A very short list of people aren’t allowed to be bad at their jobs — the bartender mixing your drinks, the surgeon giving you a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) in Yaba, the tattoo artist trying to spell “gobbledegook” on your forehead and Nigerian police public relations officers (PROs).
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) already has an image problem with frequent cases of harassment of citizens, extortion, brutalisation and the occasional extra-judicial murder hanging around its neck. The Force is trying to fix that by having its official image launderers PROs sit online to put some make-up on its public profile.
But these tweets prove they’re not currently doing the best job.
Social experiment
SP Ben Hundeyin is the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command and took time out of his busy schedule to randomly drive through two police checkpoints to prove once and for all that police brutality is widely exaggerated.
At least that’s what his late-night Twitter thread communicated, even though he swears he only did it to… *checks note* prove there are only a few rotten eggs in the Force. And what was his advice to Nigerians who hope to avoid police brutality? Don’t be condescending, don’t be docile, and smile a little bit.
A dash of victim-blaming
As the Force spokesperson in Abuja, laundering the image of the NPF is the bread and butter of CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, and he tends to take that to the extreme sometimes.
He’s suggested many times that police extortion is rampant only because Nigerians are willingly paying the officers. It certainly has nothing to do with having aggressive officers waving a gun in your face and threatening to stress or end your life if you have nothing for the boys. CSP Adejobi thinks you’re just a rich person throwing money around:
Buried head in the sand
Here, Bright Edafe, the image launderer of the Delta State Police Command, tweets like someone that’s never read the news before to understand police officers can indeed just shoot you.
It’s not a very bright tweet, but does he care about your unsolicited opinion?
Respect for the uniform
We’d never advocate for Nigerians to assault police officers because it’s a terrible idea, but “disrespect to the nation”? Like the Nigerian philosopher, Alexander Abolore Adegbola Akande, aka 9ice, said, “Respect is reciprocal. Head does not pass head.”
Glory hunter
This is like a chef complaining that you didn’t praise them for not oversalting your food.
Blogger blogger
Here’s Brighto again, asking the public to air their opinions on why an 18-year-old “boy” has freedom of movement.
Also, why does he attach his unrelated personal pictures to the most random tweets?
What’s a little fake news?
CSP Adejobi tweeted this with his own hands (we assume), unprovoked:
…the public reacted with predictable backlash:
…and then he just confessed (or lied) he deliberately lied to get a reaction from the public.
Is this the account of a 50-year-old public officer, or a teenager trying to get attention online?
It’s all perspective
Let’s just say DSP Bright needs to take an online course on anything with critical thinking in the curriculum.
It’s a good thing that the NPF is planning to launch a PR school that’ll focus on things like behaviour management of officers. Hopefully, Adejobi, Hundeyin and Brighto are front-bench students at the school and not trainers.
ALSO READ: The Inspector-General Wants Nigerians to Stop Beating Up Police Officers
