The sentence rarely starts loud.

It begins as body language.

A pause at the gate. A slow walk past the queue. A phone placed face down on the table. Silence stretched just long enough.

Then comes the line.

Do you know who I am.

Sometimes it is spoken. Most times it is implied.

Everyone present understands the rules immediately.

In Nigeria, power does not always announce itself with uniforms or documents. It arrives through familiarity. Through names. Through remembered favors.

A junior officer hesitates. Not because rules are unclear. Because consequences are.

Bigmanism survives because systems still rely on discretion.

Forms exist. Processes exist. But enforcement bends easily when relationships enter the room.

Someone knows someone. Someone once helped someone. Someone might be useful later.

So rules soften.

At airports, queues shorten.

At offices, files move faster.

At checkpoints, conversations replace inspections.

This is not always arrogance. Often, it is strategy.

Nigeria grew inside informal systems long before formal ones stabilized. Survival depended on who could open doors, not which door existed.

Bigmanism filled the gap institutions left behind.

The big man does not only skip stress. He absorbs it. Others lean on him to navigate chaos. He becomes shortcut and shield at once.

That is why people chase proximity to power more than process.

It works because consequences remain uneven.

The person who insists on rules risks delay. The person who invokes status risks nothing.

Until systems punish favoritism consistently, bigmanism stays rational.

This behavior teaches itself early. Children watch adults make calls. Young staff see seniors override procedure. The lesson spreads quietly.

Connections beat correctness.

Over time, the phrase changes form.

Do you know who I am becomes

Call him.

Tell them I sent you.

Drop my name.

The words matter less than the signal.

Bigmanism is not just ego. It is an operating system built around weak trust in fairness.

People do not bypass rules because they hate order. They bypass rules because they doubt protection.

Until access becomes predictable, power will remain personal.

That is why the sentence still works.

Not because Nigerians love hierarchy.

But because certainty still wears a human face.

Do You Know Who I Am? Nigeria’s Bigmanism and Why It Refuses to Die

Do You Know Who I Am? Nigeria’s Bigmanism and Why It Refuses to Die