By Bala Ibrahim.
For those familiar with the novels of James Hadley Chase, the title Want to Stay Alive may ring a bell in their memory. In that book, Chase reminds his readers about the power of the instinct of fear, and how it forces us to resort to, or reflect on, survival, in dangerous situations. Yes, how fear compulsorily compels people to change their characters, when confronted by difficult situations-an inevitable choice that comes to play naturally.
In every society, Nigeria inclusive, peace plays paramount role in the progress and prosperity of the people. Fundamentally, peace is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of every nation, because, the opposite of peace is conflict, which contributes in diverting resources and human capital, sometimes to waste. The lack of inner peace leads to stress and emotional exhaustion, so said our doctors. Yes, there is always a link between peace and development, because, conflict and instability prevent societies and individuals from progressing economically, socially, and personally. For the purpose of the situation at hand, this article would play bias to the selfish interest of some, in their perceived search for peace and progress.
Since the famous, celebrated, praised and applauded declaration of the state of emergency on security, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the 23rd of November this year, whereby he directed the withdrawal of police personnel attached to VIP’s in Nigeria, with immediate effect, the blood pressure of some of these VIP’s has taken the path of discomfort, distress, or even dis-ease. By definition, VIP stands for a very important person, or personality. A simple search says, the constitution does not contain a specific section that enumerates every individual entitled to a police escort or VIP protection. The police is to police the public and the society. The allocation of security personnel is typically determined by government policy, the Police Act, and security assessments of an individual’s risk profile.
Now, we know there are people whose lives were threatened, or are at the risk of being threatened by others, because of the nature of their responsibilities. Certainly people in this category need police protection, and they should be given.They belong to the class of those with risky profile. It is heartening that the President has given recognition to this class of people, but he said they should report to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp, NSCDC, for the provision of such protection.
The reason is to free police from personal protection for the larger public protection, which is their core mandate. With a population of over 250 million people, Nigeria has less than 400,000 police officers. Ideally, by world standard, the ratio of police officers to citizens should be 1:540, meaning, one officer is responsible for protecting about 540 citizens. Even with the new directive by the President, for the recruitment of an additional 30,000 police officers, Nigeria can not be policed in line with that enumerated world standard.
But that not withstanding, some of these Nigerian VIP’s are not bothered, because of the speed with which their blood pressures have taken a nose-dive, due to the discomfort, or dis-ease of fear. They want the scale of this police/people distribution ratio to remain inbalanced in their favour. Already, some of them have commenced a serious campaign, calling on the President to reverse the order, because as they say, they are now the potential targets of the terrorists.
While admitting the absence of peace in the country, they feel, the quickest solution to the problem is them having police protection. That is their definition of fairness, in Nigeria, where individual interest overrides public interest. A person, who has enough resources to hire, or even charter regiments of private guards for his protection, would not do that. Rather, he wants the public to sacrifice their own rights for his own wrongs. This is happening because of the fear of the injustice practiced, and perpetuated by the same people, probably.
The key solution to the problem is simply put by Peter Tosh, the late Jamaican musician and reggae singer, in his song, titled, Equal Rights, where he said, “I don’t want no peace, I need equal rights and justice.” The argument of Peter Tosh in the song is that, true peace can only exist after equal rights and justice are achieved for everyone, regardless of his or her class or status. Where there is justice, the need for unnecessary police protection, for a select few, would vanish. Yes, the call for peace is meaningless without first addressing the need for fairness and equity. The narratives of these VIP’s highlights James Hadley Chase’s novel, Want to Stay? and the position of fear in the character of a man, or even woman.
The novel featured Poke Tohola, a seminole Indian, who happens to be on smart racketing that turned Paradise city into panic city. The formula used by Poke was to instil fear in the minds of the rich, because he knows fear is the key that unlocks the wallets and handbags of the rich. For those who may wish to engage the police for protection? he told them to ask Mandy Lucas, who had earlier on been given police protection, for serving as a star witness to a murder he executed. Not withstanding the police protection, Poke went ahead to kill her as well as the police protector.
The parable here is that, peace can only come when we choose justice and fairness to the people, over the provision of personal police protection, which is occasioned by the visit of fear, I think.