The Presidential candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, hopped on a spinning bike to assure the rest of mankind that he isn’t dead just yet.
“Many have said I have died; others claim I have withdrawn from the presidential campaign. Well… Nope. This is the reality: I am strong, I am healthy and I am READY to serve Nigerians from Day One,” the politician proclaimed through a video that has since been found to be outdated.
It was a PR move that immediately backfired. Social media was almost unanimous in its condemnation of the stunt, amid even more stringent calls that the disappearing acts of a frontline presidential candidate ahead of a crucial election, should bother every Nigerian.
Tinubu has missed a series of high profile events graced by other presidential contenders, since he won the APC presidential primary election contest in June.
In late August, the morality police were very loud on social media after a video in which the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity), gyrating to a song about Bola Tinubu’s feeble health, went viral.
The song itself is a bop, the lyrics catchy, and it’s a sing-along for days.
Because you asked nicely, the tune goes like this:
Emi lokan
Emi lokan
Baba wey no well e dey shout emi lokan
Hand dey shake
Leg dey shake
Baba wey no well
E dey shout emi lokan…
(Repeat)
There’s a banger in there if taken to a studio, and I’ve seen a couple of TikTokers getting creative with the tune.
‘Emi lokan,’ which roughly translates to “it’s my turn” in Yoruba, has become Tinubu’s campaign slogan after the presidential candidate reminded everyone of how he cobbled the governing political party together, while trying to win over delegates in Ogun State in June.
As you would expect, hordes of APC and Tinubu supporters on social media reprimanded everyone who took a liking for the Pyrates’ tune.
I could understand where these critics were coming from. However, satire and deploying tunes, animations or memes to elicit a laugh at politicians, are all part of the political process in the internet age — whether nationally or internationally.
Everything is fair game in politicking season, and you should ask the Americans who do it better than most. Joe Biden was nicknamed ‘Sleepy Joe’ by his opponent, Donald Trump, in the run-up to the 2020 vote. The label has stuck and still bangs.
Biden was also mocked in campaign ads for being too old and feeble to govern. Images of Biden stumbling up and down staircases made it into mainstream campaign ads.
Some of those scolding Tinubu’s “traducers” for dancing and nodding to that ‘banger’ about his health, and for sharing that ‘palm-wine-y’ song with glee, mocked Goodluck Jonathan and his wife Patience to no end in the run-up to the 2015 vote.
The APC got very creative ahead of the 2015 election, as its youth arm of the campaign unleashed very catchy cartoons and animations that mocked Jonathan and his wife.
To this day, bits and pieces of Patience Jonathan’s meltdown after the tragic kidnap of the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014, are staples for skit-makers and comedians across the Nigerian internet space.
The point being made here is that during electioneering season, nothing is off the table. Opponents would deploy every weaponry at their disposal to try to get out the votes for their candidate(s).
Back to the subject of Tinubu’s frequent body tremors as he makes a desperate bid for the Number One office in the land:
The man is apparently on the wrong side of 70, his physical frame is feeble, and he can’t keep his hands and legs steady to save his life. I do not subscribe to mocking people with debilitating health conditions, given that ailing is only human, and every soul will taste death someday.
The concern here is that given Nigeria’s precarious situation and its many daunting challenges and problems, citizens are allowed to worry if a candidate who stands as good a chance as any to succeed the incumbent, displays all the signs that have assailed the same incumbent.
Tinubu is no ordinary human at this point. He is running for the biggest, highest office in Nigeria.
Nigerians should worry about a physically weak presidential candidate ahead of the 2023 vote because, as columnist Abimbola Adelakun rightly notes in a similar piece in Punch newspapers, “Since 1993, Nigeria has had at least six leaders. Three of them ailed — two died in office, and one spent extended time in a hospital abroad.
“The uncertainty and the shenanigan in Aso Rock that accompanied the last days of one of them, President Umaru Yar’Adua, is enough reason never to overlook any presidential candidate’s health status.”
The next president of Nigeria should be one of sound mind and body because that’s precisely the kind of leader this nation requires going forward.
The distractions, intrigues, power play and policy somersaults that come with an ailing president can certainly not be ignored ahead of a crucial 2023 vote. The point of having a president who hits the ground running from day one and whose eyes are on the big picture of fixing a nation on the brink, cannot be over-emphasized.
And voters who draw attention to a red flag in a candidate’s arsenal through songs, opinion pieces, social media posts, memes or cartoons ahead of a crucial election are well within their rights to do so as stakeholders in the Nigerian project.
The morality police need to take a chill pill because we can see right through their biases. They would do the same if the shoe were on the other foot.
It really is the hypocrisy for us.