The viral phrase “I am not a fool”, has become the unexpected headline of the day, echoing across Nigeria’s social space. It emerged from a dramatic encounter in Abuja between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and a young naval officer, Lieutenant A.M. Yerima. Though details of the incident remain sketchy, what is clear is that the minister’s attempt to assert authority met a calm but firm resistance from the young officer, who refused to accept humiliation under the weight of power. In a few seconds of exchange, a new national metaphor was born.

Reports indicate that the altercation took place at Plot 1946 in Gaduwa District, a property allegedly linked to a retired Vice Admiral. Wike, accompanied by FCTA officials, had arrived to oversee the demolition of what he termed an illegal structure. But soldiers, led by Lt. Yerima, blocked the minister’s convoy, citing instructions from higher military authorities. The tension escalated when Wike, visibly irritated, called the officer a fool. Yerima, without trembling, retorted: “I am not a fool, Sir.” Those five words, ordinary yet electrifying, have since become a rallying cry against the arrogance of power.

The scene raises profound moral and institutional questions. At the surface, it was a quarrel between two public officers; beneath it lies the deeper symptom of a state where power often speaks down to dignity. The exchange reflected a wider problem, the tendency of the ruling class to see citizens, and even junior officers, as disposable instruments. Yerima’s measured defiance thus pierced through the silence of a generation long accustomed to swallowing insult from those who wield authority. His statement was not insolence; it was self-definition.

More than an altercation, the moment signaled a rare reversal of hierarchy. A young man in uniform, representing the disciplined order of the state, reminded a minister that respect must be mutual. It also laid bare the friction between civil authority and the military establishment, each claiming the mantle of law. When soldiers confront a minister enforcing urban policy, the lines between legality, ego, and personal interest blur dangerously. It is this grey zone that breeds the excesses which daily corrode the moral fibre of governance in Nigeria.

Social media’s explosion over the incident was not about who was right or wrong, but about what the phrase symbolizes. “I am not a fool” resonated with millions who feel perpetually belittled by those in power, civil servants ignored by their bosses, students spoken to with disdain, traders pushed around by enforcement agents. In Yerima’s insistence, they heard their own unspoken protest: that no one, however mighty, has the monopoly of sense or self-worth. It was the cry of the ordinary Nigerian affirming personhood before the machinery of arrogance.

Viewed historically, such encounters are not new. From police checkpoints to government offices, moments like this occur daily, though unseen by cameras. What made this one different was that it happened in full glare, and the young man refused to cower. Like the market woman who once told a governor, “We no be mumu,” Yerima’s voice joined the growing chorus that demands decency from leadership. It calls back the memory of other confrontations where citizens dared to insist on respect, an insistence that often marks the threshold of civic awakening.

In the final analysis, the incident stands as a moral parable. Authority, when detached from humility, degenerates into oppression. Governance, when deprived of respect for persons, loses its soul. The young officer’s phrase, carried a truth that grammar alone could not capture: the truth that the governed are not fools. If Wike’s outburst reflected the old Nigeria of command and control, Yerima’s response hinted at a new Nigeria, one that demands dialogue, not domination.

Therefore, the verdict is clear. No office is too high to learn courtesy; no uniform too small to command respect. “I am not a fool” should not merely trend; it should teach. It should remind every leader that power is service, not privilege, and every citizen that dignity is not negotiable. In the theatre of governance, the curtain must fall on arrogance, for when authority sneers at decency, it is the state itself that becomes the fool.

•Fr. Dr. Okhueleigbe Osemhantie Amos is a lecturer at CIWA, Port Harcourt Nigeria and a Priest of the Catholic Diocese of Uromi.