.

MY late father, Chief Adewale Adekoya, sought to make me a good user of the English language by giving me books to read. From his efforts, I read literature books like Silas Marner, A Tale of Two Cities, King Solomon’s Mines, Allan Quartermain, Ivanhoe, Cedric of Rotherwood and many more.

As I devoured the English texts, I was also reading Yoruba literature texts, especially D.O. Fagunwa’s Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo Irunmole, Ireke Onibudo, Adiitu Olodumare, and Irinkerindo Ninu Igbo Elegbeje.

Fagunwa’s plot remains very fascinating, just like that of J.O. Ogundele (alias Lagbondoko), the author of Ibu Olokun and Ejigbede l’ona Isalu Orun. Those who have read these books may agree that they remain very fascinating. Of the English texts, one of the most intriguing plots, to me, was that woven by R.L. Stevenson in his classic, The Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

As I understand the plot, Dr Andrew Jekyll, the main character in the book was a medical practitioner who liked to indulge himself in escapades or vices unbecoming of a man of his profession and standing. Being a scientist, he concocted a serum which, when he drank it, was capable of transforming him into another human being entirely. So, Dr. Jekyll would drink his serum and transform into another being, known to the neighbourhood as Mr. Edward Hyde.

Hyde would then do whatever he liked to anybody, anywhere, whenever he wanted to indulge his fantasies. Matters came to a head one day when Jekyll was not seen for a long time. When his laboratory was broken into, he was found dead in Hyde’s clothes. The serum had not taken Hyde back to Jekyll.

Our security agents, be they soldiers, policemen, or intelligence officers, are drawn from amongst us. Many of them remain human, carry out their duties conscientiously, and retire honourably. Their spouses and children see them in their uniforms and feel proud of them as servicemen. But others turn rogue. Like germs, they mutate and become something else.

Spouses and children, most times are unaware that their champions have transmogrified into killers, frauds, drug barons and had merely been using their service and uniforms as enablers of crime.

At what point does a security man go rogue? At what stage in the career of an operative does he turncoat and present different faces to the public and his family? Earlier in the week, the EFCC announced final forfeiture to the government of property worth N11 billion, seized from one retired officer. Just one officer, all of that, and we’re not even talking cash and assets outside our jurisdiction. His family would, naturally, see him as a saint who is just being persecuted by enemies, known, suspected, and unknown.

Remember Janus? In Roman mythology, Janus was the patron deity that governed beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways,  passages, frames, and endings, and artists of the classical era usually depicted him as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus.

To each of our security men, how many faces? Two, like Janus? Or three? Four or five? As Nigerians, how many faces does each one of us have? The face of a father, husband, extended family member, professional at work, closet homosexual, whoring nightcrawler, usher at church, mullah in mosque; how many do we combine?

That retired officer, how many faces does he present? He is a father, husband, family member, trained serviceman, and now the EFCC has unmasked another face, that of a kleptomaniac looter. The truth of the matter is that most of us, in public and private life, present Jekyll and Hyde personalities and indulge ourselves wholesomely at the expense of the larger society.

People loot the commonwealth mindlessly and we hail them, saying “they’ve made it”. The younger ones have another way of saying it: “My paddy don hammer, the guy don blow!” Hammer what? Blow what?

Security men going rogue and cavorting with con artists and drug barons and other types of criminals have been a feature of societal experience from time immemorial. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, meaning: “Who will guard the guards?”, was a question posed by Roman satirist and philosopher, Juvenal, in AD 55. It applies very much to our country, Nigeria, in 2022, more than 1,650 years that Juvenal posed his query.

It is because we want to be secure and safe in our pursuits of happiness that we have security agencies. If those of us who man the security agencies routinely turn rogue, loot the commonwealth, sell our armouries to criminals, collaborate with drug barons to flood the streets with narcotics, then we already know what will become of our society.

Little wonder that despite huge resources committed, our problems with insecurity seem to be worsening than abating. Could it be because of those that we trust but who have multiple personalities? For those that are Janus-faced among us, with Jekyll and Hyde personalities, one thing is certain: every beginning has an end, just as the serum failed and Jekyll could not transform back from Hyde. Nigeria will outlive all evil.

Vanguard News Nigeria