Esprit de Chop!

Esprit de Chop!

By Julius Ogar

Esprit de corps is a French term that conveys a sense of pride and friendship among members of a group. In military circles where the term is widely used, it symbolises the morale and comradeship existing among men and their officers, evokes fellow feeling and rapport, not to mention cooperation and mutual respect. The term is also generally common among paramilitary agencies in Nigeria. But as is usually the case, its meaning has been distorted, diluted and bastardised, and it has become another byword for corruption among agents in and out of uniform, often a license for brazen impunity.

Therefore, it is esprit de corps for a policeman, road marshal, or the notorious VIO of Abuja to look away as someone violates public order or traffic rules because he utters the expression “esprit de corps”. He doesn’t have to say anything if he has taken the precaution to display his service belt, beret or stickers on the dashboard and windscreen. It makes no difference if the “corps” is retired or serving. In the event of any query, all the culprit needs is to produce an identity card showing he belongs to or once belonged to a corps, any corps (probably with the exception of NYSC). 

But it doesn’t stop there. There is often a horsewhip somewhere around to demonstrate the level of ‘discretion’ which servicemen and ex-servicemen assume as a result of their membership of a “corps”. The other privileged members of the society with this much face recognition and discretion, are members of the National Assembly who carry special plate numbers. Any vehicle so uniquely identified can speed through any “chop point” and requires no permit for tinted glass; it matters not whether it is driven by a distinguished/hounourable criminal, or a student of the University of Abuja. 

I remember one Sunday morning while commuting in a vehicle in which the driver had the coat of arms and other insignia of state stuck to his windscreen. He had the vehicle – a saloon car, stuffed with four passengers in the back seat and two in the front passenger seat with himself making seven in all – a clear case of overloading. We soon drove up against a checkpoint mounted by men of the FRSC and he was expectedly flagged down. Excitedly but silently, I waited to see what deserved punishment this driver would get. But the man simply rummaged in his breast pocket and brought out a card identifying him as a prisons warden. His comrade corps members simply waved him on without as much as a verbal reprimand.

As we proceeded, this driver dropped off passengers and took on more, maintaining his former attitude. Still fuming from my disappointment that the road marshals had left this law breaker off the hook, I went on to remind him that as a public officer, he ought to be seen to do what is right. I told him if the road marshals knew their jobs, people like him ought to be arrested, detained and their vehicles impounded. He probably was shocked that a “bloody civilian” could talk to him thus, but I soon alighted and carried my wahala away before the “corps” remembered that he had a koboko.  

With ‘esprit de corps’, an incorrigible criminal can travel the whole length and breadth of Nigeria passing through customs, immigration, military and police checkpoints bearing any lethal goods that could include hard drugs, arms and ammunition, stolen vehicles or other contraband. Smugglers or other crooks that lack the exclusive totems of esprit de corps can demonstrate comradeship by parting with crumpled naira notes. Other citizens who don’t belong to this ‘privileged’ class may know well enough to “give” their “particulars” and avoid trouble. Trouble could be anything from been harassed and delayed, to being beaten up or summarily discharged from existence with “accidental discharge”.

Nigeria’s security agents in many ways personify the very absurdities of the Nigerian state. Without fear of exaggeration, it is expecting too much to think that a uniformed serviceman (especially an armed one), will be courteous, friendly, and professional to you without a prior acquaintance. Most are brusque, rude and offensive. Without words, they exude contempt and disdain for those they regard as “civilians”.

The most saddening aspect of the average psyche of armed agent is the complex that everyone without a uniform is first a suspect or an enemy. They seem to be overzealous and more serious with VIP-protection duties to which they show an uncommon commitment. On VIP-protection duty, an average Nigerian security agent just manages to tolerate other human beings be it on the road or in any other public place except he has probably chopped from you. From experience, I have come to know that they loathe the confident swagger with which pressmen approach their ogas often times without recourse to them.  

While they cooperate superlatively to chop and harass the people from whose taxes they are paid and quartered, they believe that protecting the government or persons in government and their families is the same thing as “national security”. This servile but apparently false loyalty is the reason why the security agencies and their leadership are unashamedly partisan as has become increasingly obvious.

The Nigeria Police quickly withdrew the security aides attached to the Speaker of the House of Reps, who is officially entitled to state protection. Yet, private citizens like suspected Boko Haram financier, Ali Modu Sheriff and Pastor Ayo Oritsejajor are strutting about under heavy military escorts. In sane societies, the police authorities would have to explain why (for instance) Governor Olusegun Mimiko should be entitled to police protection after doing the same thing that Speaker Tambuwal did. Likewise, the military authorities would have had to explain why there are enough soldiers to assign to Sheriff but not enough to protect the people living under a state of emergency in the northeast.

Nigeria is under siege with criminals hauling off at least 100, 000 barrels of crude oil every day in the creeks and high seas; Boko Haram is yanking off territories and changing the map of Nigeria, yet troops and policemen are frequently deployed to literarily line the whole length of Aiport Road in Abuja for hours on end, for the simple reason that the President is going to or returning from the airport.

It is a legacy of the Transformation Agenda that the police, the armed forces and other security agents have become unprofessional and weak; that they execute tactical manuoevres to avoid Boko Haram and be in the company of Modu Sheriff; but turn on ordinary Nigerians whom they derisively refer to as “bloody civilians” with maximum brutality at the slightest pretext. Yet, they want to claim they are our friends...