Why must we keep chasing shadows?

Sometime recently the Inspector General of Police Abubakar Mohammed re-emphasised on the decree banning the use of tinted glass in Nigeria, going ahead to order his state commissioners to get their men to enforce this law. Since then it’s been a tale of woe by drivers of SUVs and mid-size minivans across the country. The excuse of the IG is that vehicles with tinted glasses are used to perpetrate all manner of crimes in the country, a statement most Nigerians won’t agree with. Moreover, he failed to give us statistics of crimes carried out with such vehicles.

Our IG is relying on a decree made by a dictator in 1991 (later amended in 1997) to curtail security challenges in 2013. Isn’t this preposterous? On February 28, 2011, the minister of police affairs, Humphrey Abah, reminded Nigerians of the existence of this law but went a step further to say that vehicles with factory tint were exempted, that the police and FRSC should clamp down on heavily-filmed vehicles. The exemption was made because of the following:

(a) 95 percent of SUV’s, mid-size mini vans, crossover vehicles manufactured between 1999 and 2013 come with factory tint.

(b) The revenue generated by the police on issuance of permits was never remitted to the federation account.

(c) 90 percent of permits issued by motor licensing agents were fake. Motorists who procured these permits now had the burden of also proving to the constable at a roadblock the genuineness of their permit. Imagine being stopped by a police officer along Sagamu-Benin road on your way to Port Harcourt. On presenting your permit, you are told you have a fake paper and so you are taken to a remote police station inside Ondo State where your vehicle is grounded. If you consider your losses, you would conclude it’s best to part with some naira notes and continue your journey. This was happening to motorists and our government was aware of it. So it was a big sigh of relief when government made the pronouncement exempting factory-tinted vehicles.

Unfortunately, this relief did not last long with the new announcement recently by the IGP. PPRO Frank Mba’s article on 04/04/2013 fully explains the new order and automatically reverts us to square one. In his explanation, Mba quoted the laws and also stated the conditions for getting this permit:

(a) Write a formal application to the IGP for the use of factory-tinted glasses stating the reason for use, bearing in mind that approval of such application is predicated on health or security reasons only.

(b) Applications should be accompanied with the following: (i) photocopies of all relevant particulars of the vehicle; (ii) photograph of the vehicle; (iii) profile of the applicant with relevant background information; (iv) passport size photograph of the owner of the vehicle; (v) any other supporting document/information that may help to justify the request.

Unfortunately, he forgot to inform us of the administrative cost of this application to Nigerians. Will this new source of IGR be remitted to the federation account? “Police officers are also warned to desist from harassing Nigerians who have already obtained valid tinted glass permits, as provided by the extant laws,” he also said. So, how will a corporal on patrol in the dirt road of Awkuzu, Uromi, Okene, Yenagoa, Ikate, Kaduna, Damaturu, etc determine that a worthless piece of paper is VALID? I use the federal highways a lot connecting through so many states in my honest pursuit of daily bread, and I always shudder and cringe in fear on the quality of the men policing our country and their blatant refusal to improve on service delivery.

Much as I sympathise with the police and the Federal Government on the high level of insecurity in Nigeria, I emphatically state here that we will make no progress on our war against terrorism with this kind of archaic, analogue law or laws. What’s the big deal in flagging down a car with tint and searching the car if you suspect the occupants? Must you dehumanise Nigerians by impounding their cars and extorting money from them all in the name of enforcing an archaic law? I hear they call it “operation velvet” in Abuja. Very laughable! This is not our problem. The police are just wasting time and taxpayers’ money and pretending to be busy.

The Federal Government should as a matter of urgency set up a national biometric database of Nigerians, tie it up with our ability to get any service in the country (even pay for food in any buka), spend money on intelligence gathering. CBN should be encouraged and supported to implement its e-money policy to the fullest and make it extremely expensive and impossible to carry cash. Information technology should be used to help solve some of these security challenges, strengthen our borders, reward honesty and not compensate convicted criminals by whatever name. I thought the noise of the new vehicle plate numbers was to use technology to connect to the registered owners of the car, but you will be surprised to know we are back to the old system: pay a motor office/agent the fees, you have the plate numbers delivered to your home. Express service they call it. But really, how can all these work without power?

On a lighter note, I think all the owners of millennium cars should also ask for amnesty for buying modern cars that come with modern facilities. Long live Nigeria!

CHIZOBA AGBASI

Agbasi writes from Lagos.

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