Gbenga Daniel and Nigeria’s citizen-slavery mentality

My brothers and sisters, You must have read of a passenger who boarded a flight with Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel but was molested out of his seat and so has threatened to sue the government.

The issue was supposed to be very simple, but it ended as a very complicated matter. Both decorum and civility were thrown aboard when security details of Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel humiliated a co-passenger on a Lagos-bound flight from Abuja.

The passenger, Mr Greg Osu, had bought a business class ticket and taken his seat for a smooth flight. But the comfort he paid for was soon short-changed for discomfort by the security details with the governor. They asked him to get off the seat because the governor was to sit next to it. The confused passenger did not understand why and how his position was an encumbrance to that of the governor. He protested.

But his complaint only drew the ire of the overzealous security aides. They threatened to deal with him on getting to Lagos.

The confusion attracted the attention of other passengers, who expressed surprise and anger over the violation of innocent passengers rights by those paid to protect them.

The pilot was contacted. He looked helpless, considering the personality involved. But he managed to placate the aggrieved passenger by relegating him to the economy class and appealed to the security aides to allow peace to reign.

But the governor’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC) threatened fire and brimstone against the hapless passenger, to teach him a lesson about how not to behave when a governor demands privileges.

Defending Otumba Gbenga Daniel, one Amoke Obafemi insisted that Mr Osu behaved very badly. He said it was not proper for him to insist he wants to sit right next to the Governor when there were still 2 more seats in the business class cabin. In his opinion, he was merely looking for trouble.

But disagreeing with him Professor Pius Adesanmi narrated the story in Ottawa of a Nigerian who went to the cinema and when the lights came on in the movie theatre after the film was over, he was shocked to discover that the man sitting right next to him, munching pop corn in the dark, was no other than Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister.

The story if true is absolutely possible and plausible. He goes on to state his own fair share of such unexpected contacts with Ministers and other top government officials in France; “You are in the library at the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris. Next thing you know, a familiar face grabs the seat next to you and you are shocked: wait a minute! This is Rama Yade, The Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs!”

My humble self have sat side by side with members of British Parliament in the Jubilee line London, travelling towards Westminster station. I once casually walked past David Cameron and George Osborne at the Parliament Square on my way to work.

I have stood side by side with Diane Abbot, the Member of Parliament representing Hackney while waiting for a Taxi. I have stood a few metres away from Ministers being interviewed by Journalists in that park opposite the House of Parliament.

If you have been to Westminster, you will marvel at the ease with which tourists get near the seat of power- 10 Downing Street and the House of Parliament.

Mr Adesanmi also told how he had been to Union House - the Aso Rock of SA - in Pretoria and “any Nigerian who lives in Pretoria would tell you that the ease of access to that place is pretty annoying and frustrating to a Nigerian. You can't be in Union House in Pretoria without thinking that the idiots in Abuja have framed Aso Rock as a place that cannot be approached by the ordinary Nigerian. In essence, in civilized climes, government officials routinely wait for their turn in line - behind the citizen”.

According to Pius, the sort of tragic citizen-slavery mentality that has led to the statement by Mr. Amoke Obafemi who argued that "It was not proper for him to insist he wants to sit right next to the Governor when there were still 2 more seats in the business class cabin" is worrisome. “It underscores the overwhelming nature of our problems. We need to fix the psyche of a worsted and damaged citizenry before we can ever fix that country”.

“What Mr Obafemi has said above explains why the rulers of Nigeria have systematically destroyed civics in our school system. They want to produce a citizenry who feels it is improper for a Nigerian to sit beside a Governor, a Rep, a Minister, a Chieftain, a stakeholder, or an elder statesman in the plane. They want to manufacture a citizenry that feels grateful to be considered worthy of standing in the presence of a mere Local Government Chairman. And they have succeeded”.

“That is why Nigerians clap and ululate for their useless convoys instead of stoning and smashing those vehicles as they drive by. Meanwhile, these useless rulers send their kids to schools abroad to acquire the civic awareness they deny our people in Nigeria. Their kids even go learn civics in Lome and Accra!”

He concluded; “Who is Gbenga Daniel that a citizen of Nigeria cannot seat beside him in the plane? Where do we start? How do we re-educate our people? How do we let them know that these buffoons who use state power to harass and oppress them are actually their servants and it is ok for a Maiguard - if he has the money and bought his ticket - to sit beside Gbenga Daniel in the plane? How do we demystify power in Nigeria”?

Nigerians, we need to change our mindset and the way we view men of power. Back home I viewed with distaste our penchant for bowing before these buffoons. I nearly choked on my food two weeks ago when I was a journalist on Television bowed to the earth to shake hands with Governor Babangida Aliyu who didn’t even bother to look at him as the governor was coming out of a meeting of the Governors Forum in Abuja. Looking at his face afterwards you would think he has just shaken the hands of Angel Gabriel!

Even in my days in the Law School, I refused to get up from my seat as other students rushed to queue up and shake hands with Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju at the Government House, Awka.

Everyone knows that the most inaccessible people in the United Kingdom are the Royal Household. But Prince Charles saw no problem with coming towards me to shake my hands at the Tate Gallery in Westminster London. Interestingly, his entourage on that occasion consists of just one aide.

But in Nigeria, Dimeji Bankole, David Mark, not to talk Otunba Gbenga Daniel and presently, Goodluck Jonathan will not step out of Aso Villa without at least 20 vehicles and dozens of aides in tow!

I once parked my car by the side of the road for more than two hours under the hot sun of Oshodi, Lagos to wait for then President Olusegun Obasanjo – who might not have left his house in Otta – to pass through.

We must change our mindset and the way we view men of power. Changing this mindset and forcing our citizens to abdicate an obsequious and deferential attitude is a job that must be done if we are to step forward. If not, how are we ever going to hold anyone accountable?

To Dominic Ogbonna, politicians are not the only ones who benefit from our exaggerated deference to those with wealth and power. “Most of us who reside abroad are big-time beneficiaries as well. When you visit Nigeria, people respect you not for anything you have accomplished for them, or for yourself, but simply because, you reside in a different part of the planet! It’s scandalous. It’s embarrassing.

“Wherever you look among Nigerians, there are people looking to reap respect and privilege where they have not sown. It's got to stop. This is 2010, and anybody who wants respect or extraordinary consideration in anything must be held accountable for earning it”.

Otunba Gbenga Daniel owes Mr Greg Osu an unreserved apology.