Just last week, I heaped plaudits on the Nigeria Police Force over the way they neutralised nine kidnappers in the Ladipo area of Lagos. Videos of the gun battle and the resultant casualties are still trending in the social media. The Police remain commended, and indeed are to be congratulated on that feat. I hear that the gang of kidnappers that laid siege to sections of the Sagamu-Benin Expressway, before Ijebu-Ode, have also been arrested. More commendations.

What remains are the murderous herdsmen militia that have contributed immensely to the famine in the land, by keeping farmers off their farmlands and grazing their herds on cultivated crops. Perhaps, in the fullness of time, those ones too will be dealt with. But meanwhile, we are all hungry as a result of that and other factors.

If I can commend the Police, I can also condemn the Inspector-General of Police, Dr. Kayode Egbetokun, for decreeing that all vehicles in the land must obtain what was called the electronic Central Motor Registry certificate, or e-CMR.

A statement issued by Force spokeman, ACP Muyiwa Adejobi, earlier this month said that the Police “will commence the enforcement of the digitalised central motor registry (e-CMR) by July 29.

Adejobi said the move is part of efforts to curb vehicle theft and crime in the country, adding that the e-CMR is a real-time online archive of vehicle data designed to support police investigations and combat vehicle-related crimes.

“As part of the efforts of the Inspector-General of police, IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, NPM, PhD, to enhance the security of lives and property, the Nigeria Police Force is set to commence the enforcement of the digitalised central motor registry (e-CMR) within the next 14 days, specifically on the 29th of July, 2024, — to rejuvenate and digitalize the motor vehicle registration system, significantly bolstering our nation’s safety and security framework,” the statement read in part.

When I saw the news, I was aghast and taken aback. My immediate worry was the effect this was going to have on the already over-stretched resources of Nigerians who own and use motor vehicles. “What is this again?” I wondered. I was taken aback because Nigeria, ordinarily a place where one struggled for everything, had, since May 29, 2023, become a place where the only thing that we didn’t struggle for was the very air we all breathe, and that’s because some child of the devil in government hasn’t thought of a way to make us pay for God-given air.

Naturally, an uproar greeted the announcement from the Police, with the Nigerian Bar Association leading the pack of dissenters. The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest, NBA-SPIDEL, in a letter signed by John Aikpokpo-Martins, Chairman, and Funmi Adeogun, Secretary, questioned the legal foundation on which the Nigeria Police Force  is standing to issue Central Motor Information System, CMRIS, Certificates to vehicle owners. NBA further noted that any such certificate being issued by the Nigeria Police Force without any legal backing is outright illegal, null, and void and therefore of no consequence.

“This illegality has to stop immediately. Consequently, the NBA-SPIDEL states that these acts of illegality must not continue unabated and therefore unequivocally demand that the Nigeria Police immediately stop the issuance and/or demand for the Central Motor Information System (CMRIS) Certificate.

“NBA-SPIDEL, therefore, humbly but strongly demands that you issue a directive immediately stopping the issuance of/demand for the CMRIS certificates nationwide.

“NBA-SPIDEL further demands that the registration website and every other physical registration centres be shut down, and every money already collected from Nigerians be refunded to them within three days of the receipt of this notice.”

Not long after, last Sunday in fact, the Police defended its right to issue the CMR, but added that enforcement has been suspended. Again, Muyiwa Adejobi announced: “The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, Ph.D., NPM, has ordered an immediate suspension of the proposed enforcement of the e-CMR initially scheduled to commence on the 29th of July, 2024.

“This is to give ample opportunity for mass enlightenment and education of all citizens and residents on the process, benefits and effectiveness in solving the challenge of vehicle related crimes, and protection of individual and corporate vehicle ownership.”

I suppose Dr. Egbetokun is part of this world, and surely must have read of, or seen on TV, goings-on in Kenya, an East African country. That country is now enmeshed in unrest, triggered by the government of that country’s bid to widen and increase taxation. So far, riots have claimed more than 40 lives in Kenya. Is that what Egbetokun wanted in this country where life and living have become titanic struggles? Besides, knowing our Police, every checkpoint would simply become business centres as the men on patrol ask motorists for CMR.

The Federal Road Safety Commission informed us that there are about 16 million vehicles registered in the country. At N6,000 per vehicle for the e-CMR, the revenue intake in one year would be in the neighbourhood of N96 billion. Is the Police now a revenue agency, and would it account for the money? In fact, can the Police account for the funds generated from tinted-glass permits? The Police is well-advised to not just suspend, but shelve the e-CMR project completely. We’re already paying too much for too little in this country. They shouldn’t add to our woes. TGIF.