I cannot under estimate the importance of keeping quiet in tense situations. By doing this, situations become clear and fully under control. One day as I strolled along the road, at a T-junction I saw two policemen stopped a man walking on his own. The man around 5ft tall appeared to be dressed very expensive and the policemen approached him carefully.
Here in Nigeria, every now and then men in uniforms are seeing stopping and searching young guys with expensive dressings, rides and profiles. This is a legal action taken by the state to curb mostly cyber crimes and other illegal means of livelihood. In these situations, there is freedom of voice and freedom of rights and harassment cases can also be reported including extortion. You must also subject yourself to safe searching and questioning so as to be cleared. And when you respond satisfactorily, you will be released.
I have just crossed the road closer to the scene where the two policemen tried stopping this tall man. The man wouldn't stop for a minute, he was so aggressive even though he might be innocent. His prolific dressing needed to be questioned that was all. He started ranting and moving fearlessly aiming to pass through the uniform men without stopping. This motive forced the policemen to raise their guns and pointed it at him. He paused for a brief minute. As the policemen drew near to him, he began yelling at them. I could also hear him from where I stood some safe distance away. I also noticed that passers-by stopped and wondered what was going on. It was this strangers intention to gather as much people around as possible. He was on top of his voice bad naming these officers, calling them oppressors and criminals and that they were trying to extort money from him because they thought he was a cyber criminal....
All these accusations made people around whisper against the unfazed policemen. They were so calm as I could see from their faces and expressions. When they tried to talk, the man wouldn't give them the liberty. The man began to brag about himself and his portfolios and peoples gaze turned back to him somewhat accusingly. The man almost fought back when one of the uniform men approached past him. An elder amongst the people gathered asked him what the problem was, and there again he accused the policemen of trying to stop him without charges and that he is innocent of whatever they are charging him for. He went further by ranting how one cannot walk free on the road anymore in his own country, while should one dress well and rich from his home and policemen will suspect him to be criminal...because of policemen should I dress as a beggar in my own land again?
All eyes turned back to the policeman including mine and awaited response. The other policeman that left seconds ago came back shortly and thrusted a wallet into his colleague's opened palm. And the senior officer asked while rummaging through the wallet for some identification. He found a passport, plucked it out and showed it to him. "Is this your wallet sir?"
The stranger's hand automatically searched his pants pocket and his jacket and his eyes became wide...
"Sir I see you have a lot of foreign currencies here and official documents" the senior officer still searched through the wallet and finally held it up to the now shameful and speechless stranger who was probably trying to figure out how he misplaced his wallet that contained newly acquired official documents. The senior officer helped him out. " We noticed something fell out from you while you were on your phone and we tried to reach you while you accused us even before hearing us out which is so unfair, here is your wallet" The senior officer handed over the wallet back to him. The strangers face was now abashed in shame as he saw how foolish and immature he had being and now how these people were looking at him. His countenance fell deeply and finally he mustered all courage to apologise to the officers and everyone around him.
This situation of thirty minutes should have taken about five minutes if that man had just kept quiet and listen to what the officers had to say for stopping him. Thank you for taking your time to read my article and I hope there is a lesson to learn from this....
#sitonmyshow