KEMI BADENOCH AND THE NIGERIAN POLICE
The police are a reflection of the Nigerian society, argues Joshua J. Omojuwa
A casual observer was going to get away with thinking Kemi Badenoch had become the No. 1 hate figure for Nigerians on social media. Before the play that turned the tide, the leader of the UK’s Conservative Party was never going to truly occupy such a position amongst Nigerians considering the several other options back home. That said, it did look like there was a consensus on the Badenoch bashing by online users until she offered the audience their favourite hate figure; the Nigerian Police. What followed was stories on the many tragic experiences suffered by Nigerians in the hands of the police.
Apart from those who have permanently been protected by their access to power, every Nigerian south of Abuja has a bad police story to tell. For several unlucky others, those stories resulted in the death of loved ones, their disappearance or even incarceration, for doing nothing other than being citizens of Nigeria living in Nigeria who happened to find themselves in the same space and time with the police. When it comes to this subject matter, the question is how do you fix it? Unfortunately, whilst there appears a consensus that policing is broken, we have stayed stuck on what to do to fix it for years now.
Kemi Badenoch had been asked about the British Police. Because her ambition is solely focused on becoming the Prime Minister, she sidestepped the subject of the British Police and instead offered the interviewer the Nigerian Police. Gimba Kakanda said it best, “it was an unnecessary deviation that reveals her desperation to perform for the British public in her quest to shake off any allegiance to a nationality other than British. Interestingly, if I were in her shoes and asked to compare life in Abuja and London, my story would’ve been different. The first and only time I was ever robbed in over three decades of my existence was in London, on a busy street in central London.
“When I reached out to the Metropolitan Police, I was directed to fill out an online form. Less than 24 hours later, they responded and said there was nothing they could do, even though CCTV cameras were all over the area and the robbers weren’t masked. You can’t even wear a decent watch and walk the streets of London without nursing the fear of being mugged. That should be Kemi’s concern if she aspires to lead the UK someday, because the excuse was that the police in the UK had no budget to chase muggers. Again, Kemi Badenoch’s account of the Nigerian police is valid. Many of us have had terrible encounters with them, no doubt, but that wasn’t what the interviewer asked her about. Her account also doesn’t negate the fact that there are outstanding police officers in Nigeria, individuals who defy mainstream stereotypes in their policing duties. They also deserve the benefit of our microphones”.
This is not a black or white conversation, at least in my opinion. There are nuances and hard truths. Tough ones about Nigeria and its unwholesome realities. One cannot defend the Nigerian Police. It’d appear Kemi could not defend the British Police either. She’d have had to speak about the submission that it is racially biased for starters. For someone seeking to lead the country, that was a no-go area.
Adebayo Amoo, British-Nigerian tech founder, brought it home for the UK politician when he posted to X that, “You represent Northwest Essex constituency as MP, most of the crimes committed in your constituency include violent and sexual offences – does that make every constituent of yours a violent/sexual crime offender? Do you see how ridiculous your assertion about Nigeria is?”
The Nigerian Police is our collective shame and pain. This isn’t a denial of the outliers within its ranks. That said, Kemi knows what she is doing. Take her views on colonialism and white privilege. I guess she feels a sense of need to defend the old empire she represents. Then there is naked ambition. Add that to, not what is being said, but why it is being said, how and when it is being said and for whom. Against whom?
The question was, “do you trust the British Police?” and she went, “remember my experience in Nigeria was very negative”. Okay. I respect the person in question, her accomplishments are worthy of one’s respect. However, I don’t care about her enough in the way I would someone of Nigerian origin in her position. I think she can care about Nigeria’s challenges in the way that she seems to do and still care about the people. There are ways you can address Nigeria and Africa’s issues without turning the people against you.
You can see through this person and acknowledge Nigeria’s failings that make it easy for her to use the country as punching bag. That Africa and the rest of the Global South get to be thrown those punches too shows that it is at least as much about what it was for her in Nigeria, as it about the position she clearly so desires and obsesses about. There is a reason she became leader of the Conservatives as soon as they were out of power. We will find out when they take power again.
To the rest of us, we must remember that “officers of the Nigerian Police Force are not from a different planet. They are ordinary Nigerians, just like the rest of us, who have jobs in the police force. When they misbehave, it’s because they are just being Nigerian. If you replaced the entire police force with other Nigerians who are not currently officers, I doubt there would be any significant change in the behaviour of the Nigerian Police Force. Nigerians, look in the mirror. Your police officers reflect society – they are your family, neighbors, friends, and former classmates,” to say it almost exactly how Nojeem Yusuf put it. We are, in more ways than one, our police.
Omojuwa is chief strategist Alpha Reach/BGX Publishing
