Ben, I don’t know where you went to in Ikeja so I’ll tell you about my own experience. On the 8 of February around 6:30 am, I was on my way to the airport to catch and early morning flight. I was dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and white sneakers in an Uber with my friend.

We were on some expressway leading to the airport (I don’t know the name) and some policemen stopped the Uber. The following conversation ensued. Me: Good morning officer Officer: May we know you Mr man. Me: I’m Ositadinma Officer: Where you dey go? Me: The airport

Officer: Okay! What do you do for a living. Me: I’m a product manager with Tenece Officer: Can you show us an ID? Me: *shows them my international passport Officer: Where is your work ID? Me: I don’t have it on me Officer: We need your office ID, or we take you to the station

This escalated to me shouting about how they can’t hold me for not carrying an office ID. I hadn’t even done anything wrong and they won’t let me go and I was missing my flight. After a lot of arguing and them threatening me, they let me go because I won’t budge.

This is my experience with your “saintly” police force. I and other young Nigerians have experienced worse. Instead of coming online to sing praises of the police and clean up their image, focus on reforms that will enable better policing. Good morning!

So you see, it’s not about about being polite. I was polite and I smiled. It didn’t stop them from profiling and harassing me. I forgot to add, they attempted to search my phone. Fix up!