The Intoxication Called Power By Jide Idowu

I remember many years ago, while still in Junior Secondary Class, I bought a fancy key holder toy gun, which uses tiny battery to produce some interesting sounds.

As a young man, even till now, I get fascinated by cool toys and so I took my new toy to school to impress my friends.

A certain Senior of mine, by name Tinrin (I believe the full pronunciation would be Tirinmiyu), who was in JSS 3 while I was in JSS 2, saw me with the toy and ask me to bring it. He acted as if he wanted to look at the gun, because everybody wanted to know how it was making it’s cool sounds.

This so call senior was actually talking with a female class mate of his, when he saw me and ask me to give him the gun, so after collecting the gun from me and asking questions about how it works, and playing with it, I ask for the toy back and to my surprised he said “you know I can seize this gun?”

It then dawn on me that I might loose my beloved toy, so immediately I started begging the Oga senior to please release the gun back to me but his ego became bloated by my cry for mercy and he ask me to leave before he deal with me.

The female classmate with him told him to return the toy to me, asking if he want to eat it, and her question provoked him and he say he would even smash and destroy the gun.

The girl too, I don’t know what she was thinking , dared him to destroy it, and while I was pleading seriously for Senior Tinrin to please not destroy my gun, with a speed of light, he picked up a stone, place the gun on the wall close to him and gbam, smashed my new fancy toy gun into pieces.

My God, what just happens, I was filled with rage and sorrow, but what can a goat do to it’s master. Apart from being my senior, Tinrin and one Lateef (we call him Lati) were the most notorious, brutal and rugged fighters in their set and in our school as a whole, and they were both friends, and I knew it would be disastrous, upon my loss, to dared to fight him.

Immediately he smashed the phone, he left the spot with his female friend (though she chastised him for what he did but the deed had been done) and I picked up remnants of the damaged toy with heavy tears building in my eyes.

Fast forward to SS 2, this Senior Tinrin guy repeated a class, we now caught up with him. The dude has now lost his ego and pride as our senior and was keeping to himself (though he was not in my department/class), but where my peers and set would be talking , he would just keep quiet, can’t freely mix with us.

Now Senator Elisha Abbo, who was capture on a CCTV video slapping a woman, would have probably had the same tendencies of the likes of my Senior (Tirin) while in school .. The feeling of I can do things and nobody can question me….The mindset that I am better than, more connected than, and in a position to do and undo things as I will.

Power corrupt and absolute power they say corrupts absolutely. I don’t know the history of Senator Abbo, but I know people change when they drink from the power cup.

Some people drink just little and the demon inside of them come into manifestation while some are transformed from their humble, religious selves to proud and diabolic human beings and for others, the devil will just put on it’s full regalia when they taste power.

However, in the desperation to have power, a lot of people have sold and lost their souls, because studying most people in position of authority, they are mostly insensitive and uncaring to the plight of the common man, but just do things that pleases them and their cohorts.

It is also disheartening to see those that use to stand with the people, who seems to know the challenges and problems facing the people, and equipped with solutions, getting into position of authority and still add more to the pains of their people.

Abbo was caught , and just like my senior tripped and repeated a class, he is all humble suddenly.

I believe it is only God that has the real power, but I pray he makes these power drunk leaders trip and fall flat on their faces, so they can be humble just a little.