If you have to ask the question, ‘do you know who I am?’, you have probably answered the question yourself. You are probably not worth knowing.
A few years ago, I wrote an article titled, The MP and the Plebian. It addressed the subject of impunity in public office. It tried to draw a link between our backwardness as a nation and the total disregard for (or lack of) consequences for wrongdoing by our ruling elite. To illustrate the gulf between those that lead the countries we so admire and cross desserts and seas to live in and those that rule over us in Nigeria, I highlighted the stories of three members of the British Parliament and focused on one, from whom I derived the title of the article.
In 2012, Andrew Mitchell was the Chief Whip in the United Kingdom parliament and one of the most powerful figures in the British government. He was the ‘enforcer’ of discipline in the House and so had to be beyond reproach in conduct himself. On the day of his undoing, he decided to ride his bicycle out of Parliament grounds through the main gates which was against the rules. Apparently, he was in a bit of a hurry to get somewhere and dismounting from his bike and pushing it through the pedestrian gate would have cost him an extra couple of minutes which he couldn’t spare. Well, those couple of minutes cost him his political career.
The guard at the gates, a Police constable, insisted that the MP dismount and go through the pedestrian gate. This affront did not sit well with Mitchell. He huffed and puffed and asked the infernal question: ‘do you know who I am, you fxxking plep?” The constable reassured him that he knew exactly who he was and that even if he was the Prime Minister, he would come down and walk through those gates. Mitchell finally realised that if he insisted on breaking the rules, the constable would probably pin him down and handcuff him, so he obliged but not without calling the man a ‘pleb’ one more time. For those not familiar with the term, a pleb is short for ‘plebian’, a commoner or poor folk. The policeman reported the matter to his superiors who escalated it. Mitchell lost his position as Chief Whip, resigned from parliament, and was never to participate in British political life again. And that is what separates a civilised nation from an Animal Farm in which all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
Nothing has convinced me about our status as an uncivilised nation in recent times as much as a video that was sent to me by a concerned friend. In it, an ‘Honourable’ Member of the House of Representatives, Alex Ikwechegh, can be seen threatening the life of a fellow Nigerian. I will quote him verbatim: “I can make this rat to disappear in the whole Nigeria and nothing will happen”. Other memorable quotes include: ‘I am not going to call my policemen to beat you up…”. He is not talking of his private security guards but police officers paid and clothed by the Nigeria state with Nigerian funds, including those of the Bolt driver that the ‘Honourable’ was railing at like some Aba motorpark tout. He went further: ‘I will lie you down and lock you in my generator house”. The ‘honourable’ lawmaker obviously does not realise that kidnapping is against the law in Nigeria. Or maybe he actually does, but like he said earlier, he can do it and “nothing will happen”.
And this goes on and on for almost four long minutes. He spews the vilest insults at a fellow Nigeria, calling him ‘boy’, ‘rat’, ‘idiot’ and anything else that dropped into his head all in an effort to belittle the other man. When told that he had been insulting without response, he dared the other man to go ahead and insult him too. The Bolt driver however was much better brought up and able to maintain decorum, even when the ‘honourable’ slapped him three times, while urging him to continue recording. One of the intriguing things to me about the whole episode is that Alex Ikwechegh is a ‘youth’ in government. One of those that the younger generation claim are ‘not too young to rule’ and here he was, assaulting another hardworking youth because he felt ‘disrespected’. From the sound of the Bolt driver, he is probably just a few years younger than the fellow that was insulting him by calling him a boy and a rat.
I do not know what it is about Nigerians (other than being uncivilized) that turns everybody into tinpot dictators and tyrants as soon as they are given a modicum of power. And this goes beyond those in government. Even within the private sector, religion, education, even the creative industry, just give the Nigerian a measure of power or influence and he or she is overcome by an irresistible urge to oppress their fellow citizen or behave as if they are above the law and can, just like the ‘honourable’ fellow said, ‘make anyone disappear and nothing will happen’. We are a nation lacking in consequences for wrongdoing. A nation of ‘do you know who I am?’ I remember one microphone terrorist who is fond of holding everyone up to certain standards also proclaiming, ‘do you know who I am?’ when he was stopped for flouting traffic rules.
Back to this ‘honourable’. This is not the first time those who should lead by example in their public conduct have thoroughly disgraced themselves. A few years ago, a serving legislator, Senator Abbo was caught on camera in a sex shop assaulting a fellow citizen, a woman for that matter, just because he was being delayed from hurrying off to carry out an urgent national assignment for which he needed the equipment he was picking up from the sex shop. And he did this in the full glare of Policemen whose primary duty it is to protect the woman. He knew ‘nothing will happen’, and nothing happened. There was a sham of a trial due to public outcry but in realty, nothing happened.
Since it is unlikely that the law will act without prompting, It is at times like this that real youth activists are needed. Where are the real ‘sorosoke generation”? Where are the youth that will stand up and say NO!! We will not take this assault on one of us whose only offence was trying to make an honest living? Will they take the time off exchanging political and tribal insults on social media to fight this cause? Where is the NANS of Lanre Arogundade, Niyi Akinsiju, Sowore, and the others who were more concerned about ensuring an egalitarian society than having staff cars with personalized plate numbers? Where are the #ENDSARS ‘warriors’ that were ready to end the country (or was it just end the government of the day) in protest for a better society? Will this be just another case of ‘nothing will happen?’
We wait and watch.
