Flint, Michigan, is one backyard American town. It is one very worwor town, roughly half the size of Warri or Omu-Aran.
The Governor of the state of Michigan is in deep shit and may lose his job. To cut costs and save a buck or two, he and his administration cut corners with the public water supply to the town of Flint.
The Governor has been begging and dobale-ing and kneeling all over the place. Nothing doing. He will most likely lose his job. And that is the least of his problems.
New Jersey's Governor, Chris Christie, that one who looks like Fagunwa's Ibembe Olokunrun and is always abusing the father and the mother of Barack Obama on the campaign trail, will not be sworn in as President of the United States of America in January 2017. In a woolly-headed fit of political vindictiveness, he got his aides to mess around with traffic and bridges in his state and cause Lagos-like traffic jam for ordinary people.
In Washington, DC, the Mayor has spent the better part of the last 48 hours apologizing and begging and kneeling all over the place for her initial sluggish response to the snowstorm.
Where do these American politicians and their Nigerian political kinsmen meet? What unites them? What unites them is the nature of power. In America as in Nigeria, power's first instinct, power's natural inclination is to trample on the dignity and humanity of the citizen - if she can get away with it.
Power will never, of her own volition, accord you your dignity and humanity.
So why are all these American politicians begging and kneeling and pleading and promising Joe the plumber and Jane the nurse that they will not do so again o?
Because they broke the social contract in an environment where their actions will never be justified, excused, rationalized, endured, tolerated by the very people whose dignity they trampled upon.
There will be no degree holder to argue that the current Governor of Michigan is not the first Governor to allow water pollution on his watch.
There will be no emergency archivists who will litter social media with every past instance of water pollution in American history as justification of the action of the current Michigan Governor.
There will be no Stockholm Syndromed lunatics who will invade social media, wailing that the current investigations in Michigan amount to persecution of the Governor.
There will be no alakoris claiming that unless water pollution investigations extend all the way back to George Washington, nothing must be done.
The American politician and the Nigerian politician are the same, prone to exploitation of the people and abuse of power.
What makes the difference between them is that the American politician has to contend with a citizen who insists on his rights and dignity.
What makes the difference between them is that the Nigerian politician rules over a thing which cleans his shoes and goes to war to defend the politician's right to treat it as a thing.
In Michigan, the Governor's ethnicity, race, faith, and political affiliation will not help him. They are of no moment.
In his shoes, I would move to Nigeria to lord it over things that would excuse my mediocrity and corruption on account of my ethnicity, religion, and political affiliation.
By Pius Adesanmi
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