The recent TI global corruption barometer
revealed that 81% of Nigerians paid bribes to the police. For many citizens it has
become a normal way of life. Last week,
a policeman who demanded a bribe from a motorist in Lagos was sacked. What was
different from the countless other cases of police bribery that go unpunished
every day? This incident was secretly filmed and uploaded on YouTube;
consequently the policeman was sacked.
A few weeks ago, Step Up Nigeria
highlighted how Kenya’s Inspector General of Police encouraged Kenyans to secretly
film police officers asking for bribes following their own poor scoring in the
TI global barometer. There are risks to this approach (e.g. the personal
safety of the person capturing the evidence), but the Lagos motorist case has
shown without doubt, the potential to empower citizens through camera-phone
technology and platforms like YouTube in the fight against corruption.
