The biggest affliction that Nigerians suffer from, individually and collectively, is encapsulated in the common, familiar saying: “Do you know who I am?” It is a statement, a question, rooted in a feeling of superiority towards the other to whom it is directed, a subtle reminder that the person speaking is important, a big man or a big woman, who feels entitled to be treated differently, specially, a kind of demand for respect, preferential treatment and submission. By asking the question, the speaker is also invariably registering a protest, and he/she feels the need for self-assertion. This claim of superiority and request for recognition could be at any level in the Nigerian society, where status is taken seriously and some people would go to any length to remind a compatriot that they are luckier in terms of fortune.
Among the lower class, living in communal settings, otherwise known as “face-me-I-face-you”, the usually congested eight-room or six-room bungalow occupied by eight families, sharing one kitchen, one toilet, one bathroom, or perhaps a storey-building of the same orientation upstairs, there is even a sense of hierarchy which is uniquely Nigerian, in the midst of such poverty. The man who manages to buy a small generator, of no more than N50, 000, and can afford to buy petrol to power it is an “I-better-pass-my-neighbour” tenant. He is a big man. He may end up snatching the neighbour’s wife or even the landlord’s wife, because if there is no electricity supply in the building, he alone can decide who can enter his room to watch television. But the bigger man in the compound would be that person who owns a car, no matter how miserable the contraption may be. Nobody in the local neighourhood would dare take such a person for granted. He is a big man too and he naturally acts like one, even if his jalopy requires the assistance of young boys to jump-start it on a daily basis. The big man syndrome, expressed as “Do you know who I am?” comes from a deep-seated place of psychological inadequacy, a compensatory mechanism for a lack of fulfilment.
It occurs in varying degrees. The issue may not be material possession, it could be education, exposure, family pedigree, or the fact of association with an important person or organisation. But the irony is that those who try to act “big” end up being exposed for their smallness, and the hollowness of their pretensions. They may be quick to anger or act in strange manners, but when they are brought down to earth the stigma sticks. In a society like ours where almost everyone has demons they are managing, there are more than enough persons who will confront the big man or woman who oversteps his bounds, and they would easily retort: “Who the hell are you?”, “I don’t care who you are, do you too know who I am?” In the course of the heated exchange, so much misconduct follows, including assault and violence. Both parties lose their sanity.
Within the last week, there were two incidents in the aviation industry that clearly illustrate this behavioural tendency among Nigerians, and from which others may draw useful lessons. The first is the incident involving Otunba Wasiu Ayinde Marshall Anifowoshe, the Fuji maestro, Talazo Fuji exponent, popularly known as KWAM 1 or K1 De Ultimate. There is no doubt that he is a legend in his chosen field, he is a gifted musician, who has infused his artistry with entrepreneurship and created a brand that is unique in its originality. The only problem that the critics of this musical genius claim he has is his arrogance, his fabled lack of humility. He once openly disrespected the Oluwo of Iwo, His Royal Majesty, Telu I. On another occasion during the burial ceremonies in honour of his mother, he reportedly insulted the Muslim clerics who had come to his residence in Ijebu Ode to commiserate with him. He spoke to them as if they were beggars looking for hand-outs. He was advised to apologise. He never did. It was this same haughty attitude that he took to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on August 5. He wanted to board a Lagos-bound Value Jet flight, but airport officials at the foot of the aircraft told him he could not carry a flask containing water, alcohol, or whatever on board and he was asked to drop the flask. KWAM 1 refused. Rather than co-operate with the airline officials, he forced the issue to a point where the pilot had to come to him, with other officials.
In an account by the Captain, Ranti Ogoyi, KWAM 1 asked her: “Do you know who I am?” and proceeded to splash the content of the flask he was carrying on her and others. It must have been an ugly scene even at that point. How many of us travel up and down, here and there, and speak of having a direct encounter with the pilot? For the Captain of a flight to leave the cockpit and directly engage a passenger, that must have been an unusual situation indeed. What is the special thing about this flask? KWAM I is more than comfortable enough he could have handed over the flask to anybody around and buy another one. He is a leader in his chosen career, in his community and in the larger society. He failed the leadership test. He failed the test of maturity. The confrontation between the passenger and the airline officials went South quickly, and rather histrionically. The pilot went to the cockpit and started the engine ready to take off. KWAM 1 who had been prevented from boarding the plane went in front of it, trying to block it from flying, resulting in a potential dance macabre. KWAM 1 is a well-travelled, well exposed man. He knows definitely that what he tried on August 5, if he had tried it anywhere abroad, he would be cooling his heels in a detention centre right now, waiting to be sent to jail. Nigerian big men misbehave only when they are in Nigeria. They act as if they are above the law, untouchable, because they know people in powerful places. Otunba KWAM 1 is to a large extent an official entertainer of the ruling APC and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The politics of association easily gets into people’s heads in Nigeria, and hence, many act with impunity.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development was right to have described the ValueJet vs KWAM 1 incident as a moment of insanity. As he ruled, KWAM 1 was wrong to have disrupted airline operations and to have assaulted airline staff. He violated Sections of the enabling Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority Act (section 30 for example) and Section 459 (a) of the Criminal Code. Trying to block an aircraft that was planning to take off is clearly an attempt to commit suicide, punishable under Section 327 of the Criminal Code and Section 231 of the Penal Code as well. It had to take the intervention of Minister Keyamo insisting that what is good for the goose is good for the gander for KWAM 1 to be sanctioned at all: a six-month no fly ban within the Nigerian airspace for the next six months, pending investigations. The pilot already had her licence suspended for six months. Were it not for Keyamo’s intervention, KWAM 1, who should have been arrested on the spot and walked straight into detention would have just escaped with his impunity.
While it is noteworthy that both he and the pilot have been upbraided, the investigation should now focus on the behaviour of the ground staff. How on earth did KWAM 1 get to the aircraft in the first place? Any traveller is subjected to at least two security checks before getting to the foot of the airport. All the officials who passed KWAM 1 through the security checks must be identified and sanctioned. He has now issued an apology, and even waxed a chorus begging for forgiveness. His supporters are saying “to err is human to forgive is divine”. No, please. Nobody should seek to resolve this matter with that cliché. God has nothing to do with this. The apology is not acceptable. KWAM I must be duly sanctioned and charged to court. His fans must even be angry that he was trying to commit suicide. He wants to waste all that talent by simply being unreasonable? He has set a very bad example as a leader, anyone else could behave just as badly, and apologise, cite K1’s example, and we are all supposed to echo the cliché that to forgive is divine?
The danger in this is what happened five days later, August 10, 2025, on an Ibom Air flight from Uyo to Lagos. A lady now identified as Comfort Emmanson refused to switch off her phone when the purser directed all passengers to do so. Another passenger had to snatch the phone away from her and switched it off. Safety is the primal consideration in aviation. Every passenger is required, and expected to respect and observe safety protocols. Ms Emmanson refused. She started quarrelling. But with her phone switched off by force, the flight headed towards Lagos. Upon arrival in Lagos, she reportedly attacked the cabin crew and gave the purser dirty slaps for having the effrontery to insist that she must switch off her phone. She even tried to grab the fire extinguisher in the plane to hit the cabin crew lead. The pilot had to call airport security. She was detained by the cabin crew till the arrival of the airport security. She fought back but she was disgraced. She was dragged down by force from the aircraft, and in the process her nakedness was exposed and video-recorded. She was not even wearing a bra. There is something called the Free-The-Nipple Movement in Europe and elsewhere to promote body positivity, but this is not Europe, this is Nigeria where ladies are expected in our culture to dress decently. By the time Emmanson’s ripe mammary glands had been exposed for the whole world to see, (viewer’s discretion advised) one Good Samaritan eventually gave her a shirt to cover her shame. This is supposed to be someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s future wife. But that was not the eventual punishment she received. She has since been remanded in Kirikiri prison. She is being referred to as KWAM 2, the protégé of the ace musician, but while the musician has since returned to active duties, even turning the incident into an opportunity for mirth, Ms. Emmanson is in prison. The Airline Organisation of Nigeria (AON) has slammed her with a lifetime no-fly ban, without any investigation, or trial. She has been summarily convicted without anybody hearing her own side of the story, in contravention of her rights under Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution. In the business of being “big” in Nigeria, there is an Animal Kingdom hierarchy when things go wrong. K1 the Ultimate should be in an opposite cell. But he is free. The cinematographic evidence against Ms. Emmanson is incomplete. Her dehumanization and torture appear excessive.
However, the matter was better resolved by a post on the Instagram handle of @IgboAmakaah where a certain Dr. Zo, speaking from a medical point of view, opines that if Otunba Ayinde Wasiu Marshall had behaved as he did in the United States, he would have been taken straight to a psychiatric hospital, and every attempt on his part to argue would have resulted in an extension of his stay in the mental facility, by a minimum of a month. It would be too much of a burden on the state to ask that anyone travelling by air in Nigeria should be subjected to a drug or psychiatric test. And let no one insist that KWAM 1 deserves preferential treatment because he is a legend and a star. There must be the equality of persons under the law. Creative persons may not necessarily be good persons but they are required to respect the same laws made for everybody. Sean “Diddy” Combs, 55, is an American rapper and one of the wealthiest and most influential musical artists in the world. He has been incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, without bond or bail, for more than a year. He is awaiting sentencing in a two-count charge of “Transportation to engage in prostitution.” Festus Keyamo, SAN does not need to be reminded that there is equality of persons before the law, what is “good for the goose is good for the gander” or that justice administration must not be selective.
