The motorists were in a haste. Avoiding the traffic gridlock that characterises Mobil Road, Apapa, Lagos in the evening was uppermost in their minds. They tried to out-manvouvre one another, as in motor racing.
Suddenly, a blue-coloured Toyota Camry side-swapped a commercial bus, popularly known as Danfo, in an attempt to overtake it. It then screeched to a halt – a minor scratch has occurred.
The driver of the Camry; a stout man, about five foot tall, and dressed in mufti; alighted. Swiftly, he slapped the driver of the Danfo on the face and at the same time tried to drag him out of the bus. The man tried to put up resistance, but sighting the navy sticker on the windscreen of his tormentor’s car, he cringed.
Reluctantly, he surrendered to be dragged out of his bus. The “naval officer” increased his anger and battered him all over, shouting, “I will kill you; I will kill you, bloody civilian.”
Onlookers who could not bear it intervened. “Officer, please forgive him; don’t be annoyed,” they pleaded. He would not lend them his ears.
Other motorists became agitated as traffic built up; they hooted their horns. After about 30 minutes of cacophony, a man in an army vest and face cap appeared and barked at the bully, querying why he was so insensitive to the plight of others by causing traffic jam.
The soldier was boiling with rage, which he betrayed in his voice. He did not notice the sticker on the Camry.
Sensing danger, the bully, who had been boasting that he was a naval officer, quickly beat a retreat. Without uttering a word or identifying himself, he headed towards his car.
But the soldier would not let go; he gave him a kick on the buttocks. The bully murmured, and that provoked the soldier the more; he charged at him again up to his vehicle. On getting near the Camry, the soldier sighted a naval sticker on it, which aroused his curiosity and suspicion.
He demanded his naval officer identity card. The bravado of the supposed naval man melted, his countenance changed, he became jittery. The onlookers jeered, “Identify yourself, identify yourself now.”
The man had nothing to identify himself. He was only hiding under the cover of the sticker on his car to project himself as an officer of the Nigerian navy. So as not to cause more traffic hold up, the soldier removed the sticker from the Camry and let the impersonator go.
Pasting the stickers of servicemen, particularly of the military and the police, on the windscreen of vehicles is common in Nigeria. Every serviceman or woman who has a moving object, including a motorcycle, displays the sticker on it conspicuously.
The reason is beyond mere identity. It gives them undue advantage wherever they go. Because civilians see the stickers as personalising the car driver or motorcycle rider they avoid any face-off with them, even when the civilians are on their right.
Investigation by TheNiche showed that there is a scramble by non-service persons to get a sticker pasted on their vehicles. And those who have it invoke its power at the slightest provocation.
Getting the sticker is as easy as buying popcorn on the roadside. Some service personnel allegedly sell it to their friends or a willing buyer for as low as N500. “You can always get it if you need it,” a source close to the police disclosed.
Attempts by TheNiche to get clarification on those entitled to such stickers from Lagos police command met a brick wall.
Three hours of waiting in the office of Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, did not elicit her response. Telephone calls to her did not get through.
Also, calls to Western Naval Command spokesman, Lieutenant Commander Olabisi Wey, could not get through.
