die-hard fans of aws[african writers' series ] have already clicked 'search' in their brain's memory dump as to where dis title comes from - yes, nkem nwankwo's mercedes is bigger than yours. so permit my use of this term.
it happened this morning along the osborne-kingsway road stretch at ikoyi, lagos. i was not a witness but a colleague who happened to be both eye/ear witness relayed it to us . someserving army general was in his car making a call, this lastma guy flagged him down and as is their practice, opened the guy's car and entered. that one continued talking on his phone until they got to that nnpc/ikoyi club road/eti-osa intersection. our brass finished his call and then asked bobo lastma what he was doing in his car. dat one responded dat he was arresting him for talking while driving. he then asked him to get out of his car but of course he refused.
d general now brought out a gun and threatened him with it. in typical 9ja fashion, he started slapping and beating the Lastma guy who jumped out of his car and 'oga soja' followed and continued beating the lastman guy. after he had driven off, our runaway lastman guy now came back and the traffic warden was now asking him if he did not know the man. dat one answered in the negative. traffic warden quickly told him that that is a serving general and is known to always show himself especially along that route. agreed the lastman men could go overboard at times, but each time i see them work at accident scenes, i am quick to forgive all other sins.
now, who protects the lastma guy? i saw one the other day at university junction being beaten and dragged into a keke napep by area boys. he kept protesting and trying to extricate himself but imagine the puny guy against about 10 of those ruffians! i wondered what happened to his mate because they usually work in pairs. i asked and heard that there's an unwritten war going on between they and the area boys.
end of story is are uniforms not supposed to carry the same weight? that u are military and i am para, does it mean less regard for mine? we were brought up to believe that the messenger is a representative of his oga. you accord him the due you would have his oga. so also the uniform is a representative of the government. it is bad enough that civilians make mockery of uniforms but a uniformed personnel? there is strength in discipline. grace simply means power under control.
moi simply wonders why our uniformed personnel are so quick to go for each others' jugulars each time. could it be a case of a mother who has been offended by daddy but becos her hand no fit reach him now takes out her grievance on the next child who makes a little mistake just to spite oga and send a message to him?
now, who protects the lastma guy? i saw one the other day at university junction being beaten and dragged into a keke napep by area boys. he kept protesting and trying to extricate himself but imagine the puny guy against about 10 of those ruffians! i wondered what happened to his mate because they usually work in pairs. i asked and heard that there's an unwritten war going on between they and the area boys.
end of story is are uniforms not supposed to carry the same weight? that u are military and i am para, does it mean less regard for mine? we were brought up to believe that the messenger is a representative of his oga. you accord him the due you would have his oga. so also the uniform is a representative of the government. it is bad enough that civilians make mockery of uniforms but a uniformed personnel? there is strength in discipline. grace simply means power under control.
moi simply wonders why our uniformed personnel are so quick to go for each others' jugulars each time. could it be a case of a mother who has been offended by daddy but becos her hand no fit reach him now takes out her grievance on the next child who makes a little mistake just to spite oga and send a message to him?
No comments:
Post a Comment