The lawmaker representing Aba South/Aba North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Alex Ikwechegh, is in the news for the wrong reasons. He is trending for assaulting an Uber driver, Stephen Abuwatseya, who delivered a parcel to his Abuja residence. A viral video depicted Ikwechegh raining slaps on Abuwatseya and issuing threats of making him disappear without trace, if provoked further.
The lawmaker was later arrested and questioned by the police for the action for which he later apologised. In his apology, Ikwechegh expressed regret for assaulting the driver and pledged to cooperate with police investigation of the incident.
Notwithstanding his claims of remorse, his colleagues in the House on Tuesday resolved to investigate his conduct. That, ordinarily, should have given hopes on the action being properly interrogated and appropriate sanctions imposed. But if experiences are to serve as guides, the matter is as good as dead.
NEWSWATCH magazine of old would have conveniently dismissed the entire incident as “hollow ritual of comic tragedy”. Going by the way such issues are handled here, Nigerians may have been served the aspect of the case deserving of their consumption. The rest will be swept under the carpet. A colleague, Fred Chukwuelobe, captured it that after the on-going noise and the obvious half-hearted apology, the cab driver would be offered monetary compensations, and the matter would die down. Yes, it would die down or be taken out of public space and the errant lawmaker may not learn any lesson from his disgraceful conduct. Take a look at those that had been caught on camera for related infractions before him.
In 2013, Adams Oshiomhole, the Senator representing Edo North in the National Assembly, was pictured in similar mess. Then as Edo governor, Oshiomhole had during an inspection tour on Mission Road, in the state capital, ordered the seizure of some goods belonging to a resident of the state, Mrs. Joy Ifije, for hawking on the roadside. Oshiomhole had asked that the woman’s goods be confiscated for breaking traffic laws but upon hearing her pleas for mercy on grounds that she was a widow, he thundered “you are a widow, go and die.”
Following uncomplimentary reactions over the comment, Oshiomhole ate the humble pie and apologised to the woman. He went further to donate N2 million to the widow in addition to offering her automatic employment in his office. In what then was mistaken for genuine contrition, Oshiomhole said; “Let me apologise to you for the way I spoke to you, I am very sorry about the statement. I have also realised that even in anger, one could still achieve the same result that he set out to without provocative outburst. I apologise from the bottom of my heart”.
Many thought that the diminutive politician had learned his lessons from that awful outing. But he was in his usual garrulous turf recently when he mocked the First Lady of Edo state, Dr. Betty Obaseki for not having a child. Oshiomholehad on the sidelines of an All Progressives Congress, APC campaign rally in the run-up to the September 21 governorship election in the state, described Mrs. Obaseki as not being in position to speak on marital affairs having in his words, been a barren woman. That seems the lowest he has descended to so far. He may go further down.
There is also the erstwhile Senator Elisha Aboh in the odious league. On May 11, 2019, Aboh was recorded beating a lady, Osimibibra Warmate in a sex toy shop in Abuja. Warmate’soffence was daring to stop him from assaulting another woman attending to customers in the shop. Aboh was then representing Adamawa North Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
The former Senator had accused the shop attendant of insulting him and asked a policeman with him to arrest her. Obviously concerned for her safety, the attendant made a call and tried to inform someone about what was happening. The move however angered Aboh more. Things took a violent turn when a man with the lawmaker tried to smack the phone away from the shop attendant’s hand and Warmate who was watching the drama intervened.
Aboh became livid and launched an attack at her for urging them to “take it easy”, slapping and hitting her before ordering the policeman to arrest her. A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Maitama, Abuja, later, awarded N50m damages against Abbo, as compensation to the woman. But the ex-lawmaker did not learn from the episode, or so it seemed, going by certain controversies that whirled round him recently.
Even the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, was caught in that web of insulting the sensibilities of Nigerian during the recent nationwide protest over the economic hardship in the country when he was quoted to have sniggered that the citizens could choose to protest but they in the leadership class would stay behind and be enjoying. He later claimed being quoted out of context but his carriage and that of his colleagues in the legislature, judiciary and executive, do not suggest that they share in the pains by the ordinary Nigerians.
A particular thread runs through most people in positions of authority in the land; they have mortgaged their conscience to the point of not being moved by anything, any longer. In my article of Friday, September 20, 2024, titled, “Mr. President, this arrangement is not sustainable”, I had observed that Nigerian leaders were not given to empathizing with the people. On the contrary, they interpret fellow-feeling as sign of weakness. Seeing the ordinary citizens humiliated gives them joy.
So, the trend continues. Make no mistakes about it; Ikwechegh is not the only person in this act of crass insensitivity. He is only a metaphor for leadership decay in the land. He is merely one of the lawbreakers in the lawmakinghouses across the land. We have them in the senate, even in the executive, judiciary and down the state levels. The iconic Chinua Achebe situated them appropriately as leaders without capacity to assume responsibilities.
It is therefore left for the people to rise up and begin to assert themselves in the face of the rascality by the leadership class. The Alex Ikwechegh/ Stephen Abuwatseya saga should not just be like any other case swept under the carpet. Nigerians deserve to see the end of it and the measures taken, if only to guard against similar acts of indiscretion by those that are supposed to protect the people.
By Emeka Alex Duru he is the Editor, TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos
