It is often said that might is right. The interesting thing about this saying is the magnitude of hypocrisy it reeks of. Humans are as I like to say the most hypocritical creatures on God’s green earth. The mighty always manage to put themselves on the right by hook or crook even when they know deep down that they are wrong, but hell no, mighty folks do not like to admit being wrong because it makes them less mighty and more demystified. In Nigeria today, as we know it, the mighty are so enmeshed in the art and science of impunity that the situation seems so hopelessly irredeemable. The mighty in this context can be categorized thus: politicians (especially the ones in government), religious leaders, traditional leaders, wealthy individuals, the law enforcement agencies, the armed forces and government appointees. All groups in this category keep wielding impunity mindlessly like it is some sort of sword. In fact these groups in Nigeria today seem to be in an equally fierce competition for who wears and maintains the crown of the most notorious in affairs that demonstrate. The government, even though we are allegedly in a democracy, is so fraught with impunity and it is quite alarming. I can acknowledge the fact that power intoxicates and as human beings when one wields a certain amount of power he/she tends to behave and misbehave in certain ways. In Nigeria, politicians, the government and its officials brazenly display their impunity in the full glare of the public knowing full well that little or nothing would happen in terms of being challenged or even criticized.
I will give typical examples. It is not strange to find convoys or motorcades of politicians moving at breakneck speed with all the unnecessary razzmatazz that accompany them. Almost everything that members of our political class do is laced with impunity: from the way they dress, the way they address the people, the way they even contest elective positions, the houses they live in, their pay packages and emoluments they set aside for themselves to how they conduct themselves in public. We all know of stories from last year of a certain senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria publicly harassing a nursing mother and at the end of the day, the week, the month and the year nothing in absoluteness happened. We have also heard of respected clergy physically assaulting members of their congregation and nothing happened. Among the wealthy or famous individuals the DYKWIA (Do You Know Who I Am?) syndrome is quite acute. In Nigeria it is also not a strange sight to see the Police driving on the wrong side of the road for no just reason than probably to beat traffic. It is equally not strange to see road safety officials stop and query road users for not having roadworthy cars meanwhile their own van parked right around the corner has broken tail lights.
I am well aware that impunity is not peculiar to Nigeria but the point remains that it has become imperative that the systems put in place to check these cases of impunity should rise up to the occasion to at least restore some sanity. The people, the masses, the ordinary person on the streets of Nigeria should also know when to condemn and resist impunity in any guise, especially from highly placed people in public, no matter the positions such persons occupy. We cannot have people going about and telling other people, “I will make life difficult for you and nothing will happen.” Or this other one: “I will deal with you and nobody can save you.” Nigerians should no longer give immunity for impunity to anybody just because such a person is highly placed in the society.
• Dominic Chinweuba wrote from Abuja via email.