Government people, Police permit and the rest of us, by Adekunle Adekoya

WE just celebrated our country’s 65th independence anniversary last Wednesday. On the occasion, the President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu reeled out statistics about how the national economy is improving and is, in fact, headed for eldorado. Brilliant speech with impressive  statistics to back up the president’s claim. Just a snag, however. Food prices refuse to come down, while tariffs for electricity and cooking gas remained where they were — in the sky. Not even talking about cost of fuel energy any more, and also insecurity. We all know this and feel it, every day.

Now, in the midst of all these suffering, the Nigeria Police Force, under the leadership of Adeolu Egbetokun, Ph.D as Inspector-General decided that Nigerians who own and drive cars with tinted or smoked glasses must obtain a new permit, different from the one they had obtained. Operationally, this new permit invalidates previously held ones, and this time around, will be renewed every year.

Good, so far. I would think that every member of the Police High Command, being Nigerians who live and work here, certainly know the experience of their fellow country men and women when it comes to things like this. The way the Police has organised this tinted permit business leaves much to be desired. First, there’s a biometric requirement that makes it mandatory for every car owner with tinted glasses to be captured. From what is known, in Lagos, for example, there are right now three centres where this can be done. Just three centres?

For all the motorists in Lagos? Lagos alone must be home to the largest number of vehicles with tinted glasses in the country. How many of us can be attended to in just these three centres in one day? Then imagine the cost of driving from wherever you reside to Ikeja, Alagbon or Command headquarters in Ikeja. You get there to meet a queue as longs as the ages of three grandfathers multiplied by three. There is scrambling, and all kinds of antics to get served within the shortest possible time.

Officially, the cost of this permit is N21,500. But given the Nigerian factor which has infused a lot of hassles into an otherwise simple process, not a few people have had to pay much higher than this amount. In fact, touts fronting for unscrupulous officers in the system charge as much as between N40-50,000. They call it express service, and those who have paid for this express service are usually the ones attended to while the rest suffer on an unmoving queue outside. 

Given our experience with SIM registration, NIN, and BVN, one would have expected the Police to think this through and implement in a manner that will not inflict pain on their fellow country men and women. But do they see us as fellow compatriots? By this treatment, have they not seen themselves as an army of occupation lording it over a conquered people? And if you ask me, are we not conquered? Have we not been conquered by herdsmen militias, cultists, bandits, kidnappers, and looting politicians, all of whom it is the duty of the same Police to deal with?

If well thought out, one would expect every Police division, or at worst every Police Area command to have a capturing centre where the permits will be issued, instead of just three locations to service millions of motorists. That will make it easier for residents of Lagos and in other states to access their area commands and do the needful.

The foregoing does not obviate the fact the latest tinted permit decree of the Police is not rooted in law, morality, or compassion. I leave the law aspect to the Nigerian Bar Association, which is ready to do battle with the Police on the matter. It is totally immoral for the Police to collect tinted permit fees from someone who bought and licensed a car just in March 2025, complete with eCMR and tinted glass permit, and ask him to get another permit just six months later, and then insist that he renews such permit every year.

It is institutional perfidy. Worse than that, it is grand larceny on a large scale on the part of an institution charged with curbing such crimes. If the officers in the Police High Command were compassionate, they’d have seen the tinted glass permit as an extra burden in an economy that has already stretched the endurance limits of the average individual beyond the limits of elasticity. Do they go to markets where prices are lower than the ones the rest of us go to? What was wrong with the previous one?

In all of this, no elected or appointed official in the executive or legislature has deemed it necessary. Granted, the president may be too busy to notice this particular one. That is assuming he doesn’t read his favourite newspapers, watch preferred television or listen to radio stations. If he does that, there is no way he would have missed this. And conceding that he just missed it, is there no official around him that could have told him that this is not in line with his Renewed Hope Agenda? Meaning lickspittles just mill around Oga, abi?

And the famous National Assembly — the Senate and House of Representatives. Not a single voice from these chambers have spoken on the side of ordinary Nigerians against this oppressive tinted permit. I will excuse those of them who are of the ruling party; afterall they are not expected to rock the house boat, right? What about the opposition politicians?

Those ones too have gone to sleep on an item of oppression like this. I guess they’ll wake up when they want the sympathy of Nigerians and their votes to revamp their political fortunes. Fellow Nigerians, each and every one of you is on his/her own. This is one example of there being nobody available to fight for you. Do we really have a government of the people, by the people, for the people? Your answer? Pathetic, isn’t it? TGIF.

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