we submit meekly for fear that they will carry through their threats of damaging our cars or our persons.

Gone are those days of jungle justice in Lagos when the public came together to mete out instant punishment to even the most harmless pick pocket. I do not necessarily subscribe to this but it served as deterrent of sorts and kept these criminals of the petty cadre in abeyance. The environment was simply hostile to thieves and muggers, now it is hostile to the innocent citizen. If the police are not going to step up and ensure safe commute for members of the public, we may as well take the law back into our hands.

To muddy the waters further, there is a slew of uniformed officials on the road who function no better than hoodlums and will rob you in a trice given the opportunity. Many of them have no identification beyond their frayed and discoloured uniforms and they brook no questions from you, not even to clarify why you have been apprehended much less to provide a name or other form of identification. This strategy is obviously well thought out and sanctioned by the establishments that put the official thugs on the roads because the wronged citizen is then unable to effectively report any infractions on their persons.

Start with LASTMA and work your through to Federal Road Safety Commission Officials, stopping along the way to acknowledge FERMA, VIO, Council Officials and NURTW levy collectors, it is a tale of ignominy.  The wooden uncompromising expression these officials wear is designed solely to pressure victims into paying bribe for trumped up offences. We play head games with each other all the time but the commuter seldom gets away without paying that N200 for pure water as they describe it. The danger that is not immediately apparent is the ease with which any uniformed individual can lure the undiscerning person into danger and commit violent robberies against them. The stories of armed robbers in Police and Army uniforms abound. There are also LASTMA officials that literally car jack you only to leave you at the mercy of area boys that they recruit to support their services.

The jungle justice of old will not work against this rape perpetrated by representatives of government, that is certain. We are therefore left with our favourite recourse, which is to sit around and blame politicians. Still politicians are not the ones with the responsibility for law enforcement, they are just bounty hunters here to exploit our passive attitudes even about issues of personal safety and security.

Robot  Villager

# 1 var sbtitle1011=encodeURIComponent(Commuting t...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 08.02.2008 10:57

datuouwadaberechi  Villager

# 2 dear mutti, i can feel u (as my niece says when we apparently agree deeply on a topic). honestly i feel that level of out-of-body distaste when i come across some of these so-called policement or security officials. contact with them should be kept to the very minimum. police-boss after police-boss and d situ remains d same. u know, once upon a time in a town called aba, hapless citizens lived in fear till bakassi boys (which apparently was a group of traders who had had enough of their businesses suffering in the face of the rogues), took up arms and truly fought those thieves to a stand-still. and then what happend? a politician with big-bucks came along, who had a lot of cash and threw it around.....and infiltrated the BBs, then they became thugs!!! i believe thats d origin of the militants in the niger delta. POLITICIANS are to blame for so much of our problems. and oh yes, i do feel anger, that i have to fork out many 10s of thousands and more, to pay for a private school education for my kids!!!! who are those alloting less than 15% to education in our budgets? not politicians? but then again, they wouldnt succeeed without assistance, and sometimes even egging on, from the very same ordinary citizens. with the $10bn wasted on power, there's still no light. its probably true that if $10bn were wasted on education (with the rogues currently occupying the space in some crannies of the Ministry), we might just see a similar thing. may d Lord deliver us. Posted by datuouwadaberechi| 09.02.2008 05:38