Observers of the above picture of Senator Dino Melaye sleeping outside in the compound of what looks like a decrepit facility are drawing attention to its implications for the image of policing in Nigeria. The picture has already gone viral on the social media, with the implication that it is no longer just the Senator and the law but the image of policing in Nigeria that comes out of this. The question that is being posed is if the image implication is not something to worry about? People are making reference to President Buhari resorting to saying the world is watching the rowdiness in the National Assembly when he was there. Is there any guarantee the world is not watching and analyzing this, it is asked? And would Nigeria be shocked when results of such analyses are released regarding human rights?
In all, such commonsensical observations speaks to the imperative for the larger society to be on moral high ground at all times, partly because there is a pastoral dimension governing law and order across the world. And observers are saying in some of those posts that when it suits law and order in Nigeria, they do things their own way but it is the images from such arbitrariness that create larger security problems subsequently. And they are asking, what would the police lose by being decent? It doesn’t require being a relation or friend of the Senator to ask that in the relationship of the law to him, no messages of targeting is sent.
Stories of the Kogi State Senator being taken away from a previous medical facility by masked policemen preceded this picture which suggests him rejecting entering the building and opting to sleep outside. There is a ‘silent scream’ in his opting to sleep outside that Nigeria cannot ignore.
