Nigeria’s gangster economy

By Pius Okaneme

SIR: I use the transportation at Nkpor Park to travel to my hometown of Umuoji in Anambra State. The bus driver loads the passengers at the park and leaves when the bus is full. He collects his fare before he leaves the park. He drives to the exit of the park and stops and pays some thugs the sum of one hundred naira. It boils my spirit. These people collect money from hard working drivers without contributing any meaningful service. Anyway, the driver settles them and continues on his route.

Few poles away from leaving the park, the police stop him and without negotiation, he folds up fifty naira note and gives them. If he does not have exact amount, the police will accept any denomination he has and gives him change. There are about three police checkpoints within a distance of about five miles to Umuoji. The driver settles the police at each of them.

I became irritable on one of my trips and asked the driver why he settles them. I was surprised by his response. He said that it is better for him to do so. That he doesn’t have his driver’s license or vehicle particulars. He has no money to pay for these documents. He further said that even if he pays for them, the officers at the registration agencies will still pocket the money. Thus, business wise, it is cheaper for him to bribe the police on the road. And about the thugs in the park, he said that they are working for a contractor, usually a politician, who has negotiated the park management operation with the state government.

It becomes obvious to me that the country runs a gangster economic system whereby money circulates in a roguish design. I can now take a deep breathe and pay the driver any additional money he charges since he is only a small hand that feeds a big body of sharks.

Nigerians have become experts in frustration-management. You can never tell by the look on the face of an average person the stress poor governance is exerting on him or her. They go about making light of the difficult situation by accepting their fate. You can find passengers pressing on the driver when stopped on the road by the police to hurry up and settle them just in case he has any reason to bargain for a waiver. The passengers will be the first to remind the driver that the police officer has school fees to pay for example. I once overheard a police officer hustling the driver to pay up the bribe for there was no work for them that day.

The pitiful thing is that the police officers have become reckless when they collect bribe on the road either from bus drivers or other motorists. They maltreat those who do not cooperate. On the positive side, the officers look well dressed and healthy; some gesture with protruding stomachs. Obviously, they are supplementing their salary with the unofficial toll they collect from drivers. You can imagine the anger of the police officers with the increase on the road of other officers with different uniforms representing traffic enforcement officials collecting bribe. The joke among passengers is that the police officers detest mounting road block near the Federal Road Safety Commission officers for example. The police feel that they block motorists from escaping the Road Safety officers who do not have the advantage of a gun and they turn around and collect more money for bribe which undercuts the return for the police.

• Pius Okaneme, Umuoji, Anambra State.