Power can be seen as the ability to make that which should not have happened happen. Excessive use of power could be disastrous. This seems to exemplify the character of a former Council Chairman of Aba North Local Government Area of Abia State, now a parliamentarian.
On Sunday, October 27, 2024, a Bolt driver, Stephen Abuwatseya, was contacted by a vendor to deliver some food items to Hon. Alex Ifeanyi Mascot Ikwechegh in his Maitama, Abuja house. Hon. Ikwechegh is a member of the House of Representatives on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), representing Aba North and South of Abia State. In a viral video, the following ensued between Hon. Ikwechegh and Stephen.
Hon.: Do you know where you are?
Hon.: Do you know who I am?
Stephen: I don’t want to know, Sir. Just pay me my money.
Hon.: So you think I will give you my money with the way you have spoken to me?
Stephen: I did a job for you and you have to pay me, Sir.
Hon.: You will not see penny from me.
Hon.: With this level of disrespect, you are very stupid, very very stupid.
Hon.: Madam, who is this stupid boy that you sent to this my house?
Hon.: Who is this foolish boy that you sent to my house?
Vendor: He is a bolt driver o.
Hon.: How can this stupid idiot come to my house and tell me that I am supposed to come and meet him in his car and pick up snail that I am buying from you?
Vendor: He is a Bolt driver. How can he say a thing like that?
Vendor: I am so sorry. He doesn’t know who you are.
Hon.: Can you imagine this rat?
Hon.: I can make this man disappear in the whole Nigeria and nothing would happen.
Vendor: Sorry, Sir.
Hon.: I am not going to give this boy one naira of my money.
Vendor: Please Sir, I am so sorry.
Hon.: No, no, no, no. I am not going to give this silly boy one naira of my money.
Stephen: You have been insulting me and I have been quiet.
Hon.: I pray that you do. I pray that you insult me.
Hon.: Can you please insult me.
Hon.: I am not going to call my policemen to beat you up.
Hon.: I will beat you up.
Hon.: I will show you that I am a big brother to you.
Hon.: I will slap the hell out of you and I will lie you down, lock you in my generator house.
Hon.: How dare you.
Stephen: Why should you do that?
Hon.: Who the hell; do you know who you are talking to?
Hon.: Do you know where you are?
Hon.: Because you saw me sitting outside here?
Stephen: It doesn’t matter.
Stephen: Pay me, let me go.
Hon.: Look at this monkey, o!
Stephen: I don’t care what I am.
Hon.: Are you looking at me, that you can beat me?
Hon.: Who the hell do you think you are talking to? (Hon. donates a slap to the Bolt driver).
Hon.: Do you know who I am? I am a Senator of this Republic.
Hon.: Do you know who the fuck I am? (Hon. generously distributes another slap to the Bolt driver, Stephen).
Hon.: How dare you.
Stephen: Are you slapping me, Sir?
Hon.: You see this place? You will suffer; I will deal with you.
Stephen: Are you slapping me, Sir?
Hon.: I just did. Slap me back.
Hon.: How dare you. How dare you. How dare you.
Hon.: Do you know who I am? How dare you.
Stephen: That is fine.
Stephen: Did you just slap me three times, Sir?
Hon.: Twice.
Hon.: The third one, you will soon receive it.
Hon.: How dare you.
Hon.: Come on, get out of this place.
Stephen: I need my payment, Sir.
Hon.: Come and collect it.
Stephen: Alright, this is where I am. I just got three slaps from this man here, just because I told him to come and get his stuffs and pay me my money. He is claiming that he is (Hon. interrupts).
Hon.: Tell them. My name is Hon. Alex Ikwechegh. I am a member of the House of Representatives. Tell them I slapped you.
Hon.: Call the Inspector General of Police. Call him. Let him come.
Stephen: Ok, Sir.
Hon.: Record me very well. Record me very well.
Stephen: Ok. Ok, Sir. That’s nice.
Hon.: You came to my house to disrespect me.
Stephen: I didn’t disrespect you. I said pay me my money and let me leave.
Hon.: Come on, keep that phone. (Hon. dashed at Stephen’s phone).
Conclusion: Despite Hon. Ikwechegh’s vituperations and bullying, there did not seem any iota of disrespect from Mr. Stephen against the legislator. Yet, after the assault by Hon. Ikwechegh, his policemen seized Stephen’s car, bundled and detained him at a police station. This is a display of power.
However, a lawless society, especially where law enforcers or lawmakers turn lawbreakers, will sooner or later head towards anarchy. As Fidel Castro said, it is illegal to be law abiding in a state of lawlessness. Hon. Ikwechegh’s Mike Tyson-like behaviour seems to be common among Nigeria’s parliamentarians. Recall that in 2019, the youngest lawmaker then in the Upper Legislative Chamber, Senator Elisha Abbo, who represented Adamawa North Senatorial District, was caught on camera assaulting a woman at a sex toy shop in Abuja.
Unlike Abbo who, after the incident, returned to the shop in an attempt to cease the video footage, not sure if his show-of-shame was recorded, Hon. Ikwechegh knew Stephen was recording him, yet, he went on with his arrogance and assault and even belittling the office of the Inspector General of Police and daring him. If not for his braggadocio, believing he was above the law, therefore, untouchable, Hon. Ikwechegh, seeing Stephen recording him with his phone, ought to be cautious with his actions and utterances.
But, no! Pride, pushed by the lucre of office as a House of Representatives member who earns over-bloated salaries and dubious allowances, Mascot, downplayed the power of the social media and continued with his verbal diarrhoea and attack.
So, Hon. Ikwechegh had the power to make Stephen disappear from Nigeria? Hon. Ikwechegh is a lawmaker and not a magician or from the lineage of Moshood Abiola, aka Professor Peller, the most famous Nigerian magician in the 1970s. How many people has Hon. Ikwechegh disappeared or sponsored their disappearances? No doubt, there are many cases of missing persons in Nigeria. Does Hon. Ikwechegh have a hand in them?
Apart from assaulting Stephen, Hon. Ikwechegh was ready to be engaged in fisticuffs and threatened to lock the Bolt driver in his generator house, probably for Stephen to die from generator fumes. Hon. Ikwechegh also called Stephen a monkey. This is racism or a racist on the prowl, masquerading as a lawmaker. There are many grounds on which to bring this lawmaker-turned-lawbreaker, Alex Ifeanyi Mascot Ikwechegh, 44, to book.
