Bigmanism is an Existential Attitude of All Nigerians By Abimbola Lagunju

 Nigeria is a country of Big Men sporting big mouths and small minds. Everyone wants to play a big man – a local celebrity without brains but with raw violent power. Everyone wants to be a Big Man with loud mouth. Bigmanism is an attitude, a way of life where real or assumed power is worn at all times as a cloak of authority to intimidate and oppress others for ego satisfaction. It is an obsession for recognition, ego-boosting and demand for respect from the immediate surroundings. A Nigerian Big Man sees himself as a hero, a celebrity and an achiever with brutish destructive powers over others. Bigmanism is not linked to doing good; it is a tool of oppression and punishment. It does not require intellect; it thrives on ability to deploy violence against individuals and groups.

Nigerian Bigmanism becomes toxic and very dangerous when the innate mixes with politically or professionally acquired Bigmanism. This is constituted Bigmanism, where absolute raw power to inflict pain and death or break and destroy is on display. The toxic Big Man does not hesitate to remind everyone of his readiness to deploy these powers. Nigerian politicians, policemen of all ranks, military men of all ranks, immigration and customs officers of all ranks and civil servants of all ranks, retired or active, are our constituted Big Men. We are captives of Big Men with Big Powers. The notion of Human Rights is an aberration in the mind of a constituted Nigerian Big Man. A Big Man does not understand what obligations and responsibilities are. He can only condescend to give favours with public money. A constituted Big Man owns the people, the land and all that is therein.

In order to attract attention and announce Bigmanism merited and unmerited, bought and stolen titles are waved as symbols of authority from a long distance. Everyone adopts and uses any title that he fancies and it is even more attractive when it comes as a long chain with more letters than names that look like sentences. Bigmanism traverses ethno-religious lines. A Big Man is a Big Man. Sometimes, a high number of Big Men in a given area may engender the feeling of superiority over other areas. Yes! Geographical areas may also exhibit Bigmanism ! In such areas, the local Government or State Cabinets, staffed only with Chiefs, Chief (Dr)s, Chief (Pastors) and other combinations of titles rail against other areas with less number or no chiefs at all in the most offensive terms.

 When recognition of a Big Man is delayed or not forthcoming or when recognized, but due obeisance according to the dictates of the mind of the big man is not paid, then, you hear the ubiquitous phrase in Nigerianese “You don’t know me? I will deal wit you”. This implies that the offended Big Man believes he has all the rights to deploy violent physical or verbal strategies to administer punishment to the small man and confirm his status as a Big Man, not only to his victim, but also to others who may be nursing Human Rights insolence. If the small man cowers and performs rituals of appeasement he can escape intact depending on how much the Big Man feels offended. However, if the small man wants to assert his fundamental human rights, then he gets it. The Big Man reminds the small man that nothing will happen, even if he dies in the process of being punished. And nothing really happens!

Living in Nigeria is a balancing act. Nigerians learn from early childhood how to tread carefully within the maze of Big Men that surround them while also looking for ways to become Big Men. Every Nigerian needs someone to subdue and oppress in order to feel good with himself. It is a country of dangerous and unproductive, corrupt and murderous alpha males and females with obsession to cause harm to individuals and the society.

Our brothers and sisters in diaspora who had also played Big Men in Nigeria before changing address quickly unlearn their lessons in Bigmanism on other shores. They run into big troubles for three reasons when they visit Nigeria. Firstly, they think they can usurp the Bigmanism of our local Big Men because they are armed with dollars and a foreign accent. They miss it by a wide margin. Secondly, they forget that Nigeria, their country of birth does not recognize any form of social equality. There are as many as 180 million Big Men and Women of all age groups. To assert or demand any form of equality is to ask for big troubles. And these guys do get into big troubles here. Thirdly, intoxicated by accent and Human Rights doctrine which they have heard of, but never enjoyed in their adopted country, they seek to assume the role of social critics and misplaced activists when visiting. Naturally, they run into conflicts with our own local Big Men activists who have already marked out their terrains. Those who quickly relearn what they unlearnt about Nigeria make Nigeria their home and they thrive. The stubborn ones among them soon dust up their non-green passports and scrape money together to buy air tickets to leave. They dust their shoes and take off, accent and all. From the safety of their new address far away from our local Big Men, they become Facebook activists and Whatsapp warriors.

What kind of society is Nigeria that runs like a gangland with Big Men run amok? Is this a democracy?

PS: In writing this piece, I could not bring myself to write the first letters of Big Men in small letters. They loom large even in the privacy of my thoughts.