The Concourse
By Soney Antai
Can your president walk to work?
Late last December, a video featuring the immediate past prime minister of The Netherlands was posted online. The Dutch head of government and most powerful political figure in the country was walking down the street alone: No security, no press crew, and no crowd in toe.
Walking beside him was a Nigerian lady who ran into him on her way to work, and apparently did the video. She was so excited that she was almost breathless as she kept walking by him, giggling and talking. If not told, an average hypothetically educated ‘Third Worlder’ would not believe that the man was the holder and wielder of utmost political power in The Netherlands. His name? Mark Rutte.
Curiously (of course that is if you are from Africa, and particularly Nigeria), the big man (dressed in a simple jacket without a tie) was as free on that road as if he were taking a walk inside his private residential premises. He betrayed no mog emotions common to African mega-power buccaneering elites. In a banter with the black lady, the man said that he was going to attend to some business, smiled and kept his pace measuredly. And when parting ways, they greeted each other smiling. That Nigerian may never forget that encounter in a long while.
Given our experience here with our power owls and ghouls, I needed to fact check if that man was indeed the prime minister of the Netherlands. I found out that Mark Rutte, was indeed the man in charge of the Dutch MoG (machinery of government) at the time the video was shot – between 2010 and 2024! But there he was walking down the street like any commoner would!
Apparently amazed at the spectacle, someone, maybe a Nigerian, posed the question, Can this happen in your country?
For this columnist, the answer to that question can be both yes and no. If someone from The Netherlands was to answer it, the answer would be obvious. But if anyone else from another country were to answer it, it could be either yes or no. So, it would depend on the answerer, their worldview and their background.
Let’s bring that home. Can a Nigerian president, governor, senator, minister, commissioner or local government chairman tread to his office even where the distance between the office and their residence is only a quarter of a kilometre? Let’s not be hasty in answering the question. Ok, let’s go. My answer is: It depends on a few factors.
A Nigerian president, governor or ranking senator can do so if the roads they are passing through are blocked to traffic, with gun-totting security operatives surrounding them. They can do so if they are, amid such hefty security cover, throwing a tiny fraction of the people’s stolen cash to their famished countrymen and women, especially during political whistle stops, to procure some popularity with the people.
In the case of Rutte, nothing like that happened. The man was just himself going about his business. And you ask yourself: Why is that the case as opposed to what we have here? There are some reasons of general application for this, I dare volunteer. The man was elected. Put another way, he did not rig himself into office against the will of his people. The same people who elected him would not easily turn against him, especially to harm him. Second, it appears he wasn’t stealing from public coffers to attract the people’s anger to himself. You see, when the political buccaneer class cash out from the people’s treasure, there is bound to be some clash of confidence and respect. Third, he must have stayed connected to the people, considered himself part of them, and had no reason to fear them by hiding inside a heavily tinted car.
Fourth, it is plausible to guess that the prime minister was certain that no citizens would come around crowding him with fake obeisance driven by a combination of sycophancy and poverty. And why not? The Dutch unemployment rate was 3.7% as of November 2024, unchanged from the previous quarter. The number of unemployed individuals dropped from 376000 to 372,000, while employment rose by 22000 to 9.793 million! With such an economic status (not the best there is), their last prime minister was assisting their economy by not running a profligate, piratical administration of official indulgence.
But our common reality was not this way in the beginning of this British-made geo-space. In the First Republic, our first and only Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, occasionally walked from his residence to his office, a distance of about a kilometre! Back in the days, political office holders never had bullet proof cars, no long convoys and bevy of security operatives. The Nigerian economy was strong with the regions doing their bids to be self-sufficient in food production. Yes, there was corruption, but it was not as pervasive and pungent as we have it today. Nigerian universities were few, but some of them were also among the best in the world.
Something terribly wrong has happened to us, and it will take us to fix it. But the bigger problem is: the political and religious owls and ghouls are bent on perpetuating this twisted situation since it serves their base, narrow economic, political and religious interests. But they should know that regardless of whatever power they wield today, there will come an end to it because it had a beginning. Nigeria will outlive them. It is in their best interest not to leave behind a legacy of infamy.