NIGERIA POLICE AGAIN ?? Uzoma Okere...now a busload of women and children...when shall we grow up?

As a young concerned youth growing up in this country, it is perplexing to see the status quo just remaining the status quo in spite of the fact that we know we are so messed up, because we still do not grasp what it will take to be successful, pretty much, we don’t care. Some people have told me to just look for something to be happy about and stop trying to change the world; hmm…what if changing the world is what makes me happy?

It is painful that despite the efforts of the government (though I don’t believe there’s been much effort there) but more importantly, in spite of the complaints of the populace, the NIGERIAN POLICE FORCE has remained a leprous thumb in the corruption-ravished psyche of the Nigerian state.

Why do you have to be a VIP in a cute car not to get harassed by the police (most times)? Why do you have to be 35 years old before the police would believe you own the car? Why do the police not get it that all young men aren’t criminals? Why should a policeman be with a gun and four empty bottles of beer on duty? Why do I have to be treated like a criminal just because I’m young, hip and happy? If you are in need, you ask. You don’t have to harass people because all you want is scare them into being afraid and then getting to drop something. It’s crass!

TBS on Sunday 31st May, 2009 would be forever etched on my psyche as I saw the symbol of our nation’s security and the standard for discipline slide to the slum of barbarism, words will fail me in describing everything I saw because it happened too…fast…

With the incidence of Uzoma Okere still on the national front burner, we would expect the security agencies in Nigeria to pretend for now to be a disciplined apparatus but it’s unlikely.

Yesterday at midday, a MOPOL agent assaulted a busload of women and children in the full glare of the public. While people were returning from church, he stopped the bus driver obviously to intimidate him for cash but it seemed like there was verbal exchange between him and a woman in the bus, in anger he punched the side wind shield, got his hand hurt and in anger, a shot was fired into the air. Imagine the commotion with people stooping/lying down to save their lives from stray bullets only to see the policeman that took the shot smashing all the windshields around the blue bus with the mouth of his gun with not less than eight children under four years and at least eight women inside the bus screaming and wailing in fear for their lives.

In the commotion that ensued, the women began to scamper out of the bus with the kids when a kid fell and the bus rolled over her as the bus driver tried to get off the range of the officer-Olukunle Oyewunmi.

Thank God later we realized that it was the child’s leg that was rolled over but she couldn’t walk right there. I pray for healing as she gets treated.

All I kept and keep thinking about is what if it had rolled over her head? What if?