THE NIGERIAN BLACK RATS' SAGA

In our part of  the world where the black colour is linked to negative things, some people ascribe the many atrocities committed by the Nigeria Police to their black uniform. 

COLOURS have meanings and symbolism. They are a veritable channel of non-verbal communication. For example, red can represent among other things anger, danger or festivity. In many parts of the world, white symbolises spiritual life  therefore, it is worn by those who have dedicated themselves to religion.

Colours derived from blue - the cool colours are said to have a “sedative” effect hence they are mostly used to express love while those derived from yellow, considered to be warm colours are used to lift the spirit of depressed people by  decorating their sorroundings with the colours.

The black colour has been the most misunderstood. While it is sometimes described as the absence of all colours, it also symbolises the combination of all colours.

In a positive state, black represents elegance as in a black dinner dress or black dinner tie.

Black is also associated with sophistication and power, Tuxedo, limousine, lawyers’ and judges’ robes, priests’ attire are all typically black.

The Black Belt is the highest colour belt in most martial arts. Judo, founded by Dr. Jigor Kano and the Tae Kwen Do. It is said to mean the beginning of true achievement, wisdom and understanding.

But more significantly, black has many negative connotations. Black is the colour of mourning in the West and many societies. It also symbolises death. It is also associated with uncertainties, the hidden, fear, bad experience. Perhaps these are some of the reasons bad people like robbers assassins, terrorists, violent militias etc, adorn black attires, berets, etc.

Now the belief among a great chunk of the Nigerian people is that the black uniform of the police (the blue uniform worn by officers of the Police Force has just been introduced) must have had a perverting influence on them, which is why it has been near impossible to transform them and restore them on the path clearly delineated for them by the statute books.The popular saying is that their actions and deeds are as black as their uniform.

Indeed, the Nigeria Police have proved to be everything that the polce shouldn’t be. They not only aid and abet crime but commit the crimes which are unthinkable to be associated with the police in saner climes.

Their penchant for N20 bribe collection is  legendary. They  would rather kill than stomach the  “effrontery” of a driver who bluntly refuses to part with that currency denomination.

The police routinely launch assaults on innocent citizens - who they are paid to protect-tagging them wanderers or idlers - and confining them in the cells for as long as it would take these people’s families to “bail” them. Some have actually been used as replacements for notorious criminals in their custody who had been released and allowed to go scot-free on account of the “gifts” that had exchanged hands between the police and the criminals’ families, godfathers or sponsors.

While they create escape routes for criminals like murderers, armed robbers, thugs, etc. to escape justice, they are readily available  to rope innocent people in for the crimes they did not commit.

The police ride roughshod on the masses - arresting and detaining them on flimsy excuses - especially the road transport workers, in an attempt to reap from where they have not sown.

It is believed that they have been more “successful” in their assaults on this group of Nigerians probably because its members are mostly ignorant of their rights and privileges due mainly to their minimal educational background.

But the situation was not this bad some 20 or more years ago, when officers and the rank and file were all decked in blue uniform. Therefore, could it be said that the blackness of the uniform of the police  has rubbed off on their attitude?

Mr. Oluwakayode Ogundoro pointed out that the effects of the black uniform could be there but posited that police misdemeanour is due mainly to the system that sustains them. For example, he said Nigeria has a “can do nothing good constitution” so, it is logical that the nation has a “can do nothing good police force.”

Explaining that the black uniform is not fit for the police in a hot environment having been scientifically proved that black arbsorbs heat, he declared. “I don’t think we have a Police Force.”

“Our so-called Police Force is meant to protect the elite while the masses are left to the vageries of criminality”,  Ogundoro espoused, adding that the nation’s criminal law is extremely ultra vires.

“I  don’t think the colour of their uniform has anything to do with the way they behave. It is simply because they are armed. Chief N. Iredia,  reasoned.

To Alhaji O.A. Lawal, the black uniform may be affecting them albeit indirectly.

He noted that most times, especially in this part of the world, black dress confers evil intention on its wearers which is capable of engendering fear, apprehension and disrespect. So, the police having had their psyche impaired, could be “reacting” to the people’s perception of them by their misdemeanour.

Alhaji Lawal disclosed that “Policemen in Togo and Ghana wear uniforms that command some degree of respect. Even those of our Customs and Immigration Departments are by far better than the black uniform that has been bastardised and could be purchased from Oshodi or Yaba markets.” He then wondered  why police officers adorn a different uniform from those in the rank and file.

Mr. E. Odeh rationalised that the attitude of the police is a fallout of their lack of proper orientation and not their black uniform, arguing that the officers who wear non-black attires do not fare better.

He opined that the Police Force is so rotten and corrupt such that even if they are made to wear the purest of white, they might  even become worse.

Stating that a Police Force that is employed by the rich to oppress the poor had not started, he canvassed the need for the law enforcement agency to “go back to the scratch to acquire the necessary orientation.”

Mr. Odeh recommended the system in the United States which he described as “right” and “normal.”

According to him, “Though former Vice-President Dick Cheney, reportedly shot a man who eventually died thinking he was an animal during a hunting expedition, they waited until after he left office to be able to charge him to court. In the court, he can only escape the wrath of the law if he is able to prove  that he didn’t know the deceased and bore no malice against him and that he didn’t know a human being could be in that environment. This is the normal course of justice and not the kind that is being practised here.”

Mr. Henry Adegbuyi stressed that whatever one chooses to do is first constructed in one’s mind and has no bearing whatsoever with what that person wears. Hence, he disagreed with the notion that the black uniform compels the police to behave the way they do.

In his comments, Mr. Adebayo Abiodun stated that, culturally, the uniform is a total aberration. “While wearing black in a particular part of the body does not indicate anything negative, an all- black dress symbolises tragedy.I wonder what the government aims to achieve by being insensitive to our culture. Even the policemen themselves have expressed dislike for the uniform.”

He further noted; “It is not the uniform per se that affects them but the cultural ideas and psychological construct of the society. Part of the psychology is the people’s comment. They use the uniform to construct figures of speech to denigrate the police which is a form of psychological  manipulation which tends to affect them one way or the other.”

The Nigerian Tribune also sought the views of an expert. Dr. Akeem Akinwale of the Sociology Department, University of Ibadan, averred that though culturally, in many parts of Nigeria, black is seen in the negative perspective, the police is a formal organisation with codes and ethics. Hence, the interpretation of the uniform should be seen from the context of their formality and not from the cultural perspective.

He declared that the behaviour of the men in black uniform has no bearing to what they wear  but could be traced to other factors.