It is quite obvious that had there not been a video recording which quickly went viral, Honorable (a desecration of that word) Ikwechegh would not have quickly shifted from his obscene haughtiness to the damage control penitence posture. In fact it is likely that the poor soul, the Uber driver, would have been picked up by Rep Ikwechegh’s goons and locked up like the powerful and the well-connected often do.
The sad reality is that our country has become a de facto caste society in which the children of the rich and the less fortunate do not intercept at all. Unlike in our days when poor village kids like us went to the same public school with the children of the high-up, the Tokunbos, the dapperly attired Lagos boys, when what separated us was our academic prowess, not our parents bank accounts, today only the children of the dirt poor attend our dilapidated public schools. Today, it is next to impossible for the child of the poor to marry up to the high society. We then act surprised when these spoilt brats grow up into egomaniac, condescending, entitled brutes.
So while it is a positive development that Honorable Ikwechegh, who someone suggested was the son of a former governor (just rumor), is showing contrition, it does not take away from the deeper lesson and challenge that this ugly incident portends for our country.
In our society, the condescending attitude of the Nigerian elites towards the less fortunate, mostly the Nigerian youths whose future they the elites have plundered and reduced to hopelessness, was starkly on display on some of our social media platforms. In some of the platforms which I belong, there were surprisingly some people who chose to circle the wagon, defending the obscene, repulsive and repugnant conduct of the congressman. Someone in one platform wrote about the Uber driver “Some of those streets touts atimes need direct massaging, they are always rude and never polite, it takes only angels to ever consider dealing with them”. How nauseating to read.
The Nigerian elites expect everyone to gravel before them and wipe their stinking asses with your bare hands. You see it in the way they maltreat, dehumanize and demean their drivers and house maids like pieces of human excrement. Then we wonder why our politicians behave like demi-gods and treat us the citizens like shit.
Let’s even assume that the delivery guy was rude, which I can bet my house against given the power dynamic here, what right did the congressman have to assault and threaten the guy?
Someone of the same platform argues that that senators and congressmen in the U.S. are treated like pastors. This left me head -scratching because Florida Senator Rubio used to attend the same church I attended and most people paid him no mind. He sat among the congregants like everyone else. He signed in and out his young children from the church nursery like everyone, no maid, no driver, no entourage.
He was addressed by his first name. No special seat for the Senator. In Nigeria, a Senator would probably have a special seat reserved for him on the pew. People would be milling around him looking for one favor or another.
I have written this before that I often advise my Egbe Omo Oduduwa members that on their return from a trip to Nigeria, they had better taken a humility shower to cleanse them from the near slavish worship they enjoyed in Nigeria where everyone calls you dad and would rush and almost body slam you if you dared attempt to wash your own hand after a meal. A lot of men get into fights with their spouses on their return trip from Nigeria when no one is there to pack and wash their dirty dishes after them.
Perhaps it is the grinding poverty, it is nauseating how shabbily many Nigerian elites treat the less fortunate and how submissive the poor are to this maltreatment.
I have found it shocking how surprised the people from the lower social economic ladder react when you treat them with their human dignity. My driver was so surprised he didn’t have to wait in the car whenever we went out to a restaurant, or visited my friends. He was surprised he was invited to join us at the dinning table in my friend’s home or that he had his hotel room next to mine whenever we travelled overnight and had to sleep in a hotel. By the way the same malaise quickly inflicts the Nigerian diasporan the moment they return home and drink the power kool-aide. The guy who was so approachable outside the country now will not pick your call and will expect you to wait for hours in his office to see you. I have a policy of not visiting the Nigerian powerful in their offices. When I have to, I have a 30-minute wait policy, after which I am out.
Our position is in life is a product of fortune. No one is born with two heads. We must stop our slavish worship of power and the powerful in Nigeria or forever forget ever enthroning servant-leadership in our politics.
I hope the assaulted driver sues the brute congressman for all he has got. Sadly, the poor guy stands a higher chance of being struck by lightning than winning against the brutish egomaniac in a Nigerian court of law. Perhaps now that the video has gone viral and the congressman has apologized, some sort of settlement could be reached. Nothing will change until we start holding the powerful accountable for their behavior.
Adewale Alonge, PhD, Founder & President, Africa Diaspora Partnership for Empowerment and Development. www.adped.org
