This article was inspired by a few comments I read (some reproduced below) on a Sahara Reporters news story discussion thread in which contributors warned a certain individual about the dangers of resisting attempts (as he’d proposed) by crooked Nigerian Policemen to illegally get money off you.
One wrote:
“never joke with nigeria police oooo they can. even sell you out to the ritualist its better to settle. them with immediate effect!”
Another shared:
“Most of them are hungry men. They can frame you up if you don’t cooperate with them.”
Both views and similar others are not just wrong, but they are also misleading – YES, even in Nigeria!
I just could not leave without posting my thoughts/sharing my experiences of how to do it right.
It’s a personal vision I have, to influence the thinking habits of others in dealing with real life challenges they come up against.
Too many people readily let their circumstances defeat them – especially in Nigeria.
The irony is these same people equally readily assert that the have “faith” in the almighty Creator – through whom they often loudly assert that they “can do all things”.
However, most of them fail to see this massive contradiction between the claim they make and the attitude they adopt to achieving their goals in life!
Someone has to tell – and help (not judge) them.
And that’s why I write stuff like this, and also walk my talk everywhere I go – to offer a real world relevant example they can relate to.
So I began writing with the intention of posting a comment. But I soon found myself being led, not for the first time, to elaborate in my submission so as to help those who read my words really understand how to do what I propose, and why doing so is ultimately in their best interest.
Before I knew it, I had a full bodied article written up, and I realized it would no longer fit in as a comment.
So, as has happened in the past, I decided to publish it on this blog and then post a preview/excerpt with the URL into the comments field in that discussion thread.
Here’s my take on how to think/act in dealing with agents of corruption:
No it’s not better to settle Police in Nigeria. Giving in to injustice of that kind is a sign that YOU do no know the power you have as a child of the Creator.
I’m 46 today, and I was raised in Lagos, where I now also have my own family even as I travel to/fro Cotonou.
I have had sooooooo many encounters with police and other men in uniform – within Nigeria and outside. While driving and on foot. At midnight and during the day.
Guess what? Not once have I ever given 1 kobo bribe – no matter their antics.
Most of them found me to be their worst nightmare.
At checkpoints, the border etc: My refusal to be cowed, and to boldly ask questions/assert myself without being combative, often made them let me be.
I once had angry armed uniformed policemen seize my laptop from me and placing it in the trunk of their unmarked rickety car drive off with it for over an hour, to God-knows-where, after trying without success to shake me down for money.
I refused to panic and just sat down on a bench where they’d left me. Eventually their superior officer, an inspector strolled into the area and asked what I was waiting for. I told him what had transpired. He replied that my “argumentative” attitude must have offended them, adding:
“you know they have been in the sun all day, so they may get easily irritated.”
When his men returned he called out and asked that they return my laptop to me. Then he gave me his mobile phone number, which I deliberately requested while the officers were still there – looking vexed!
Another time at the same Seme border, some immigration officers who I’d refused to give money to have my passport stamped said they suspected I was a State Security Service (SSS) agent or journalist under cover.
I always tell the truth: I am neither a security agent nor journalist, and I do not have connections anywhere.
Instead. I am just an ordinary citizen like any others.
But my faith in the Creator, makes me sure that He will always protect me against evil doers who try to hurt me.
That’s why I never hesitate to say NO to disagreeable demands from any quarters.
This includes potentially abusive clients/others who have tried in the past (unsuccessfully) to intimidate me into doing their will at my expense.
I’ve shared in a past article, for instance, the true story of a wealthy client who used his connections with corrupt police officers to cook up phony accusations against me in a bid to get me to do more work on a project without paying the fees I’d told him were due.
People told me not to, but I stubbornly refused to give in, and kept reaching out for help, until I was led via a Google search to discover a government funded agency who provided me zero cost support till the issue was resolved. And YES, I did get my payment, after which I formally notified the client via email that I no longer wished to serve his company anymore. The rest is history as they say.
Today, some of those uniformed agents who tried to extort money from me have become “friendly” with me, after they ended up losing out or looking stupid.
Some exchanged phone numbers with me while asking if I was a lawyer or activist!
FACT: If your hands are clean and your heart is free from guilt, the Creator will never let evil people dominate you
The Creator has never let me down. And He never will. if you are true to Him, you’ll enjoy the same rewards.
Like I’ve said in a past article, you simply cannot claim to believe in an all powerful omnipresent creator and at the same time claim it’s impossible or risky to challenge/resist corrupt demands made of you.
if you are afraid to say NO, then where is your faith?
Those who TRULY know the Creator will have no problems doing what I advocate here.
It’s just a matter of walking your talk!
Final Words: It is “fear” that drives the fatalistic mental attitude of “powerlessness” many people out here tend to have.
This is why they remain unwilling to stand up and fight against societal ills like corruption, injustice etc visited on them or others around them.
I have spent my entire life living successfully and achieving my life goals without ever giving to any of that nonesense. It goes without saying, that the periods of prolonged pain, deprivation, suffering, and humiliation that most people told me I would pass through for being this way, have NOT killed me till now.
Since I have also repeatedly succeeded in intervening to stop others from having their rights trampled upon using the ideas I offer here, then you can understand why I can confidently assert that what I propose is doable!
I’ve done it for decades without ever having cause to regret doing so. If I can do it, without putting my faith in any man, then anyone can do it – IF s/he is willing to think/act with faith in the Creator!
PS(Full Disclosure):
Note that I do not do religion I.e I attend neither church or mosque or indeed any other.
What I’ve said here has to do with your spirituality and NOT your religious preference.
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