Alex Ikwechegh: Skirting the Bounds of the Law, by Kene Obiezu

What really goes on in the heads of Nigerians, especially the newly rich and privileged, who on the back of recent wealth and status lack the battle-tested dignity that old money bestows?

An intrepid driver contracted to Bolt, the e-hailing app, was recently reminded of his status by a succession of lightning slaps delivered by the diamond-encrusted fingers of Alex Ikwechegh, member representing Aba North and South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.

The driver, Stephen Abuwatseya, had run foul of the legislator when he delivered an order to his residence in Maitama, but refused to go inside to drop it.

In the incident captured in a video which has since gone viral, the visibly angry legislator after raining curses and threats on the driver, physically assaulted him.

In a country pounded by hunger and every other form of social insecurity imaginable, one would think that someone who lives in what is probably the most exclusive area of Nigeria’s capital, while enjoying the financial freedom that his salary as an overpaid but undercooked and underworked Nigerian legislator confers would have enough dignity to ignore a harried bus driver’s moment of insolence. But, no.

Alas, Nigeria is a country where there is no honour even among thieves.

The Bolt driver could have been simply intimidated by the legislator’s mansion, or maybe he had been harassed by the legislator’s overzealous security details, who often seem to be on clear instructions to restrict access to their principals.

What is more likely is that the driver was simply complying with the conditions of his employment which forbade him from going into the premises of the legislator as a customer, to make a delivery.
In a country where insecurity has become a very scarce commodity, whatever the driver’s reason, it was valid given that he had already made it to the delivery address and only asked that the package be picked up.

What is obvious is that the provocation was not commensurate with the inhuman and inhumane treatment meted out to Mr. Abuwatseya by the legislator, and what if it was?

Does one’s oath as a legislator not demand good conduct always? Shouldn’t the mere fact that one sits in Nigeria’s premier law-making institution confer enough dignity and discipline to abide the law even in the face of provocation?

In a country where blinding poverty and blistering inequality have widened the gulf between the rich and the poor while dubbing the rich dubious demigods and dumping the poor in the gutter, it is no surprise that many have lost their humanity.

This year alone, there have been many disgraceful incidents of supposedly privileged but shameless Nigerian politicians and celebrities assaulting people on camera while boasting that nothing would happen, and nothing usually happens. What the police typically does is to conduct a half-hearted investigation after the matter is reported, and bank on the short memories of Nigerians that the matter will be forgotten soon.

Nigeria’s steeply unequal society has harmfully configured the society in such a way that many Nigerians run the risk of daily abuse by others who employ them. There is a need for reorientation but also heavy sanctions to remind all those who abuse others here that Nigerians are all equal under the law and no one can be mistreated save in accordance with law.

Without this education which must be drummed into the rich and the poor with equal ferocity, the dream of realizing a society where people live with dignity will remain a pipe dream.

The Igbo say that when the gods want to kill a man, they first make him mad. Hon. Ikwechegh is Igbo. The viral video showed a man maddened by power and privilege. What dishonor.

It is time for hard, impersonal lessons, the kind only the law can teach.

Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com