By Abimbola Adelakun
Of all the possible resolutions to the drama involving Wasiu Ayinde Anifowoshe (the artiste popularly known as K1), and which has been the subject of frenzied discussion for the past week, what I bet no one saw coming was that he would emerge as an NCAA ambassador. If this were to be a work of fiction, such a turn of events would be taken as a lazy resolution by an unimaginative scribbler, except, of course, the story is about Nigeria, in which case the plot twist would be quite consistent with the absurd character of the country.
Even though the Nigerian in me was cynical all along that the state would fully enforce even the initial six-month ban they handed him, I admit that I applauded when Minister of Aviation Festus Keyamo announced the punitive move. I thought even if the punishment fell short of what the law dictated as consequences for his actions, it was still a good start that a country that routinely abrogates its own standards for those who have a measure of power, influence, and social connection could take such a decision. As it turns out, I was the one who was overshooting the runway. At this point, I will not even be surprised if the traditional ruler who begged on K1’s behalf slams him with a chieftaincy title before the weekend runs out, and he, too, throws a party well-attended by the social elites of the country.
Since the news reported that FAAN planned to engage the musician as an ambassador for airport security protocols, I have been genuinely amused and gravely disappointed at the cowardice of the aviation officials who think they can rehabilitate K1 through such shoddy means. What exactly makes him credible to undertake the task? And why so soon, too? The development is more amusing considering a similar infraction by Ms Comfort Emmanson, another unruly flight passenger, whose actions are not as qualitatively egregious as those of K1. The popular musician had held up an aircraft because they would not let him carry a flask of water on board. This was an issue that could perhaps have been quietly resolved by pouring out the contents of the flask and requesting water on board, since he needed to remain hydrated, but no. He is a Nigerian big man, and the rules cannot possibly apply to him like some lesser mortal. He tried to prove that much by standing in front of a plane readying to taxi, thereby constituting a danger to the crew and passengers.
Following the outrage, they imposed a six-month flying ban on him, only to later announce it would be indefinite until investigations were concluded. We would have been trusting enough to believe that the offence was truly being investigated if the Emmanson case had not happened, for us to compare the differential treatment each party received. That was when we also got to know that the procedure for punishing a self-entitled old man who stood in the path of a plane had been paralysed somewhere along the convoluted chain of administrative command. The NCAA says it is out of its power to act because the airline ValueJet did not petition. The airline, of course, remained mute because the issue was wrapped up in several social and tribal considerations; going against someone like KWAM-1 would trigger all sorts of parapọ̀ sentiments. We were told the matter had been referred to the police, the IG and the attorney general for investigation. Less than 24 hours after the IG Kayode Egbetokun ordered a “full investigation” into the incident, NCAA reverted with the news that the offender had now become its ambassador! Ironically, the same people claiming they could not punish K1 because they had reached the limit of their judicial capabilities were curiously powerful enough to reduce his ban to just one month.
For all the issues I have with Emmanson’s manic display, I remain grateful to her for the timing of her madness. If it had come a year ago or even one year from now, it would have been too distant a reference to poignantly confirm the inherent injustice built into the Nigerian so-called justice system. It was her craziness and the undue harassment she subsequently suffered that forced aviation officers to a measure of accountability on the differences in their responses to a similar offense by a popular artiste (who also happens to be a self-identified President’s boy and the official bard of the ruling APC), and a woman whose name and face you hardly knew before her video went viral.
For Emmanson, there was no endless investigation process activated, nor was she given a chance to make an apology video. She was not afforded a soft landing of “to err is human”. When justice came for her, it was swift and efficient. She was taken to court and charged with assault. She was also handed a harsh pronouncement of a lifetime ban from flying (locally and internationally) by the Association of Airline Operators of Nigeria. Reading the press statement, you get the impression that, left to AON’s spokesperson, Obiora Okonkwo, he would bring back the infamous Bar Beach show just to make a visible example of this woman. Whereas for K1, the official response was more of a deferral to a vague and complicated system, with hand-wringing by public officials waiting for directives from the top to make decisions. The law that was too impotent to stand up to K1 suddenly had its blood pumping at the sight of the young woman. It was nauseating to watch.
For some curious reason, the aviation authorities thought they could reconcile all the conflicting ends of the K1 and Emmanson saga by making the former their ambassador and letting off the latter with a slap on the wrist. Maybe they should have left it at that, but no, the Nigerian in them must exhibit itself. They went ahead to announce he would become their ambassador for airport security protocols. Again, why? Whatever lesson a man who blatantly violated airport security protocols might have to teach the rest of us about obeying them would have been better served if he had been jailed as the law prescribed. I understand that asking him to play an ambassadorial role in lieu of a punishment is supposed to represent some “community service” project, but it seems like too much of a compromise. To save K1’s face after the humiliation he suffered after the video of his misadventure went viral, they want to spin a narrative of redemption and rehabilitation for him by making him an ambassador. It is a poor move, similar to one undertaken by the NDLEA years ago when they announced (and later retracted) Naira Marley as the agency’s ambassador. When you make the person who has come to represent the blatant violation of the standards your agency wants to enforce the very face of the campaign for the enforcement of such standards, you do not end up telling a warm and positive story of moral redemption. Neither does it exemplify the traditional wisdom of using the goat to guard the yam barn. Instead, it only illustrates the extent to which your so-called standards are loose, negotiable, and self-undermining. What you are telling the world is that you are so poor at standing up for your own rules to be enforced that you would, in fact, reward the person who openly flaunts them.
The Punch
