AFRICAN CHINA – If you’ve lived in Nigeria long enough, then it wouldn’t come as a surprise regarding the behaviour portrayed by our local police officers. It goes without saying that most of the Nigerian police offers are under-trained, hardly educated and above all underpaid.
See Also: 2Face Appreciates Nigerians For Lending Their Voices When He Lost His
In as much as they sometimes do a good job, 70% of the time you will find them rather on the wrong side of the law than anywhere else. Their behaviour might not come as a surprise to many, but having a video taken of such an incident; now, that’s a surprise.
Police Unlawful act: African China
While I see this as a positive step in the right direction, others might see it as a cry for attention. The video blow, posted by Africanchina on his Instagram page clearly shows the police threatening to shot the artist even though he was peacefully in his car.
The police officer is seen right in front of African China’s car, pointing the gun at him and saying he would shot him! I don’t know what training this guy had, or if he ever had any at all, but that right there is not acceptable! Such behaviour needs to be looked into and those found wanting punished.
Police Unlawful act: Key Questions
More photos
We need to pause and take a minute to ask ourselves some key questions:
- What if the police officer accidentally pulled the trigger? Who will he blame? The good thing is there were a lot of witnesses around, so some sort of caution was taken on the police officer’s end. At the end of the day, he would probably say it was the work of the devil (a popular phrase we use in Nigeria when we know we have really messed up).
- Given the same scenario, with little or no witnesses around and he pulls the trigger, what will happen? The truth is nothing will probably happen to the officer; they will probably head back to the station and cook some story up.
It was a brave thing African China did by recording the incident while it happened, he literally put his life at risk taking that video, but it was the right step to take. We need more videos of public officials in Nigeria when they are caught in the act of an unlawful behaviour.
See Also: American Pop Singer Madonna Adopts More Children From Malawi
With such documented evidence, such cases can be seriously looked into and various organizations can be quickly cleaned up. I pray that one day we as Nigerians will see a police officer meters ahead and actually feel safe as opposed to feeling like we are approaching a modern-day tax collector.
