A few years ago, while in a means of public transport, I noticed a ruckus on the roadside involving a female police officer and a traffic-offending keke driver. The man, despite being wrong, kept hurling slurs at the female officer and also managed to get supporters from other men. One man who stood aggravated in front of his shop said with disdainful confidence to the officer, “If na me, I for slap you!”
Shocked and a little confused, I thought, “Slap ke?” I’d never seen such contempt directed to male police officers who often commanded fear.
A few years before this, I witnessed something similar at a busy bus station. Anyone who is privy to the general madness plaguing danfo drivers in Lagos may assume that their supposed kryptonite is any police officer wielding a gun. Wrong. The event I witnessed proved that it didn’t matter how loud a female officer shouted in an attempt to maintain order, she was always often met with deaf ears, perhaps for being the wrong sex – calling a male officer as backup alluded to this. (I also believe it wouldn’t have mattered if she waved a gun like she was attempting to cast an angry spell, they would have remained unruly traffic disruptors.)
These events made me question the possibility of under-the-radar sexism that is often passed off as the norm? Of course, I can hardly say two events are enough to draw a sweeping conclusion; however, it’s enough to raise a brow.
Do you think we accord a similar level of respect to both male and female police officers?