Nigeria Content Online

At the airport. It
is the peak travel period. Every available flight has been booked.
There are thousands of intending travellers all desperate to be on the
next plane. On the line for the last available flight are harassed
travellers, children, pregnant women, the aged and the physically
challenged. It is absolute mayhem as touts, family and friends jostle
to secure tickets for relatives and other travellers. Just when things
could not get more chaotic, a traveller walks in with a retinue of
security aides and assistants. His aides walk straight to the counter,
shoving aside other travellers, and demand a ticket on the flight for
‘oga’. A few travellers protest, but the majority simply look on,
either too tired to protest or thoroughly intimidated by the new
arrival’s security escorts. He gets his ticket and proceeds to the
check-in counter, totally oblivious to the other travellers who had
been at the airport for hours. His look of deep contempt says it all:
do you know who I am?

It is a public
hospital. Hundreds of sick people are waiting to see the few doctors
available. Most of them have been there since dawn and have no idea
when or if they will be attended to. From those with the classic
symptoms of malaria to others with more serious ailments, the wait is
endless. Some of them seem on the verge of death, but they all wait
stoically. There are children with temperatures hovering dangerously
high. A few patients are in wheelchairs, with their relatives hoping
and praying for a miracle. The air is choked with the stench of
disease, despair and death. In this turmoil, a woman walks in with
nurses and other medical personnel in tow. She doesn’t look too ill and
has the air of someone who can afford a private hospital. But why waste
money on private clinics when you can get treatment free of charge at a
government hospital where you have friends? So she is moved ahead of
other patients and enters the consulting room to see a doctor. The
patients who have been on the line for hours do not even bother to
complain. They know it would make no difference and are afraid of being
victimised by the hospital attendants, who can make their files
disappear or move them to the back of the line. When the woman emerges
from the consulting room, she looks haughtily at the other patients and
strides off importantly. Her countenance says it all: do you know who I
am?

At a petrol
station. Tanker drivers are on strike because a policeman shot and
killed one of them over N20. There is immediate shortage of petrol and
diesel. Black markets have sprung up miraculously. The lines of
vehicles are kilometres long. You have been sitting in your car for
several hours with no food, a bottle of water and little hope of
getting any fuel. The pump attendant you gave a generous tip last week
won’t even answer your greetings today, or even look in your direction.

Just when the
cacophony peaks, a convoy of vehicles forces its way to the pump and a
phalanx of uniformed escorts takes over and demands that their vehicles
be served. Some motorists honk in protest, but even the usually
boisterous taxi and bus drivers only grumble beneath their breaths and
do nothing. They have no idea who is in the dark tinted SUV, but
suspect he must be important to have mobile policemen as escorts. When
the intruders have had all their tanks filled up and screech out of the
petrol station, the VIP does not even bother to look up from his
newspaper, but the smug smile says it all: do you know who I am?

It is a very busy day in the bank. It is month end, and workers are
anxious to draw their salaries. The ATM has broken down, so every minor
transaction is being done manually. Then transactions slow down to a
trickle and finally stop. The ‘network is down’. While all customers
are waiting for the network to ‘come up’, a customer walks in, sizes up
the situation then walks straight to the manager’s office. Shortly
after, he walks out with a conceited look on his face. He makes a point
of casting a look of disdain at the waiting customers. Without saying a
word, he says it all: do you know who I am? While we are at it, do you
know who I am?