Chinwetela Agu: Chasing Shadows, Leaving the Substance

The arrest and release of popular Nollywood actor, Chiwetela Agu have come and gone. The proponents of ‘show of force’ would have had their day. However, it will amount to pitiable delusion to think that the act of humiliating that innocent entertainer, would have achieved much. If anything, the action of the security authorities has only succeeded in raising fundamental questions over the abridgement of the rights of the people.

Chiwetela Agu, a humour merchant whose antics throw television viewers into hilarious fits, was arrested at Onitsha by members of the Nigerian Army on 2^nd October 2021, for donning an attire that had the colours and emblem of the Indigenous Peoples’ of Biafra, IPOB, a group that the Federal Government has proscribed. He was arrested by the Army and subsequently handed over to the Directorate of State Services from where he was released.

The story is that actually, Mr. Agu was distributing bread to some needy Nigerians at some strategic location in Onitsha when apparently, some soldiers who could not stand the sight of the symbol of authority, Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the IPOB, whisked the actor away.

Expectedly, his arrest was met with a barrage of public angst, particularly given the feeling that the Federal Government was becoming highly intolerant of even the minutest of opposition. There is the genuine fear that the Buhari Administration could morph into a full-fledged dictatorship unless it retraces it steps from chasing those regarded as security threats all over the place.

Add to that, the outcry against what appears, in the eyes of reasonable members of the public, that the IBOP has been selectively profiled for an offence for which others are being cajoled or treated with kid gloves. That the Federal Government is yet to declare as terrorists, a group that could send a military aircraft tumbling from the skies bespeaks of bare-faced discrimination against the IBOP and a slur on the integrity of the Administration. This should not be so in a country that many of us profess as our own.

Nothing could have been more indicting that, impatient and definitely dissatisfied with the handling of the situation, only recently, the Senate had to pass a resolution requesting that all organised groups endangering the security of the country be branded terrorists. What has the Federal Government done since then? The inaction of the Government speaks volumes about the nature of justice in our system. It is indeed one of those intriguing paradoxes of our national life that, those who seek to have peace, do not appreciate the ineluctable truism that those who go to equity must approach it with clean hands.

Thanks to Mike Ozekhome, SAN whose chambers handled the negotiation with the DSS, that culminated in the release of Mr. Chiwetela Agu and who has told us that nothing incriminating was found on the hapless actor after his liberty was wantonly desecrated. Unfortunately, that appears to be the lot of many people who daily, are subjected to extreme indignity in the South East. I experienced it last Friday. I was on my way to Owerri from Umuahia where, the previous day, I had delivered the keynote address at the 7^th Triennial Conference of the Nigerian Union of Journalists where Chris Isiguzo was re-elected as President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists. At a point in Obowo in Imo State, we were stopped by some security men who asked the driver to come with his papers. For between 20 and 25 minutes, I was alone in the vehicle waiting for his return so that we could catch my flight. Mercifully, we were released and we continued our journey. Asked what the security men were looking for, the driver simply replied: nothing. Nothing was found on my cab driver. Nothing was found on Chiwetela Agu.

That leads to the concluding part of my write up.

First, as has been pointed out, Chiwetela Agu had not committed any offence known to law. Could both the military and the DSS have been oblivious of this? When did our country descend to this nadir of intolerance?

Secondly, whatever ‘offence’ he was accused of, was committed publicly, not secretly. Neither did he any lethal weapon found on him nor were we told that he was caught in the act of actually instigating insurrection against the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Are our security agencies suggesting that Chiwetela Agu could be so bold as to dare the soldiers into an open confrontation?

The third point has to do with role differentiation in our society. Assuming, without conceding, that there was actually an offence in Chiwetela Agu’s public conduct, when did it become the responsibility of the army to arrest unarmed individuals who are expressing the liberty that the constitution allows them? At best, his action could have been regarded as a case of misdemeanour, which a disciplined police force, such as I expect we have, would handle without much ado.

By arresting him, with all the razzmatazz that went with it, Chiwetela Agu’s profile would certainly have notched up a bit. But what happens to the image of the country? Well, it is possible that some people do not care. But how does one rationalise what appears to be double treatment in the society? Have we descended to such level that a mere symbol of resistance, if Chiwetela Agu’s action can be so described, throws the entire security system into some frenzy? Incredible.

Unfortunately, it is doubtful if the present high-handed approach of killing a fly with a sledgehammer can produce the peace that everyone wants. Many years ago, Uthman Dan Fodio admonished us that conscience is like an open wound; only truth can heal it. Curiously, some of the first beneficiaries of this time-honoured axiom either pretend that they have not heard it or treat it with levity. And as history tells us, those who forget the history of their past and forced to repeat it. I hope this does not come true.

Chiwetela Agu should not have been arrested. At best, his action should have been seen as a comic disruption of needlessly charged atmosphere. But because we live in an era imperilled by sardonic grandstanding and acute disdain for human life, let alone human dignity, common sense has flown away and Uthman Dan Fodio’s axiom has departed from the psyche of people.

In the prevailing shadow-chasing game, let us hope that those who brought down a military aircraft do nor encircle us as we leave the substance to chase Chiwetela Agu’s shadows.   

CAVEAT: Baring sharing the same Igbo origin, the writer has no relationship with Chiwetela Agu!