The Runway King: How KWAM 1’s Airport Meltdown Exposed Nigeria’s Toxic Big Man Culture

The Runway King: How KWAM 1’s Airport Meltdown Exposed Nigeria’s Toxic Big Man Culture On August 5, 2025, at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, a small moment became a big reckoning. King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal — KWAM 1, the legendary Fuji musician — breached aviation safety rules during boarding. It wasn’t just a celebrity tantrum. It was a perfect, high-definition snapshot of Nigeria’s most corrosive cultural disease: the “Big Man syndrome” — the belief that wealth, age, and status entitle one to suspend rules, humiliate others, and escape consequence. A Colonial Legacy Turned Cultural Code Big Man syndrome isn’t new. Its DNA comes from Nigeria’s colonial past, where British rule deliberately elevated certain traditional rulers and wealthy collaborators above the law to cheaply manage the colony. The result: a baked-in hierarchy where some people existed outside the reach of accountability. Independence didn’t kill it — it expanded it. Oil wealth, military cou...