What an Unwholesome Country!

By Val Obienyem…

Nigeria is a country replete with contradictions, which have posed great challenges to our meaningful and sustainable development.

Last December, I travelled from Lagos to Onitsha by road. Along the way were all manner of security agents that make life more unbearable for Nigerians. Among others, we came across close to 15(Yes, 15!) Customs check-points. As we discovered later, a team of 12 personnel designated to man a single check-point will spilt into 3 groups, with the effect of mounting two more road-blocks thereby widening their highly-efficient extortion platforms and further unleashing more pains on hapless travellers.

It also instructive – and we have it on good authority – that they do not engage in such recklessness on the Northern Nigeria roads.

Only yesterday, I travelled to Ikom from Calabar – my first trip to Ikom. Today, as I boarded the Siena bus from Ikom to Onitsha, an argument ensued between our driver and two male passengers. Curious, I tried to intervene, and the driver revealed that the two men were Cameroonians without papers and he was asking them for special charges to “settle” Immigration, Police and Army check-points on the way. My first reaction was to ask how they managed to enter Nigeria, to which the driver shrugged. . I explained to him why he should not carry illegal aliens since they posed danger to our country. How would he know if he was carrying a terrorist on the run from another country?

At the base of all this, is that most of the border security personnel whose primary responsibility is to prevent the inflow of illegal aliens have been compromised through and through. Having created a piece of merchandise, the trade continues to spread to the detriment of the country. Illegal immigration has become big business for security agencies. The drivers who convey those illegals already know the amounts with which to settle the security agents.

Another interesting revelation is that the security agents actually watch out for the illegal aliens, not so much as to apprehend them but, to determine what they should collect from the drivers as pay-off. When they doubt the driver, they go through the motions of asking suspicious passengers their towns, State and language of origin to satisfy themselves that the driver has not cheated them. What a country!

Between Ikom and Abakiliki, we came across 7 army check-points; 2 immigration posts, and 9 police road-blocks. At each of the check-point, the driver would stop on his own volition and do the needful. If he did not stop – whether or not there was any security agent in sight to flag him down – the driver would be ordered by the next check-point to turn back and go to “settle” the check-point he omitted – they communicate by phone. What a country!

In Abayom area, several army check-points were barely a pole apart. A plethora of security check-points also littered Yahe-Yalla, Ofuma, Ukene and Ezenwenyi, Our driver informed us that the soldiers were posted to those border areas of Cross River and Ebonyi States due to their boundary disputes, but had since joined the gravy train of toll collection from motorists and commuters. What a country!

It has become customary for Nigerians to resign themselves to fate over so many wrongs in the country. The truth is that once we get a good leader, all those nonsense will stop. There is no crime that does not have appropriate solution. This reminds me of a certain Cambyses, who, confronted by high judicial crime in his realm, flayed a corrupt judge alive and used his skin to upholster judicial seat. What a reminder to other judges of what awaited corrupt judges!

For how long will Nigerians play chess with their country. What a country!

I have pics of the encounter with some of those security agents which may be recessed on demand. What a country.

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