Like A Puppeteer

I used to have a strong dislike for the powerful and influential ones. The reason for that is numerous.

To start with, my childhood was dominated by the military regime. As little as I was then, I wasn't oblivious to how the adults lived in constant fear of the worst. I was still a toddler during Babangida's reign but I was already learning one or two things about current affairs when Abacha ran roughshod over the country.

With him, soldiers attained godlike status. There was unending news of wanton killing of civilians who dared to protest against the inhumane treatment at the hands of the military head of state. Whoever gets killed is killed for nothing. There were unverified stories he had some wild animals kept away in his compound. Their food? Humans.

Years after Abacha's death, the reported head of his deadly killing group, Major Hamzat Al Mustapha, was charged to court for murder. At first we were glad that the fear inducing man was about to get what he deserved for the scores of families he put in misery. Alas, we were wrong. Probably the only thing money and power can't buy in this world is immortality. Asides that, you can get whatever you want with those two.

Mustapha was judicially cleared of any wrongdoing on the grounds of conflicting witness reports. Till today, he walks freely amongst us and was given a hero's welcome by his state governor upon his release. Cases like these are the reasons why I hated power and influence. It makes one brutish, irrational and merciless.

However, that mentality changed on one very funny day. On that day, a thought dropped into my mind to check on human behaviors towards those that are lesser than them in one form or the other. I walked out of the house and started noticing everyone around. I saw a mother beat his child to stupor because of a forgivable mistake the eight year-old child made; I witnessed a boss slap his apprentice for taking too long to get him his pack of cigarettes.

It didn't stop there. On the road, a taxi driver wickedly cornered a motorcyclist till he fell into the gutter and suffered injuries. The taxi driver had more than enough pocket space he could've left that would allow the motorcyclist to go unscathed. But here, a person driving a rickety car automatically assumes he's better than a motorcyclist. And while those ones were tussling, a marijuana smoking, profusely sweating truck driver nearly blasted us off the road with his aggressive honking.

The helter-skelter was unbelievable as everyone scampered for safety on sighting the speeding truck. The driver was literally saying whoever stands in his way will get crushed to death and nothing will happen afterwards. Such impunity! But then, we've had numerous cases where these truck drivers actually crushed people to death and were shielded from the wrath of the populace because the owner of the truck is powerful and highly influential. What a world we live in!

By the time I returned home I came to a general conclusion that an average human being is a power hungry bloke. And the little power we have we have always wielded it wrongly more often than most. And a lot of people criticizing the influential or powerful ones will do worse if vested with the same authority.

We can argue with our conscience all day long. The fact remains that at one point or the other we've been beneficiaries of power play and influence in our lives. We can call it grace. We can call it mercy. It doesn't change the fact that we all crave power; we all want to control the world like a puppeteer does his puppets. Unfortunately, power can't be for everyone!

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