Remove Nyanya military checkpoint now! (II)

1. The checkpoints that have sprung up in Nyanya and other parts of Abuja and in many Northern cities in the wake of the Boko Haram onslaught are practically useless.  Apart from causing needless pain to innocent citizens and acting as a hindrance to social and economic intercourse, they do not achieve any real useful […]

1. The checkpoints that have sprung up in Nyanya and other parts of Abuja and in many Northern cities in the wake of the Boko Haram onslaught are practically useless.  Apart from causing needless pain to innocent citizens and acting as a hindrance to social and economic intercourse, they do not achieve any real useful thing, namely catching terrorists or other criminals or preventing them from striking anywhere else.
2. If checkpoints in Nigeria generally are meant to address the issue of insecurity facing the nation, then it shows how unserious we are as a people because the officers of the law who man them have since changed the purpose for setting them up. Each time a checkpoint is erected anywhere in Nigeria, it quickly becomes an instrument for extortion of money from hapless commuters especially commercial vehicle operators and motor cyclists. The police, soldiers, customs, immigration or whoever do not pretend that they are there to catch criminals; they make it clear it is an opportunity for them to use their uniform to intimidate, harass and extort money from poor, innocent citizens.
I travelled to Ogoja last weekend and decided to come back to Abuja by public transport in order for me to get to see what checkpoint officers demand from their ‘customers’ and I was shocked to discover that the soldiers on checkpoint duties have introduced a certain kind of impunity or uninhibited conduct to the demand for bribe from commercial transporters who do not want to be delayed in the name of security check. They now openly ask for bribe and transporters now even stop, give them one thousand or five hundred Naira notes for the soldiers to take their own and give them change! In the past, police who were taking this bribe used to do so using coded language and gesture. They appeared afraid to demand the bribe knowing it is wrong. Now, with the soldiers who are brash and bold, a new, more shameful dimension has been added to the evil we have come to accept as benign.
The soldiers and the police do it without any fear or repercussion. Those who have allowed checkpoints to mushroom and become permanent feature of our awful experience have done Nigeria a great evil. With all sense of responsibility, I demand, on behalf of all suffering commuters on our roads, that checkpoints should be dismantled because they represent more evil than good.
From my experience as a commentator and participant observer of the Nigerian scene, each time there is a clamour for the dismantling of checkpoints and the checkpoints are removed, soon after there will be a rise in criminal activities. This is very suspicious but not difficult to understand. Those in the security forces who profit handsomely from the existence of checkpoints encourage criminals to cause mayhem to justify the return of checkpoints. And quite surprising, no one in government has found the courage to insist that our highways should remain avenues for the free flow of traffic and aide for economic development.
Today, some citizens who are disgusted with the ignoble activities of checkpoint operators simply stay at home. It makes no sense to go out and earn good money with one’s sweat only to give it to evil men who use the uniform we give them to exploit law abiding and hard-working citizens.
3. Some sane voices have been heard in the past lamenting the over exposure of our soldiers to civilian life to the neglect of their professional training and engagement. If this concern means anything to our leadership, someone should have counselled against the erection of new checkpoints manned by yet more soldiers. The military institution is just about the only institution in this country that seems to be standing proud in spite of the corrosive debasement that other institutions have suffered in our years of the locusts. I therefore feel a very great pain that serious efforts are seemingly been made to also debase the soldiers and make them look so ordinary and as a people no longer deserving of fear and respect. Surely, a soldier who stands publicly at a checkpoint and gives bribe change to a taxi driver cannot command the respect of such a fellow.
The first time I saw soldiers taking bribes at checkpoints, I said to myself that Nigeria is finished. Now that they have introduced an unabashed dimension to the infamy, I am of the firm conviction that Nigeria is truly finished.
4. You do not need to be a security expert to know that if truly our leaders are concerned about the safety and security of the people and the nation, the thing to do is to invest heavily in intelligence. True criminals are nabbed by intelligence gathering and information. They are not caught at checkpoints on the highways. We hear that in the police, money meant for informants is no longer used for that purpose. Rather, it is diverted into private pockets.  What is the use in having the intelligence arm of every security institution if all what they know to do is to go to a highway and mount a checkpoint.
If I were wired by God to be an activist, my NGO will be focused on a vigorous campaign for the dismantling of all checkpoints in the country because checkpoints have done incalculable harm to this nation. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Nigerians have been killed at checkpoints though accidental discharges ever since someone muted the ideas that they should be employed. Several more persons have been killed in these places through vehicular accidents. And as soon as accidents happen at any checkpoints, the soldiers and the police will leave that location and relocate somewhere else.
In light of above, what more is President Jonathan waiting for? If a practice that is so ruinous as we have carefully identified has continued for so long that it is becoming a norm, what is a responsible and caring president waiting for other than to order that it should be done away with? If Jonathan orders the dismantling of road blocks and there is a rise in criminal activities, he should refuse to be blackmailed. He should insist that the law enforcement officer should employ intelligence to get criminals and stop them from disturbing the nation.
Many who say that my dear country Nigeria is organized as a criminal enterprise are often seen as being uncharitable. But matters like the criminal operation of checkpoints to fleece innocent citizens lend credence to that description. There are so many little, little things that our leaders at various levels neglect but which are very significant in the lives of millions of ordinary people. I wish the president and the governors and other high-ups will feel the way millions of us ordinary Nigerians feel about the pains unnecessary checkpoints cause us. What used to consume travel time on most Nigerian roads was the poor condition of the roads. Now it is innumerable checkpoints. How sad.