Wetin b ur Nomba? (What is your Number)

I was returning from Ilesha where I had gone to give moral and spiritual support to 2 friends who had lost their father.

We journeyed down the Ibadan – Ife Highway and along the high way we came across nothing less than 4 checkpoints manned by mobile policemen “armed to the teeth”.

Some of these checkpoints are legal while some aren’t, legal in the sense that they serve the purpose of monitoring the speed of motorists and also stopping and searching suspicious vehicles / drivers for smuggled/ banned goods.

The illegal points however are simply “unauthorized extortion posts” for shameless policemen who have gotten their priorities WRONG.

Well we journeyed further, got to Ibadan and accessed the Lagos – Ibadan Highway and surprisingly, there were no illegal checkpoints along that road. I thought inside me “maybe there’s hope after all”

My positivity was short lived because, alas, we arrived Lagos and I had to get a bus to my crib (Eric Moore Rd) from Ojuelegba Bus Stop.

What alarmed me was not the number of illegal check points (2) between Adeniran Ogunsanya and Bode Thomas (a brief distance of 200m)

What disappointed me was not the bumpy, pot hole – ridden surface that characterised the aforementioned roads.

What really pissed me off was the audacity, credibility & stupidity with which these shameless, armed men of the Nigerian Police were demanding for money from the commercial bus drivers.

If any driver attempted to drive by, a mobile policeman was sure to raise his rifle, cock it and attempt to shoot if he did not stop “to pay his debt“ (There have been cases of policemen shooting commercial transporters over refusal to consent to extortion)

Along Adeniran Ogunsanya, the dude driving the bus I sat in told his conductor “ Go give am 100 naira, make you collect nomba”. I was still trying to figure that out when we approached Bode Thomas and a policeman jumped in front of our cruising vehicle brandishing his gun asking “Wetin be your Nomba , Wetin be your Nomba” The driver and his conductor quickly answered thus, he let us go.

Therefore, questions arose in my head.

Do these policemen understand "dignity in labour" at all?

Were the guns purchased by the government to protect the citizens or to harass them?

What if any of these policemen was my brother, father, uncle e.t.c. How would I describe this undignified conduct of his to him?

The policemen give various excuses ranging from low salaries, late payment to rising cost of living for their actions.

I do not concur, I choose to believe that they (bribe collectors & extortionists) have gotten their priorities wrong. I think it is a mindset issue, there is no difference between the shameless policeman at the illegal checkpoint and the bribe – collecting legislators I the corridors of power or the gap – toothed, former Head of State who looted this country to the tune of billions of dollars.

Despite all these, I choose to be content with what I have, I choose to travel the narrow but legitimate way because sooner or later, a time will come that, patriotic, honest citizens will have the opportunity to lead this country and her states, parastatals, states, ministries e.t.c. until then, let us live our lives with a sense of accountability putting this in mind, we will sow what we reap and some day, GOD WILL JUDGE US ALL.