Wasn’t I, like everyone else supposed to submit to checks on account
of the heightened security threats in the FCT? Especially coming on the heels of
the EMAB plaza bombing it’s only commonsensical that one cooperates with the security
operatives for as long as it would take them (& us of course) to solve the
present mess.
Just a day after the unfortunate incidence at EMAB, was when
commonsense which as it's oft the adage ‘… isn’t common’ left ‘Oga security’. I
find it very difficult to explain how we’ve failed to extricate ourselves from the foreigner-is-better-than-us mentality.
An ‘Oga security’ (in this instance the private security company
operated guards) got me infuriated when I went to pick up a few provisions for my
kids at Grand Square. Of course shopping around the 4:00PM rush hour is not on the list of activities that would normally excite me. Add to this the prevailing 'shopping mall-phobia' occasioned by the EMAB incidence made it the worst of times for such an endeavour. But I
had to endure the inconvenience for the sake of the kids. That explains my state before my encounter with 'Oga security'.
There was I at the entrance to the premises, contemplating how to spend as little time as possible at the mall. There right behind two SUVs
just by the sentry gate waiting to be checked. The ‘Corps Diplomatique’ number plates on one of the SUVs easily gave
them out as foreigners who work in one of the many embassies/diplomatic
missions in Abuja.
My man at the sentry then did what not only surprised but also made
me lose my cool like I’ve not done for a very long while. When it was the turn
of these ‘foreigners’ to be searched, to my ‘dumbfundment’, ‘Oga security’ just
allowed them pass without any form of checks whatsoever. Due to the traffic at the time, I
had been in the queue for about ten minutes and had patiently waited, watching
how other cars before the ‘diplomatic’ SUVs were duly searched to their booths. You know the usual retroactive responses after any bomb
blast which as always will soon be abandoned until another sad episode reminds
us that the Government's 'we-are-on-top-of-the-situation' speeches and our many fastings and may stereotyped prayers haven’t arrested the terrorist, and that
we need to be seen to be doing something. Anything!
So because I was right behind the SUVs, I also deliberately decided to refuse to submit myself (my car rather) for the check even when sweating-in-the-sun, ‘Oga
security’ had flagged me to do so.
To compound his problem or rather to impress his 'Oga at the top', who I presume must be watching from somewhere, 'Oga security' came charging after me
threatening a fight. Of course I didn’t miss the riffle-wielding Policeman
standing (also in the sun) watching and thinking God-knows-what.
When he finally got to where I was, (I had then driven a
considerable distance from his sentry), I wound down and commonsense told me to
politely tell him why I refused to submit to his checks. To this he retorted
‘do you want to compare yourself with them. Do you know them?'.
That was when I had to give it back to him. I made him understand
that the people in the SUVs were foreigners and if they deserve easy passage without the
normal checks, much more I a Nigerian! I didn’t stop there. I schooled him a
little about how they would have treated him were the situations reversed i.e.
were it in their country. I then insisted I would submit myself to his search only
if he searched the two SUVs.
Turning around, he quickly looked the way of the gun-wielding Policeman
and other people around, obviously seeking some form of support to continue his
harassing engagement with me. But finding none, the message struck him. He realized he had given ‘Diplomatic Immunity’ when none was required. He
had embarrassed his 'brother' a Nigerian (me that is), and graciously given unsolicited and undue
privileges to foreigners who would in no way have accorded him similar
privileges were it in their country and in reverse situations.
In the same instance (same as
‘Oga security’s epiphany moment) my gobsmackness turned into utter
disappointment at how as Nigerians we disparage ourselves and expect foreigners
to treat us otherwise.
Isn’t it past time we began to accord ourselves some modicum of the
same respect we expect foreigners to give us both here and abroad? Aren't we by now at 50, supposed to have outgrown all forms colonial cum inferiority mentality?
I wish myself and the over 170 Million of us had answers to these questions, which I fear posterity will require of us.
God bless 9ja!
