By Kunle Edun
Few days ago the social media was agog with a video clip showing an encounter between a U.S. based Nigerian and the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in a restaurant in the United States of America. From the video the U.S. Nigerian was seen asking, if who he was seeing was Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
The Minister beckoned on the young Nigerian to seat beside him but he refused and continued recording the incident. At this stage, a lady, probably an acquaintance of the Minister intervened and poured fuel on an already tensed situation. Both the lady and the Minister demanded that the young Nigerian should stop recording and that he was violating the Minister’s right to privacy. The young Nigerian retorted that “This is America, I am not breaching your privacy” and in Yoruba language (which I will translate) shouted at the Minister that “It was hunger that brought me here”.
I will not be tempted to go into the jurisprudence of legal rights to one’s privacy and when it can be violated. Also, I will not go into the legal niceties of the legal implications of what the young man did. If Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is really aggrieved, he should seek legal redress. That is what politicians always say. However, the drama that played out in the restaurant has brought to the fore a dangerous new trend and it may get worse. Not too long ago, former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ikweremadu was assaulted in Germany by Nigerians. His clothes were torn by angry Nigerians who shouted at him to go home. President Buhari has also suffered same fate in some of his trips abroad. Nigerians are really angry at their leaders and they are sending subtle messages to them.
It is the past time of many top government functionaries and those who have looted enough from the public treasury to travel abroad for vacation, either for medical or tourism. Our President is the most guilty of it. Not surprisingly, immediately the major political parties rounded off their party primaries, their candidates; Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Atiku Abubabkar and Peter Obi, all travelled out to Paris, Dubai and Egypt, respectively. None of them considered TINAPA in Calabar, Yankari games reserve, Olumo Rock, Abeokuta or any other tourist or relaxation site in Nigeria. I have never heard of any foreign leader (not even African leaders) coming to Nigeria for vacation.
Our political leaders that are very quick in jumping into the next plane out of Nigeria to treat ordinary headaches do not see anything wrong with we, the ordinary Nigerians, using grossly ill-equipped hospitals, children squeezed in ramshackled shelters called schools, death traps called roads, now a nightmare for many Nigerians. If the United States, Europe and the U.A.E did not have visionary leaders who made huge sacrifices for their citizens to enjoy the basic amenities of life, would these so called Nigerian leaders run there and be fooling themselves? Nigeria is an oil producing country but for more than 22 years of the combined rule of both the APC and PDP, we cannot produce, if only for local consumption. ASUU has been on strike for more than 4 months and still counting, yet some Nigerian political leaders are ingloriously rubbing it on the faces of Nigerians by posting on the social media, celebrations of their children’s graduation from foreign universities. The political leaders have appropriated to themselves most of the armed security personnel to be their personal guards but no one guards the ordinary Nigerian.
The essence of having a government is for the security and welfare of the citizenry. The Fundamental Objectives and Directives Principles of State Policies contained in Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended imposes on government at all strata a responsibility to cater for the needs of all Nigerians; it is a social contract. Once the social contract arrangement is no longer working and the leaders, who ordinarily ought to be the servants of the people, are now acting like emperors, the people will be forced to change the corrupted order. Power resides with the people. All public officials must be accountable to the Nigerian people.
It is in this context that I expected a higher standard of civility from Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, under whose eyes more than 60 Boko Harm elements recently escaped from the Kuje Correctional Centre. There have been many other jailbreaks under his watch and nothing happened. Was he expecting Nigerians to embrace and praise him for his incompetence? He can safely fly back to Nigeria surrounded with more than enough armed security guards paid for by tax payers to protect him and his family but the young U.S based Nigerian cannot come back home for fear of being kidnapped or attacked by the elements that escaped from the Correctional Centres. Some of them that came home for short vacation are not alive today. And the Minister wanted to eat his delicious food peacefully in the U.S when Nigerians are dying in their hundreds every day because of hunger.
I do not know those handling the Minister’s public relations but the truth is that, they did a bad job of it. An American or British politician will not shout at his own citizen “you are invading my privacy” while in a restaurant. It will be a political suicide for him. In Nigerian, anything goes. The Minister lost a good opportunity to win the heart of a very angry Nigerian and convince him of why he should believe that the present APC administration is doing its best to make Nigeria better, even if it is a lie. A friend who watched the video clip told me, only the guilty are afraid. E go better one day.
