By Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu
“ALL THAT GLITTERS ISN’T GOLD”
“Sometimes it’s not the people who change, it’s the mask that falls off.”
Once upon a time in Nigeria a certain police officer by the name Abba Kyari became the toast of Nigerians, the darling of the uninitiated; to the point of being dubbed a ‘SUPER COP’, a sobriquet that depicts him as primus inter pares among his colleagues, a designation of being the best within his fold, his team the IRT, a wing of the police that is regarded as a performing unit usually saddled with high profile cases, soon a flamboyant unit of the police force wherein he was always singled out for applause, ululations, commendations and awards. Indicative of the fact that in our contemporary time he could be adjudge the best of police officer in his cadre, hence the very lofty title of ‘SUPER COP’.
Unknown to many but not escaping the eagle eyes of the well informed, this same SUPER COP was indeed a SUPER CRIMINAL’ or so it’s yet unfolding, judging by the recent revelations of his sordid dealings, with overwhelming evidence already regarding to his involvement in drugs trafficking, the NDLEA official statement wherein he is said to have enmeshed himself deeply with high profile criminals, fraudsters and elements with seared conscience in society as his companions and business partners, yet adorning the garb of a ‘SUPER COP’ in the Nigerian parlance, a ‘notorious hero’ indeed he was, even to the point of becoming a law unto himself; the unit he heads was said to be the best of their kinds, this best has since been revealed to be more in criminality and absurdities rather than for the job for which they were recruited to carry out on behalf of the people and government of Nigeria, rather they are alleged to be working ultra vires, also antithetical to their work demands.
Admittedly, the youngman like those before him would have gotten away with this two faced approach to duty, a cop by day and a villain by night if he had not been caught in the web of the Husppupi saga, his culpability masterminded and ascertained by a diligent investigation carried out by reputable foreign security outfit and made public, which led to his supposed ‘suspension’ by the police authority, pending investigation, and by the recent revelations of his continued backdoor dealings, he was yet performing his duties discreetly even though he was officially said to had been suspended and under investigation by the police, the question here being who are those still using him even while on suspension, as he wouldn’t have damned the consequences and continued in his voyage of criminality if not shielded by ‘powerful people in government and the police force’ (Who are these elements?); because as it stands he is perhaps aware that the term “under investigation” in the Nigerian parlance is as good as saying that such matters as so stated has been swept under the carpet, he ought to know anyway because he is in the system and understands the language of the system, otherwise who would have imagined that someone who has such international case of fraud and money laundering hanging on his neck would yet boisterously carry on with drug business without qualms, if not to suggest that he is aided by some highly placed individuals and imbued with immunity to be above the laws of the land?
It is heartrending but subtly ludicrous to imagine that our supposed ‘BEST’ is indeed the ‘WORST’ of his kind, found neck deep in the cesspool of corruption, money laundering, drug trafficking et al; now imagine what the known ‘BAD’ in the system would look like juxtaposed to what our ‘BEST’ has evidentially become. When we say that we are doomed in this country some would always readily accuse us of being overbearing, chastising to say we should have faith in the system, when in actual sense of the term we don’t have a functional system at all, being that those to regulate, monitor and protect the systems are themselves the greatest destroyers of the system, it’s as bad as this to begin to imagine that a massively decorated Nigerian police officer is a renowned criminal and criminal accompli, and for this long he has evaded investigation and no security surveillance has been able to spot him but for the international security network that bursted his sordid romance with fraudsters and brought him to the spotlight for evaluation, to cement the fact that his criminal tendencies is endemic and thoroughly internalized while yet under investigation he is undaunted and yet emboldened in criminal activities.
You know in Nigeria we usually praise and decorate our worst and undermine our best, hence whenever you see anyone being paraded for honesty and diligence to work in this part of the world don’t join the bandwagon of praise singers immediately, investigate well before aligning, because we seem to have an institutionalized corruption system here and this institution or system undermine the good ones but seemingly project and protect the bad ones in the system, because the system has been programmed to favour the bad eggs as against the good ones, so in the skewed Nigerian systems the opposite of what is obtained in other serious nations is what one get here; the more reason people of questionable characters are favoured more than those with exceptional characters, hence the more corrupt you are the more accolades the one seems to garner, it’s therefore not surprising that the likes of Abba Kyari with his questionable character is thrown up by our chequered system as our best, while our truly supposed bests are trampled under foot and subjugated by the system.
First enmeshed in money laundering and sundry internet fraud imbroglio, now caught in the web of drugs trafficking and it’s associated underpinnings, a supposed ‘SUPER COP’ is fast gaining notoriety as a ‘SUPER CRIMINAL’. This fact is supposedly evidence that the skewed system we have in place here is busy projecting, promoting and protecting its likes, protecting them till it can’t anymore.
Have we seen the last of the episode or we’re simply on the prelude? Perhaps the Nigerian factor would set it and witness the narrative change and the tide turn who knows, I believe time shall tell.
I Rest My Pen✍️
