Lanre Olagunju
Imagine an ambulance trapped in Lagos visitors, its siren screaming as a affected person fights for breath. Would we insist that it stay in the queue as a result of the street forward is a one-way road, or inform a fireplace engine to keep away from the BRT lane whereas a constructing burns?
These will not be hypothetical questions. They go to the coronary heart of a latest incident involving officers of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command, whose patrol automobile was captured driving towards the path of visitors in a viral video.
The footage triggered criticism, with some questioning why officers chargeable for imposing visitors rules would seem to violate them. But what the digital camera captured was solely a part of the story.
According to the Lagos command, the officers in a automobile marked RRS Attack 07 had been responding to misery calls from motorists trapped in a visitors obstruction. Dispatched by the Command’s Control Room, the crew was the closest out there formation. Reaching the scene required navigating via the reverse lane to handle the obstruction earlier than it unfold to adjoining roads.
The command cited regulation 158 of the National Road Traffic Regulations 2012, which allows regulation enforcement officers responding to emergencies or enterprise civil safety duties to ignore prescribed visitors indicators, supplied they train due regard for the security of different street customers.
Emergency privileges will not be a licence for recklessness; they recognise that saving lives generally requires exceptions to unusual visitors guidelines.
More troubling, nevertheless, was the confrontation that adopted. An particular person reportedly recognized as an activist and social media content material creator positioned himself in entrance of the police automobile, obstructing its motion whereas recording the encounter.
Citizens have each proper to query public officers. A democracy with out scrutiny is a home with out home windows. But scrutiny should not turn into deliberate obstruction of officers finishing up reliable operations.
A digital camera ought to doc wrongdoing, not manufacture confrontation. What was the goal of blocking the automobile? Was it to ascertain the details or create one other spectacle for on-line engagement? And what if the encounter had taken a extra harmful flip?
A risky confrontation may simply have escalated, with doubtlessly tragic penalties. That no one was damage is lucky. But ought to public security rely on the restraint of officers being intentionally pushed into an avoidable confrontation?
The RRS officers deserve commendation for his or her composure. Professionalism will not be solely about exercising authority however realizing when to restrain it.
In the UK and components of the US, emergency autos are permitted to make use of restricted lanes and disrespect sure visitors guidelines when responding to emergencies, topic to security safeguards. Nigeria ought to undertake the same strategy, granting police autos, ambulances and fireplace engines authorised entry to BRT corridors, one-way routes and different restricted roads when operationally vital. What is the level of preserving a visitors restriction if it prevents responders from saving lives?
The incident additionally exposes a troubling tradition of turning law enforcement officials into unwilling performers in social media skits.
Olatunji Rilwan Disu, the inspector-general of police, has beforehand cautioned towards utilizing police personnel as props for skits and viral content material. His concern is effectively based. Deliberately scary an officer, recording the response and packaging the confrontation as leisure is neither accountable activism nor significant public accountability.
Where officers abuse their powers, they need to reply for his or her actions. But accountability should not turn into humiliation, and freedom of expression should not be stretched right into a licence to hinder reliable police operations.
The penalties prolong past an embarrassing video. Repeatedly baiting, ridiculing and undermining officers can erode morale and weaken public confidence in an establishment carrying monumental nationwide tasks.
These are the identical women and men anticipated to confront insurgency, terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and different violent crimes threatening our communities and nationwide sovereignty. They will not be expendable characters in social media skits however human beings entrusted with defending thousands and thousands of Nigerians, typically below tough and harmful situations.
Can we demand braveness from officers confronting armed criminals whereas celebrating a tradition that ridicules their uniform? Can we anticipate sacrifice from these defending our communities whereas making their work unnecessarily tough?
The Lagos command’s eventual clarification was vital, though it got here after the video had gained appreciable traction. But the police and visitors authorities should go additional by educating the public on emergency street entry and the tasks of residents when responders are on obligation.
The rule of regulation will not be weakened when authorised emergency responders make vital exceptions. It is weakened when rules are utilized with out regard for the lives they’re designed to guard.
When emergencies come up, the street mustn’t ever turn into a barrier between those that need assistance and people despatched to offer it. Sometimes, saving lives requires greater than imposing the guidelines; it requires understanding why they exist in the first place.
*Lanre Olagunju wrote in from Abuja.
