Cheta Nwanze: Pythons don’t dance, they kill

by Cheta Nwanze

When you travel towards the South East from Lagos, there’s a distinct pattern to the stops that you are subjected to. There are multiple police and FRSC checkpoints in Ogun and Ondo states, where you will be harassed regardless. By the time you cross the divided town of Ofosu into Edo state, for some reason, the Nigerian Customs come in on the act. At the Benin-bypass at Oluku, a Customs official is almost certain to jump in front of your car demanding that you stop. Makes me wonder when Nigeria built an international airport in Oluku.

This pattern continues: police, FRSC, Customs, until the border with Delta state. At Oza Nogogo, just before Agbor, historically the border between the Edo and Igbo speaking peoples, there is an immigrations checkpoint (accurate as of a week ago), then shortly after, some soldiers, like you’ve crossed into another country.

To be honest, they don’t stop everyone. But they are/were there. Then the journey continues. Just before you get to the River Niger Bridge, there are three checkpoints. One police, two military. You slow down at all, and you will almost certainly be stopped at one, if not more. Then you cross the bridge, and enter into Onitsha. There is a checkpoint at the foot of the bridge. Then just before the Fegge junction, there’s an armoured vehicle parked, just surveying you.

The madness really starts at around Iweka. Police. Army. Police. Army. Police. Every 100 or so metres. You are stopped at all. Your papers are scanned. To be fair, the soldiers tend to be more polite, the policemen are always likely to tell you that that “2” in your vehicle papers is actually a “Z”, and then demand for something, to let you go on your merry way. An identity card that says “Press” helps sometimes. At other times it does not.

This state of affairs continues until you leave Onitsha, and are headed towards Owerri. Then the checkpoints reduce in number, but are present at almost every bad spot, and the bad spots are many. When you drive through Owerri, there are not as many checkpoints these days, as there were a year ago. But there is one major one just before Obinze. And it continues, up until you get to Port Harcourt.

In Port Harcourt, you meander through that sad city, and arrive at Oyigbo junction, just before the Imo River. There is a major checkpoint there. You pass, after being searched (I’ve always been searched there), and continue towards Aba. As you approach Aba, the density of checkpoints increases. Now there’s hardly any police. It’s always soldiers. Again, it must be stressed that in my experience, they are far better behaved than the police. But the tension their presence brings, can be cut with a knife. All through the road, they are there. Every few kilometres, until Umuahia. As you get closer to population centres, the distance between the checkpoints decreases. They are also almost always close to where there are bad spots, and the Port Harcourt-Aba-Enugu road, is a road users nightmare.

Because of the level of harassment I have received, the number of times I have been stopped, I know the names of a lot of hamlets along this road. Obehie, Ihie-Ukwu, Asa Nnetu, Omenazu, Umuolike, Ubakala, Ohuhu, Umuagu, Azunmiri, Umuezike. All these are just in between Aba and Okigwe! At Okigwe, where the road is terrible, and Hausa is fast becoming the dominant language, there is a huge checkpoint, complete with two armoured vehicles facing different directions. Between Okigwe and Enugu, the last time I was on that road about a month ago, there was no checkpoint. But on the other circuit, going back towards Onitsha, from Enugu, it begins again, though again, not as many as on the southward journey from Onitsha via Owerri, or on the northward journey from Port Harcourt via Aba and Umuahia. This reflects the reality that there are three zones of divergent thought in the South-East. Something we’ll talk about at a future date. Finally, and back in Onitsha, and the military checkpoints are there again. In full force.

With this level of security operatives deployed all over ani Igbo, one wonders what the need is for Operation Python Dance. In my view, this exercise, coming so soon after the Amnesty International report, not only appears to be an unrehearsed PR blunder, but a calculated insult. Given the historical animosity between the Nigerian military and the region, and given the prevailing anger over the poor economic year, how soon before some unhappy revellers chance upon a roadblock mounted by equally unhappy soldiers who would rather be elsewhere? Why do we like doing this to ourselves?


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

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