Clem Oluwole

Without a doubt, erection of checkpoints on our roads within and outside the towns, have become a part of our security culture. Even before the proliferation of serious security challenges, starting with the emergence of Boko Haram in the North-East axis in the late 2000s, checkpoints were known to dot our highways, perhaps more in number than road signs.

Checkpoints serve different purposes depending on the prevailing circumstances. Among them are to stop and inspect vehicular traffic in order to detect crimes or serve as a deterrent; traffic safety enforcement, and border security. Authorised security personnel like the police officers, the Customs operatives, members of the Armed Forces, etc, execute such security operations.

Besides those listed above, there are checkpoints mounted by bodies like the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), and tax/levy collectors targeting commercial vehicles transporting foodstuffs and other goods. Those ones are responsible for high costs of consumables in the markets. The checkpoint bugs even bite officials of tricycle and okada riders unions.

These enforcers are always seen putting their lives at risk by throwing themselves in front of the riders or dragging planks fitted with nails across the road to force their members to a halt for due collections.

Checkpoints are unavoidable in this country given the level of insecurity plaguing us. We are not as fortunate as nations like Iceland, New Zealand and Switzerland regarded as the paradise on earth because of their lowest crime rates.

The Netherlands, for instance, is even shutting down prisons due to a major drop in crime rates and low number of criminals. Empty jailhouses have been turned into hotels, residential homes, and cultural/entertainment centres.

The story is different here. Jailhouses are either being expanded or new ones constructed to accommodate the growing population of criminal elements swarming all over the place like ants on sugar. The last time I checked, no fewer than 82,195 inmates are accommodated in the 256 custodial and correctional centres scattered across the country. About 64 per cent of them are in pre-trial detention, while 24, 913 have had their cases decided and are serving their terms.

Checkpoints dotting our highways, including the illegal ones, that have defied closedown orders from successive Inspectors-General of Police, merely serve as cash collection hubs for their ‘Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)’. The defiance of the IGPs’ orders reminds me of the open disregard for the directives of the successive presidents and commanders-in-chief withdrawing police officers attached to high profile Nigerians, celebrities, men of God and foreign contractors. Have you ever attempted to free raw meat from the jaws of hyenas? You may want to try it someday.

Most criminal elements do not dread checkpoints because they can buy their ways through. With cash, they believe they can widen the eye of the needle for a camel to pass through. This is not to generalise the accusation. There are still some officers at roadblock with integrity to block the needle’s eye.

A few days ago, the head of one of the anti-graft agencies with an unusually long name came face to face with the beast of corruption he has been enlisted to combat. He is Gladiator Musa Aliyu who is the head of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Gladiators are known to fight beasts or wild animals in the Roman arenas back in the day. So, on the fateful day, four beasts that garrisoned themselves along a highway in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), confronted Gladiator Aliyu. Unlike the Roman gladiators swinging swords, the ICPC, who was moving around with his identity under wraps, and bearing no weapons, agreed to be shepherded to a Point of Sale spot, where he shelled out the sum of N53, 000, to escape the beasts.

The story soon went viral across the media space. It was not clear how the ICPC boss was able to rope in the foursome to face the music. This is because no one issues a receipt for such a settlement that can be tendered as evidence. Perhaps he had a secret camera on him to film the encounter. The FCT Police Command has described the foursome as carrying out illegal operations.

Although checkpoints have been grossly abused in most parts of the country to the extent that criminal elements are known to impersonate security operatives at such hubs, consequently robbing unsuspecting commuters on the highways or extorting them as it was the case with the foursome, they are imperative for our safety and security. Many crimes have been busted at checkpoints. They also serve as a deterrent to criminality if the operations are executed with honesty.

However, the public perception about those who man checkpoints, legal or counterfeit, is not good at all. If the checkpoints are set up to detect or prevent crimes, then it is a waste of space in some instances. As I said earlier, criminal elements can buy their way through most checkpoints in this country. Some corrupt check-pointers like those who tackled Gladiator Aliyu can even take as little as N100, and thank you with a solid salute.

One question agitating the minds of Nigerians is, “Can this disgraceful practice be stopped?” To achieve this, the starting point is that our police system MUST go through a crucible of reforms, and the personnel funneled through reorientation, with enhanced pay packets to boot.

The average police officer is poorly paid. And this poor remuneration sharpens their appetite to audaciously demand and collect bribes from members of the public, including someone like the ICPC boss… of all victims! They always feel that checkpoint givers would appreciate their plight and poor working conditions. This gives them a sense of entitlement. Besides, it is said that givers never lack.

My worries, however, are that reforms alone may take the feeding bottles of “extra cash” from their mouths… a practice that has become entrenched in the system. Not all of us are in a position like Gladiator Iliya, who got them ensnared. Checkpoint is like a lion’s den motorists must approach with their hearts in their mouths because they cannot say with certainty that the operators are law enforcers or lawbreakers.

During the Jonathan administration, the idea of beefing up CCTV in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was initially mooted a couple of months before the October 1, 2010 Eagle Square bombing in Abuja that claimed 16 lives.

Former commissioner of police in charge of the FCT, Haruna John, known to be an expert in CCTV surveillance, who mooted the idea, had promised that the devices would be installed at strategic locations of the city as a model experiment.

When the erstwhile Jonathan administration eventually gave a nod to the CCTV initiative, the project was applauded. About 1,000 surveillance cameras that dotted selected highbrow locations in the FCT, valued at a whopping sum of $430m, which many believed were over-priced, began to malfunction from day one. This was also partly due to the fact that the contract for the supply of the CCTV was awarded to crony contractors who lacked the competence to do a perfect job.

When the Buhari administration came on board in 2015, there was a renewed zeal to complement the police efforts in crime prevention and detection using CCTV. Many security watchers saw it as a welcome development in the belief that the initiative would work this time around, as it would also go a long way in preempting criminal activities because these undesirable elements will know they are being watched and thus keep off areas in which they are installed.

As I have consistently advocated in this space, you would even pass me as a SAN, provision of CCTV is a proactive measure, which serves as a deterrent to criminal elements. It is public knowledge that the country is grossly under-policed. Hopefully, the state police patina, now in the offing, should fill in the lacuna. Deploying CCTV would not only complement the efforts of our security personnel and make them more efficient in their operations but also discourage criminal folks.